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  • From: Leigh Hauter <lh AT pressroom.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] irradiation meat hits supermarkets
  • Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 20:54:53 -0500

How does this subject relate to market farming? It is just the opposite of buying locally. It's something we, as market farmers should oppose just out of natural self-interest.

Food irradiation is being pushed primarily to increase shelf life and global trade. While food irradiators are being built in the US to sterilize less than clean meat (ie. slaughterhouse lines that are moving so fast a little feces regularly gets in with the hamburger) the country's that are building the most irradiators are South Africa, Brazil and the like so they can get their vegetables all the way up to markets in the Northern Hemisphere.

I went into our local Giant this weekend and there it was in its little plastic box -irradiated ground meat, along with a brochure telling just how wholesome food is that has been 'cold pasteurized'.

Yum-yum.

Except the meat had a very strange color to it, though the brochure did assure me that the color of meat doesn't reflect its taste, nutrition of safety. I wasn't inclined to buy any of the stuff to see if their claims were true.


(from Public Citizen)
Giant Food Inc. is the first supermarket chain in the DC area to carry irradiated ground beef. They attempt to calm consumer anxiety about irradiation, but despite their marketing claims, consumers should be wary.

Facts on Irradiation
** Irradiation exposes food to a dose of ionizing radiation that is equivalent to millions of chest x-rays.
** Irradiation destroys vitamins, essential fatty acids and other nutrients in food.
** Irradiation disrupts the chemical composition of everything - not just harmful bacteria. It creates chemicals called "radiolytic products" that do not occur naturally in food and that the FDA has never studied for safety.
** Research dating to the 1950s has revealed a wide range of problems in animals that ate irradiated food, including premature death, a rare form of cancer, stillbirths, genetic damage, organ malfunctions, low weight gain and vitamin deficiencies.
** Irradiation can kill most bacteria in food, but does not remove the feces and other filth that carries this bacteria, thereby masking and encouraging filthy conditions in slaughterhouses and food processing plants.

What Can You Do?
** Vote with your food dollars - don't buy irradiated ground beef!
** Write to Giant and tell them to stop carrying irradiated meat and keep imported irradiated fruits and vegetables off their shelves! (for a sample letter go to http://www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety/food_irrad/articles.cfm?ID=8367 )
** Call 888-4-MyGiant (DC, MD, VA) or 888-MySuperG (DE, NJ) to voice your views.
** Write a letter to the editor explaining the problems with irradiated food!
** Flyer at a local store to raise awareness in your community! (contact Public Citizen at 202-546-4996 for flyers)

Full discloser here- my wife is the director of Critical Mass the Public Citizen project that's working on this issue.




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