Welcome from the editor: in the background

Welcome and thank you for joining me this weekend.

This week I was thinking about all the things that happen in the background, things we don’t see, but manifest themselves, such as good health or the gene editing act.

This has been a busy week in news. Banking woes, immigration policies, Boris Johnson and the COVID rules, China, Russia and Ukraine, and the Windsor framework for Northern Ireland to name a few headlines, all the while the Gene editing act passed into law in England.
Food Minister Mark Spencer said this is ‘fantastic news’ for the British public, in an act of ‘if you say it enough times it will become true’, but I guess he must have missed the YouGov poll that showed that consumers are not onboard with buying genetically modified (or ‘edited’ as the Government prefers to say) food. The Government clearly sees gene edited tomatoes, cows, pigs and chickens as some sort of answer to the sustainability and food security challenge, instead of, say, trying to solve the factory farming issue, helping farmers, tackling staff shortages, or advising the public to eat more plants and less meat.

According to statistics, one in six people in the UK suffer from depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness. This week’s feature looks at How nutrition can support mental health: what to eat, what to avoid, and the truth about good mood food.

The 30 days of Ramadan started this week. The month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community is of course also about the scrumptious iftar, to be enjoyed with loved ones. Read all about it in The feasts of Ramadan: traditional cuisine, vegan meals, and dates with a twist.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Stef