Growing food on the green world: J. H. Prynne’s agro-chemical pastoral in the Vale of Tintern

This article reads the poetry of J. H. Prynne of the early- to mid-1970s through an ecocritical lens, arguing that this work responds to the language of a nascent environmentalism framed by the concerns of political ecology. It does so by drawing on Prynne’s archival correspondence with the American poet Edward Dorn in the mid-1970s, which demonstrates a private concern with agro-chemicals, colour and cultivation that served as an analogue for shifts in the politics of relating to the extra-human world. It argues that Prynne’s High Pink on Chrome (1975) is closely attuned to the suppressed human and extra-human costs of high-yield monocrop cultivation. In turn, the article sets these post-war practices in a longer continuum of pastoral suppression, linking such hidden violence with ecocritical and New Historicist arguments about the ‘green’ politics of William Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’, to which Prynne alluded when writing to Dorn in 1975

To Pollen

Faire l’histoire du présent, pour un poète, ce pourrait être consigner à chaud, dans l’incertitude des issues, la confusion d’impressions parfois paroxystiques avant qu’elles ne se déposent en un récit d’évidence. Témoigner de la guerre d’Irak en remettant violemment en mots l’horreur que la langue médiatique sait si bien expurger. Trouver une forme, une langue, pour dire cela en évitant le piège du pathos et celui du pharisaïsme. Faire entendre par intermittence la voix d’un individu sur fond de bourdonnement du contemporain, bruit blanc des systèmes politique, financier, militaire. La guerre d’Irak fait irruption en 2004 dans l’œuvre du poète britannique J. H. Prynne (1936-), l’obligeant par la suite à repenser les connexions entre cet événement majeur et le reste de sa vie. C’est, pense-t-il rétrospectivement, ce qu’il fait dans To Pollen, séquence publiée en 2006 dont nous proposons une traduction des sept dernières strophes. Quant à traduire au présent, c’est s’affronter à un texte avant que le trouble de l’original n’ait décanté.To write the history of the present, for a poet, might be to transcribe in the heat of the event, in the uncertainty of outcomes, the confusion of sometimes paroxysmal impressions before they settle in a self-evident narrative. To testify to the Iraq War in words that tell the violence the media expurgate. To find a form and a language for this, that avoids pathos and complacency. To let an individual voice intermittently sound against the hum of the contemporary, the white noise of political, financial and military systems. The Iraq war burst into the work of British poet J.H. Prynne (1936-) in 2004, forcing him to rethink the connections between this massive event and his own life. This may be, he thinks, what is at stake in To Pollen, a sequence published in 2006 and whose seven last stanzas are here given in French translation. As to translating in the present, it feels like confronting a text before the sediments of the original have settled

Dietary fibre and phytate; a balancing act. Results from 3 time points in a British Birth Cohort

An investigation was carried out to determine whether there were significant changes in the intake of dietary fibre (non-starch polysaccharide; NSP) and phytate of adult men and women in the UK from 1982 (aged 36 years) to 1999 (aged 53 years). The 1253 subjects studied were members of the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development; a longitudinal study of a nationally representative cohort of births in 1946. Food intake was recorded in a 5-day diary at age 36 years in 1982, 43 years in 1989 and 53 years in 1999. The food composition database was amended with revised values for phytate. Outcome measures were mean intakes of total NSP and phytate by year, gender and food source. There were significant changes in total NSP and phytate intake over the 3 time-points. Intakes of NSP rose significantly between 1982 and 1999 for men and women but phytate intakes rose significantly only between 1989 and 1999. Cereal foods were the most important source of both NSP and phytate. Between 1989 and 1999 there was a significant increase in the contribution from pasta, rice and other grains. This study shows that an increase in dietary fibre that is in accordance with dietary guidelines would almost inevitably be accompanied by a rise in phytate. The increased dietary phytate is discussed in relation to its recognised inhibition of mineral absorption and its merits with regard to protection against some cancers and other diseases of an ageing population

Meat consumption after disaggregation of meat dishes in a cohort of British adults in 1989 and 1999 in relation to diet quality

Objectives—The aim of the study was to quantify more precisely the meat intake of a cohort of adults in the UK by disaggregating composite meat dishes. Subjects/Methods—Subjects were members of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, 1946 birth cohort. Five-day diaries were collected from 2256 men and women in 1989 and 1772 men and women in 1999. From the details provided, composite meat dishes were broken down into their constituent parts and the meat fraction added to meat only portions. Meat intake was classified as red meat, processed meat and poultry. Results—Meat consumption without disaggregation of meat dishes resulted in a mean overestimation of 50% in men and 33% in women. Red meat consumption fell between 1989 and 1999 from 51.7 to 41.5g/day in men and 35.7 to 30.1g/day in women. Poultry consumption rose from 21.6 to 32.2g./day in men and 18.2 to 29.4 g/day in women. Re-calculating red meat intakes resulted in the percentage of subjects in 1999 consuming more the recommendation of the World Cancer Research Fund falling from 30% to 12 %. Increasing consumption of red and processed meat was associated with increased intakes of energy, fat, haem iron, zinc and vitamin B12 and lower intake of fibre. Increased sodium intake was associated with increased consumption of processed meat. Conclusions—Disaggregation of meat dishes provided a more precise estimate of meat consumption. The quantity of red or processed meat in the diet was reflected in the nutrient content of the entire diet