Okay, look I understand that when something is radiated it does not necessarily make it glow, warm to the touch or appear to be pre-cooked. However, this issue of rather the Federal Food and Drug Administration(FDA) should be allowed to radiate food is a fairly luke-warm issue right now. What people have to realize is that some farmers and the Grocery Manufacturers Associations(you can group them together if you like.) Have been petitioning the FDA since 2000 to allow producers to irradiate an assortment of different fruits, vegetables and prepared foods. However, it was not until recently that the FDA had given the "a-okay" to producers to do such. This new radiation method will hopefully be able to rid foods(as of right now lettuce and spinach) from things such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Listeria and other nasty things that can be found in pure uncooked food.
The problem that arises from this is that radiation should be a last and only resolve. It should be held to extent of pull a trigger to a gun, in that you should consider all alternatives and understand the results of action or actions that are about to be committed. Like most of the government now-a-days the FDA seems to suffer a diease called short-sightedness. Radiation should not be a cop out or a quick fix for poor quality produce that is given to the masses. The FDA should stand up and actually do what Congress's Food and Drugs Act of 1906 intended it to do which is to regulate the food and drug industry. I can hear it now, "but Don you cannot sit there and honestly inspect them to regulate everything that is produced in the United States? Come on be realistic." Okay, yes it is humanly impossible for one single agency to measure all the producer given, however, what should be done is enforcing tighter sub-agencies to watch over certain aspects of the produce in America. In turn the sub-agencies will create laws that will be enforced by the FDA as a whole. Nevertheless, that is just a preview of an idealistic world where the sky rains gumdrops and the streets are paved with gold, so I can only dream. Snapping back to reality, I believe that the higher up should be held accountable for their actions by Congress(sadly, as of now Congress is in recess.) They should have to tell the American people why some drugs are put on the shelves before long-term research is ever conducted, why did the FDA approve the use of carbon monoxide gas mixtures during the packaging process to prevent discoloration of meat, in turn this process hides signs of spoilage from the consumer. Hold these people accountable for what they are doing to the American public.
EEEEEEEBOLA!! Or, Please Pass the Popcorn
9 years ago
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2 comments:
Good for you,Don.
It is the corporate farmers, the ones with hundreds, even thousands of acres, who are pushing not only the irradiation of foods but the gentically altered seed and produce into our stores and kitchens. If a corn seed is genetically altered to be "Roundup-Ready" this means that corporate farmers can plant thousands more acreage, and spray the growing plants with roundup to kill the weeds, thereby increasing their crop potential. But what happens to that genetically altered seed? It is ingested by you; either through the chicken or cow that you eat or the sweet corn on your grill this weekend. Both genetically altered and irradiated foods have one problem - no one knows how much ingestion is safe, no one even knows if a little bit is safe. Like Dolly the sheep who was genetically grown, and died rapidly, people are using technology that has not been fully investigated or ensured 'safe', and we don't know what sort of mutations will occur in our own bodies by taking such products into them.
"Organically grown" or heirloom food (non-hybrid) is high priced and far beyond most people's daily access. Why? Mostly because to be certified as organic the farmer has to pass all sorts of inspections, certification, and accreditation that the regular farmer does not. So poorer people are being kept from ingesting simple nourishing foods and instead are being fed the "cheap" high production of the enhanced products. It's a Wal-Mart mentality - as long as it is cheap it must be ok.And remember, the cheapesst food and seed of all is being sent to third world and developing or desperately starving countries; to get the countries fiscally attached to the Monsanto-type corporate seed production. And you thought that the syphilis experiments on poor, unknowing folks were bad. The poor are still all one vast experimental field for corporations.
Good luck in fighting that.
Thank you for comment Wileycoyote, see people are not fully aware or refuse to understanding what exactly goes on behind closed doors and we cannot rely on the news too much to give us accurate and unbiased information as to what is currently happening in our society somethings like this you have to dig up for yourself. However, I did catch a news anchor condemn Congress and the FDA for allowing stuff like this to continue without check. So it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
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