Benjamin Franklin's quest to make farts less malodorous

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

Emissions cuts

Feedback’s recent item on the Royal Institute of Philosophy’s journal pondering the metaphysics of farting – “Is it a thing or an action?” being the chief question – has drawn short shrift from reader Guy Cox. He believes the author should have used that essential method of philosophical inquiry known as “looking it up in a dictionary”. Cox also points out that the subject has previously been expounded on by no less a personage than US writer, inventor and all-round genius Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin wrote an entire essay urging his fellow natural philosophers to investigate whether they could develop food …