Nika Knight
"Where are those sounds coming from?”
Yeasayer, whose synth-rich sound has brought comparisons to Animal Collective and TV on the Radio, is currently touring its much-hyped second album Odd Blood. We sat down with founder Anand Wilder. more
Sowing the seeds of a new culture
Nika Knight visits Germany’s oldest Demeter farm to find out what hides behind the organic label. more
Counting the chemicals on your plate
A quick internet search for “Germany + food scandal” reveals more than any happily ignorant grocery shopper would ever want to know: in the past sixth months alone, Germans have been warned against ordinary spices, pears, cherries, rucola and eggs for reasons that range from dangerous levels of pesticide contamination (DDT in curry; amitraz in Turkish pears; pesticide residue on French and Spanish cherries), to poisonous plants hiding inside banal packages (ragwort in a bag of rucola from Plus), to nicotine sulfate, a cancer-causing anti-parasite spray (used by a Dutch egg producer). Such scandals are reported with alarming frequency - but after the headlines fade away, are we any safer? Manfred Santen, a food chemist for Greenpeace, gave us the dirt. more