A pair of deadly serious food-related stories has collided in Hungary with what (at least to us) seems like devastatingly unserious consequences. The Hungarian government has been fighting against an EU-wide ban on Magyar poultry, arguing that despite the discovery that the deadly H5N1 had re-appeared in Hungary, the risks associated with eating the country’s fowl are low enough that everyone should chill. But at the same time, the government is battling against a proposed EU ban on Hungary’s ban on genetically-modified crops, said to be the strongest in Europe.
So there you go: a virus potentially capable of killing a large fraction of humanity is nothing to worry about, really, but a few hectares of high-yield, no-pesticide maize is just terrifying. Pretty soon, we’ll have the minister of agriculture telling everyone that eating imported food is only for people who like taking their lives into their own hands. Oh, wait…
