Access Not On The Label Created By Felicity Lawrence Formatted As Hardcover

first read this book ten years ago but it's incredible how its findings still horrify the second time around, Lawrence looks to have updated most chapters with developments that have happened since the first edition, and the horse meat scandal is an indictment on how deceptive our food production systems have become.


In the past, I'd naively hoped that surely Australia isn't as bad as what goes on in the UK but there's no doubt our farmers are entrapped with similar contractual farces with Goliath supermarkets.
A sobering read that should be read by everyone who eats, This book is journalistic and provides a good range of case studies, It does not set out to explain the 'why' to these different case studies in a particularly systematic way, She points to oligopolies and supermarkets, not trying to get to the root of what has caused these factors to speed up in theyears preceding the book.


The book seems to have aged well in many respects, It continues to have value, if mainly in the illustrative way it demonstrates what we see is likely to not what we are actually getting.
That big corporations actively work against the best interest of everyone else in a system with the objective of taking market share, as much as generating short term profit for their shareholders.


I feel Lawrence doesn't quite get past pointing to problems and at times she seems afraid of anything that could be deemed as 'radical'.
Early in the book she makes out that the only substantial alternative to globalisation is Soviet collectivised farming, This is clearly a straw man or a lack of knowledge of the complex history of political economies of production, Published in, this investigation into Britain's food industry can be considered out of date, but having reread it recently for a Uni essay, I can sadly confirm that very little of what's discussed in this book has actually changed or improved.


In Not On The Label, Lawrence uncovers the many problems that occur when the methods of how we produce food are intensified and most importantly, it illustrates in plain english how the global supermarkets are controlling the supply chain from the bottom up.
It doesn't make for easy reading, The chapters include information on cross contamination in chicken factories, the loss of nutrients from packaging and shipping so called 'fresh' produce, the insanity of countries importing and exporting the same food, the boom in pesticides usage, how bread is really produced and its links to the rise in allergies, the unethical treatment of coffee bean farmers, the unsustainability of prawns, and the numerous health issues with ready meals, to name but a few.


The book is fully accessible and one I'd recommend to anyone who wants to start reading more about what's in their food and how it's produced.
This was mind blowing. A must read for anyone interested in their source of food, It makes one want to either exclusively eat food grown by oneself or can get directly from a trusted farmer,

As the saying goes "food for thought", Felicity Lawrences Not On the Label offers quite a similar description of the realities of modern food production, put into the UK context, To me, this is an exceptional example of truly brilliant investigative journalism the author has spent three years exploring industrial food system, travelling around the world, working undercover and doing secret filming from a chicken factory, a vegetable pack house and sandwich making facilities you will hardly want to buy another sandwich on the street, I promise to expose dirty realities of modern food production.
She provides extensive accounts of the industrys deceptive and often illegal practices ranging from meat and bread adulteration to human labour exploitation, She raises serious questions of human rights and fair trade, as well as food miles and animal welfare, all of which have recently become buzzwords with increasingly environmentally and socially responsible consumers easily buying into product labels and claims yet just a mere handful of people really know what stands behind the concepts and what the real truth of the matter is when it comes to animal welfare and human rights in the agribusiness.
What is so specific about this book is how it makes you feel connected to a distanced coffee grower in Kenya, selling his crops for cents to provide for a dismal living for his family, through a morning cup of Starbucks coffee you buy on your way to work without investing a thought into what social relationships and values stand behind it and what toll it has taken on the other side of the globe.
And yet despite all the disturbing descriptions of industrialized agriculture and food production, the book does leave room for optimism Lawrence finishes it by providing suggestions on how to remedy our seemingly mortally sick food system and describes her own food buying practices as a guide for consumers on how to shop with respect to both our health and the environment.
Infuriating exposé of the largescale food industry and the devastating effects it has wrought on the lives of smallscale farmers and the health of people all around the world.
Reading this repeatedly brought to mind the truth of Schumacher'sbook "Small Is Beautiful, " We all need to go back to that, I've always tried to dissuade my wife from buying reduced price fruit and veg in the supermarket, This is because I want my body to continue to be strong and healthy and I think that one way to do this is to feed it the right kind of food and I don't think that eating old food is the right way to get enough nutrients etc.
We are what we eat right

I'm not sure why I bought this book, I mean, on the face of it, we should take an interest in what we eat, and make sure it's nutritious and all that but on the other hand if we have to eat it anyway, and then we find out that it's irredeemably full of so much crap chemicals that its making us ill in ways that we cant avoid then why do we want to know

So, on starting this book, I envisioned that I would be put off my food forever and I would still have to eat it.
It was great then that it started with chicken or, as I call them chickens its a bit like the difference between pork and pigs because as a vegetarian I dont eat them.
I thought, on this basis that I wouldnt be bothered about what they do to chicken, and on one level, I was right, But what they do to chickens in order to arrive at chicken is another matter, Dont worry no gory details here but suffice to say, they aint happy bunnies by any stretch of the chalk,

So then we comes to lettuce, and before I started reading, Im thinking Ill be ok if I just wash it and I was mostly right.
But then we gets onto the problem of supermarkets, It seems that without me being aware of it supermarkets have come to embody everything that is evil about the world, Again, if you wants to know the details read the book yourself, but suffice to say, lettuce farmers aint happy bunnies by any stretch of the chalk.


Next up is bread, This is the part that changed my life, so listen up, The bread we buy in the evil supermarkets is mostly factory bread that is full of air and water and so isnt as good for us as wed like to think even the brown ones with seeds on the top.
What we need is proper, thick, heavy bread made by real bakers with their real hands, So I started eating that, And its good. I cant say I really feel any healthier yet but when I get to one hundred and Im still doing cartwheels, I be sure to edit this review and let you know.


Oh, and the last chapter is the best, so if youre short of time and patience just read that one,

Nuff said. A centralized system that continuously supplies the supermarkets, which buy imported products instead of the local ones, The issue of climate change, The crisis of the local retail stores and little farmers against the dominance of global brands, Today agriculture strongly subsidized produces

soy, corn, sugar, palm oil in excess, while the poorest countries are struggling, due to the dependence on coffee plantations.
The author then reveals the meaning of some common and cheap ingredients inside the food we eat, such as corn's starches modified, corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, used more and more for the adulteration.
Too much like a collection of Guardian articles bundled to make a book, Also, too much liberal handwringing, .