From Grace Bedell, Toronto, Canada
You review a new book on weight loss drugs that are taking off. Could these hold more promise than just reducing waistlines, one related to the link between food production and its impact on our planet? While many hope the drugs will make them slim, one side-effect could be that sales of fast food, highly processed food and snacks drop, assuming a lower appetite means fewer cravings for them (4 May, p 28).
If so, then perhaps this will also lead to less clearing of the biosphere for resource-greedy monocultures, plus the reduced production of tree pulp or fabrication of plastics from fossil fuels, both of which are used to package processed foods.
