Walk around any grocery store and look at what's for sale. Lots of colorful boxes
and bags – but what's in them? Who grew the food and what happened to it between
the farm and the store? Knowing where your food comes from and how it is grown is
a vital and fascinating part of healthy living. The Kitchen Table Gazette will be
a lively monthly column that looks inside the food system and brings you
interesting facts about the social and environmental side of food, the lives of
farmers, and the connections we can make to nature and to each other through
food. We will cover the problems and the solutions facing the food system. We
will discuss the dramatic changes created by industrialized agriculture and
hazardous technologies such as genetic engineering, irradiation and pesticides as
well as bring you stories about the growing new food movement that promotes
local, seasonal, food grown by farmers who are linked directly with consumers and
who use sustainable and organic methods.
Last month we began our discussion of ood safety. This month
we continue the discussion. Over the next few months we will explore specific topics in more depth.
Each month we will provide links and resources, so you can find out more on your
own and take action.
Food Safety II -- Food Irradiation Should we be concerned?
Massive nationwide recalls of contaminated meat, and other food safety scares, have provided the advocates of irradiation with a strong argument in favor of using this controversial technology. But critics point out that irradiation creates public health problems of its own. Irradiated food has been sold in the U.S. since 1983, starting with spices and seasonings, then pork, mushrooms, fruits and vegetables were approved, and most recently, the FDA approved irradiation for beef and chicken.
Consumers need to know if food irradiation is safe, how to avoid it if they want to, and what affect this technology will have on the food system.
A 1997 CBS poll showed that 77 percent of consumers surveyed said they did not want irradiated foods. The food industry has been trying to eliminate labeling for irradiated foods and disguise the technology behind deceptive terms like "cold pasteurization" to overcome this wariness. The term "pasteurization" should not be used to describe the radiation process, says Noel Petrie of Public Citizen, a consumer rights organization. With pasteurization, food is heated quickly and then cooled. Irradiation is non-thermal and exposes food to the equivalent of tens of millions of chest x-rays. Sometimes it turns fresh nutritious food into a "vitamin-depleted, chemically altered mush that can smell like a wet dog" says Petrie.
Chances are, people may already be eating irradiated food. It is frequently used
as an ingredient in processed foods and for food served in restaurants, schools
and institutions like nursing homes. There is no labeling requirement for those
foods. Labeling is required for raw and whole foods that have been irradiated,
but it does not have to be prominently displayed. The only way a consumer would
know if something is irradiated is by finding the words "treated with [or by]
irradiation" in small print placed near the ingredient list. The symbol that was
developed to alert consumers, known as the "radura" may not be on all irradiated
products. Fresh fruits and vegetables, for instance, may be unpacked and put on
display without the required warnings attached.
Is it safe? The Food and Drug Administration, and industry, say yes. Some consumer and environmental groups say no. All methods of irradiation use ionizing radiation to kill bacteria and parasites by disrupting their molecular structure. When it works, the process keeps the food looking fresh and extends its shelf life. But the process also depletes essential nutrients and vitamins. The Center for Science in the Public Interest says there is some evidence that eating irradiated food could cause long term genetic damage. Irradiation may also produce unintended by-products such as benzene and formaldehyde, which are carcinogenic. Not enough is known about the health effects of the by-products. Since not all pathogens are eliminated by the irradiation process, remaining organisms could thrive in the absence of competition. There is also legitimate concern about the use of any nuclear technologies - with their potential for worker exposure, leaks, accidents and hazardous waste. Food and Water Journal has published a sampling of scientists who are opposed to irradiation.
Farm advocates point out that irradiation masks the wretched conditions on factory farms and in processing plants that create food contamination in the first place. Because of the longer shelf life, irradiation will encourage agribusiness to grow food in developing countries that have cheap labor and lax environmental regulations, "nuke" it there, and then ship it to the developed world. These practices put subsistence and family farmers out of work both here and abroad and are devastating to the fragile economies and environment of the third world.
Irradiation has made it into the food system because the industry has powerful friends in government that protect their interests. Building and operating irradiation facilities is also big business. Titan Corporation, a defense contractor and leading advocate of irradiation, whose CEO has the improbable name: Gene W. Ray, expects irradiation to be a $12 billion industry in the next ten years. Other major food system players using irradiation are Wal-Mart Corporation - which is fast becoming one of the nation's leading grocers - and IBP, Philip Morris/Kraft, Cargill, ConAgra and American Foodservice Corporation.
Instead of eliminating contamination at its source - their own industrialized farms and packing plants - these corporations are covering up the contamination with irradiation while lobbying government to lower the labeling and safety standards that would protect consumers. Carol Tucker Foreman, a leading food safety consultant who is frequently on the side of the food industry, has said that "irradiation can not guarantee a safe food supply" and that it is not a substitute for tougher food safety rules.
The fact is, we live in a microbial world. Contamination can occurs at any point between the farm and the fork. The answer to food contamination will be found not by treating the symptoms, but by addressing the root causes. Fortunately, the solution is something we can all support: healthy farming and food handling practices and better working conditions in food processing plants.
Next month we will look at some of those food processing practices and review a new survey of USDA inspection practices, 90 years after Upton Sinclair's legendary novel "The Jungle." The report is entitled "Jungle 2000 Is America's Meat Fit to Eat?"
Information about the companies and agencies that support food irradiation is plentiful. To find out more about food irradiation from its critics, here are two excellent resources:
- An on-line handbook about food irradiation by Food and Water Journal www.foodandwater.org/Irrad/
- Public Citizen has several reports and information available at www.citizen.org/cmep/rad-food/radfoodindex.htm
"A Citizen's Guide to Fighting Food Irradiation" a 35 page booklet is available in print from Public Citizen 1600 20th St.N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (800) 289-3787.
Claire Hope Cummings produces and hosts a weekly radio show on food and
farming. She is a writer, a lawyer and is active in the growing new
food movement that is working to reinvigorate local food systems and
support sustainable, organic family farms. She has been a farmer, both
in California and in Vietnam, and was an environmental litigator for 18
years, as well as formerly staff counsel at the USDA.
Claire enjoys growing food in her large organic garden and does native plant restoration on her land in Marin County, California. She is the author of two guides to agricultural genetic
engineering, has published numerous articles on food, and is a popular public
speaker. Her radio show is broadcast live at 7:30 AM every Tuesday morning on KPFA–FM in Berkeley, KFCF in Fresno, or on the web at that time at www.kpfa.org.
