The Risk-Monger

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They killed the cats! Precaution, superstition and eco-zealots 

July 29, 2015

The Great Plague of London showed the precautionary principle at its worst when they killed the cats. Today environmental zealots seem to find delight in “drowning kittens”.

Posted by David Zaruk

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, Environment, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Innovation and Growth, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking, Sustainable Dev.

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4 Comments

Would you buy a black banana? The Organic Lobby’s food-waste trick.

July 16, 2015

The organic industry has tried to justify lower yields by shifting the argument towards the amount of food we waste. The logic is that we could produce enough organically to feed the world if we just stop waste. This logic is flawed.

Posted by David Zaruk

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, Food & Consumers, Innovation & Enterprise, Science & Policymaking, Sustainable Dev.

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4 Comments

Down on the farm, reality always trumps naïve idealism

July 3, 2015

The Risk-Monger spent the day on a large Belgian farm having the opportunity to see the challenges and opportunities farmers are presently facing. I was able to tour the fields and barns, hear how they are trying to address sustainability questions.

Posted by David Zaruk

Agriculture & Food, CAP Reform, Environment, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Innovation & Enterprise, Public Affairs, Sustainable Dev.

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The Risk-Monger

David believes that hunger, AIDS and diseases like malaria are the real threats to humanity - not plastics, GMOs or pesticides. Also follow him in smaller doses (smaller poison) on the Risk-Monger FB page: www.facebook.com/riskmonger

David Zaruk is the Risk-Monger. He has been an EU risk and science communications specialist since 2001, active in EU policy events from REACH and SCALE to the Pesticides Directive, from Science in Society questions to the use of the Precautionary Principle. He was part of the team that set up GreenFacts to encourage a wider use of evidence-based decision-making in the EU on environmental health matters. He is an adjunct professor at Vesalius College and Facultés Universitaires St-Louis where he lectures on Risk Communications, EU Lobbying, Corporate Communications and PR. He still does some consulting work at Risk Perception Management, but only for friends and he refuses the timesheet mentality that has made consulting into a mercenary-like profession. In the past, he has been employed by Solvay, Cefic and Burson-Marsteller, retiring from "active work" in 2006.

He is also a graduate, like most of us, from Google University, and while he is tempted to pretend to be an expert on everything he searches on, he believes that there are scholars who have spent years working to become experts in their fields whose views merit more value than the collective.

The views in this blog are his own - he never has and never will blog on behalf of a job or a paid project. Please do not complain to BlogActiv about any offensive Risk-Monger contribution - they support open-minded thinking. Send your complaint as a comment and the Risk-Monger will gladly publish it (with no more than two links though to avoid the spam filter).

You can also follow more regular micro-blogs on the Risk-Monger Facebook page.


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