FOOD IRRADIATION

Rotten meat, toxic tomatoes and now what, irradiated spinach?
 Irradiation is used by the food industry to kill harmful pathogens like E. coli, increase shelf life, kill insects and stop spoilage. Today, ground meat, spices, fresh fruit and vegetables may be irradiated. The process is considered safe and effective by government regulators. Currently, irradiated foods are labeled, except for food sold in institutions and restaurants.

 But now, the Food and Drug Administration is considering allowing food treated with irradiation to be renamed and sold without labels.
 Consumer groups question the safety of food irradiation. Natural food markets like Whole Foods have decided not to sell it. Critics say that irradiation can affect the nutritional value of food by destroying antioxidents, or that it could deform bacteria instead of killing it off. Some loss of vitamins and essential fatty

acids occurs in irradiated foods, and there may be formation of dangerous chemicals such as benzene. The process also creates additional hazardous waste, and environmental and worker safety problems.

 Because the existing food safety inspection system is already weak, layering on another complex technology might not result in better protection. The Center for Food Safety notes that using irradiation does nothing to stop the practices in the field and factories that contaminate food. Worse, its use may result in less incentive to clean up the widespread unsanitary conditions that are the primary cause of food contamination.

For related information visit: FoodAndWaterWatch.org/food/foodirradiation and
OrganicConsumers.org/irrad/alternatives.cfm; search ‘supermarkets’ at Citizen.org, for a list of groceries that carry irradiated foods.

Also Watch Out For…

CLONING
Cloning raises fundamental issues around the ethics of eating.
 Cloning is not the same as genetic engineering. Cloning is a reproductive technique that makes a genetically identical copy of a plant or animal, bypassing normal sexual reproduction. Cloning is used along with genetic engineering to reproduce genetically modified organisms.
 Currently, many animals considered commercially useful are cloned. The question this raises is, even if we can do this, should we? Critics say cloning is unethical, unnecessary and unsafe.

 “Dolly,” a sheep, was the first cloned farm animal. She lived from 1996 to 2003 and remains a symbol of what can go wrong. The Center for Food Safety reports that, “More than 90 percent of cloning attempts fail, and cloned animals that are born have more health problems and higher mortality rates than sexually reproduced animals.”

 Carol Tucker Foreman, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, adds that cloned animals have higher rates of birth deformities. Cloning creates untold suffering for animals sacrificed in the process, and the defects in the animals can affect the meat and milk products they produce.
 Regardless, in September 2008, the FDA approved the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals for human consumption. Since the government does not require that it be labeled as such, consumers will not be able to refuse it at the supermarket.

The Center for Food Safety, which has sued the Food and Drug Administration to stop approval of food from cloned animals, summarizes the issue at      
CenterForFoodSafety.org/pubs/fact%20sheet.pdf and www.CenterForFoodSafety.org/cloned_animals.cfm.

Animal rights, humane organizations and the Union of Concerned Scientists question many aspects of animal cloning. As a starting point,
see aavs.org/images/cloningfactsheet.pdf and www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/scientists-say-cloning.html.