Quack Culture – The Quackometer Blog

Soil Association Trustees Resign over Homeopathy Attacks

29th November, 2014 13

The Soil Association is the marketing organisation behind so-called Organic Farming. It’s stated aims are to campaign for “healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use.” However, it is routinely criticised for embracing pseudoscientific and dogmatic ideas about farming and animal welfare. Matters have now come to a head as four Trustees resigned from the Soil Association earlier in the month. In a blog post, one of them (Joanna [read more…]

Biodynamic Farming: “A rather magnificent cow-dung ice cream cone”

15th February, 2013 144

More ill-considered tosh from our national broadcaster. This time it’s biodynamic farming. Sitting out on the bonkers fringes of the organic farming movement squats another of Rudolph Steiner’s bastard offspring birthed at a lecture series in 1924. [Follow the link and see what passes for research in some areas of social science. You can tell it’s ‘science’ cos it’s got numbers and some Σ symbols. Maths-tastic!] Among its principles are planting schemes [read more…]

Is Biodynamic Farming Vegan?

20th July, 2012 54

Biodynamic farming is seen as the ‘more organic than organic’ method of sustainable farming. It is not. Biodynamics is the method of farming proposed by occultist Rudolf Steiner, who created the crypto-religious movement of Anthroposophy based his clairvoyant visions and a racist view of human development, reincarnation, karma, astrology, homeopathy and gnomes. People who want to get into progressive farming these days are driven by concerns of health, taste, animal [read more…]

An Evening With the TQ9ers

29th May, 2012 42

As you enter the Devon town of Totnes you will greeted with the ‘Welcome to Totnes’ sign under which an insightful wag has sprayed, ‘Twinned with Narnia’. The town has a reputation for embracing all things alternative. It has countless alternative medicine practitioners. The Society of Homeopaths have their ‘education’ centre here. There is the Schumacher College that offers an MSc in ‘Holistic Science’. It has a Steiner School. Only [read more…]

Organic Milk Is/Is Not Healthier

3rd October, 2006 3

Those of you paying attention will have seen the quackometer spot these two stories from the past few weeks in the Daily Mail: Organic milk ‘better for a healthy diet’29th August 2006 Organic milk is not healthier, says food watchdog21st September 2006 So, just a few weeks apart and completely different slants. As an act of kindness, to save you from the pain of reading these articles and deciding between [read more…]

Quack Word #12: ‘Organic’

25th August, 2006 18

I believe that organic food is a con, is not necessarily more healthy for you, tastes no different, and is damaging to the environment. There, I have got that off my chest, but unfortunately I now feel like I have just admitted to being a child murderer, a racist or even a supporter of George Bush’s foreign policy. Let me explain… The word organic is now synonymous with everything good, [read more…]