Food and Drink – Blogs Don't Burn

This OpEd was published in Parliament Politics Magazine on 1st July 2026

In response to Armenia’s gradual turn towards Europe, Russia has reached for a familiar page in the old Kremlin playbook.

In the run-up to Armenia’s parliamentary election on 7 June, which returned pro-European Nikol Pashinyan to office, Moscow ratcheted up pressure on Yerevan by seeking to make its people poorer. Its target was trade. Overnight Russia banned the import of Armenian flowers, apricots, mineral water, wine, brandy and other agricultural goods, and threatened deeper restrictions if Yerevan had the gall to continue its westward drift.

This OpEd was published in Comment Central on 15th January, 2025

In the modern West, everyone knows that ‘natural’ means good and ‘artificial’ means bad. End of story. It is a mindset that has been drilled into us for all sorts of products; from food, to cosmetics, household products, or even energy. The basic idea is that anything created in a lab (or by other science-based methods) is by definition synthetic, polluting and unhealthy.

In contrast, so-called ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ products are depicted as fundamentally healthier and cleaner than their synthetic counterparts. Simultaneously closer to nature and less of a burden on the natural world, they are sold as a kind of lifestyle cure-all – a way to save the planet while treating our body like a mountain temple.

Tag: Food and Drink

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