We are what we eat

(Photograph) - We are what we eat: As new technologies offer improved yields (page 9), the public fears that European and UK controls over food have more to do with encouraging trade and protecting industry than with promoting health. On page 17, Philip James, author of a post-election report on the Government's promised Food Safety Agency, outlines why it should have a wide remit.

Consumers, he argues, will only trust a new agency if it is independent; operates in the open; and covers nutrition and health, pesticides and veterinary medicines as well as the microbiology of food safety.