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family and friends, especially my lovely husband, Andy Brodie, our little boy, Inigo, and my three big boys, Jethro, Bruno and Linus. Thanks also to fellow travelers Christopher Southgate and Julie-Ann Rowell, to my tutors at MMU and my colleagues on the MA (especially Khadj) and to Helena Nelson for wise words.
    Notes
    Pesticides : The World Health Organisation estimates that each year three million workers in agriculture in the developing world experience severe poisoning from pesticides, about 18,000 of whom die. According to one study, as many as 25 million workers in developing countries may suffer mild pesticide poisoning yearly. Children are particularly vulnerable.
    Super-weeds: US farmers face a growing challenge from weeds which have developed resistance to chemical sprays such as Roundup due to farmers’ reliance on GM corn, soya and cotton. Dow Agrosciences has developed a new type of GM that has resistance to both Roundup and another, older chemical called 2,4-D. 2,4-D is a component of Agent Orange, the defoliant sprayed extensively during the Vietnam War.
    Agricultural run-off : Excessive nutrient run-off from agricultural land into rivers and seas causes algal blooms and depleted oxygen, which kills fish and other aquatic life. The Mississippi River, which is the drainage area for 41% of the continental United States, delivers nitrogen and phosphorus into the Gulf of Mexico, creating a dead zone off the coast of Louisiana and Texas. In 2011 this dead zone covered about 6,765 square miles.
    Growth hormones: Growth hormones have been used in meat production in the US since 1954; two thirds of beef animals in US feedlots are routinely given steroids and hormones. Studies suggest this can cause early onset of puberty in girls, lowered fertility in men, and increased risk of breast or prostate cancer in later life.