Not Exactly the Healthy Option!

We were always told that salad was the 'healthy option'. The Environmental Agency (EA) has been forced to act, however, on reports that Bakkavor, a company that supplies Waitrose and other supermarkets with salad, is discharging neonicotinoid insectecides into a protected chalk stream. Bakkavor, grows watercress in the stream, which feeds the river Itchen in Hampshire. The company also imports and washes on site (using an EA permit), salad materials from the US and Europe. It is uncertain from which of their 'products' the neonicotinoids come. A charity, called the Salmon and Trout Conservatory, identified that the discharges were killing caddis flies, freshwater shrimp and Mayfly nymphs (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/15/uk-supermarket-salad-suppliers-investigated-over-pesticides-in-rivers). These are, of course, the invertebrates on which their fish feed and the environmental damage is substantial. Care is needed even with 'vegan' products.