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Hugh Pennington

  • Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets by Joanna Blythman  Buy this book
  • Not on the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate by Felicity Lawrence  Buy this book
  • Food Policy Old and New edited by Simon Maxwell and Rachel Slater  Buy this book

Joanna Blythman does not like supermarkets. The bigger they are, the greater her hatred. She says they are responsible for the slow death of community life. They take the skill out of shopping. They subvert home cooking. They have done away with seasonal variety. Their buyers are bullied by their superiors to bully their suppliers. Supermarkets have an obsession with hygiene at the expense of food quality. They sell squidgy bread. And they call their staff ‘colleagues’.

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Hugh Pennington is chair of the public inquiry into the 2005 South Wales E.coli outbreak. He lives in Aberdeen.

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