Foods / Tuesday, 09-Sep-2025

Viewpoint: Toxic narratives—Fear is the environmental activists’ only product

Viewpoint: Toxic narratives—Fear is the environmental activists’ only product

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Welcome to the Age of Alarmism, where the “Fear Industry” operates like a well-oiled machine, churning out daily doses of dread — particularly around agriculture, food, and food production.

Forget pesticides; nothing scrambles your hormones like a headline about the “hidden dangers of your salad.” Fearmongers have perfected sensationalism, sending cortisol levels spiking with every click. Consuming fear-based media amplifies anxiety and shapes our behavioural responses.

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While conventional farmers are often accused of using “toxic” practices and “toxic” pesticides, the real hazard may lie in the daily output of anxiety-inducing content from the Fear Industry. Society scrutinizes agricultural practices for toxicity, yet it overlooks the panic-inducing information that saturates our newsfeeds and how it may impact public health and well-being. 

The “Dirty Dozen” and the “Hateful Eight” raise unnecessary fears about food and agriculture despite scant scientific evidence to support alarmist claims. Performative fear-based messaging like this encourages avoidance of certain foods and health treatments while simultaneously drawing consumers into spending dollars on alternatives that offer little to nothing in the way of solutions.

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