Deja vu a side effect of irradiation?
The Obama Administration is considering nominating Dr. Michael Doyle, a proponent of food irradiation, for Under Secretary of Food Safety. If this sounds familiar, it’s because the Administration was recently forced to stop the consideration of another irradiation supporter, Michael Osterholm, for the same position after thousands of folks like you spoke up.
What’s so bad about irradiation? Some research suggests that irradiated food promotes tumor growth and may cause genetic damage. It’s also ineffective, as it fails to kill all bacteria and may undermine food safety efforts by masking filthy conditions in slaughterhouses. On top of all this, the technology is expensive, meaning we will all pay more to treat our food with something that may harm our health.
Dr. Doyle has been a zealot in promoting this technology as the panacea to contaminated food. He has been quoted in the media numerous times supporting irradiation as a quick fix to our food safety problems. What’s more, Dr. Doyle would also bring serious conflicts of interest to the position. He’s served as a consultant for big agriculture for companies like ConAgra and the American Peanut Council. He has also raised funds from Cargill, Coca-Cola, Hormel, and McDonald’s as part of his job as Director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. What are the chances that Dr. Doyle could effectively regulate the same companies that so recently funded his work at the University of Georgia?
We’ve already had a a food irradiation advocate who cared more about corporate interests than public safety as Undersecretary for Food Safety – under President Bush. Help stop us from going down that road again.
My friend, Ani L. Schwartz – an expert on such matters, says: “A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet…”
and there is no perfume strong enough to cover up the smell of a skunk.
Corporate food production is Sicko and tasteless. Irradiation is Sicko and equally dangerous. False Corporate Sponsored Science is Sicko propaganda.
Embedded eletronic ID gadgets are expensive and bad for the health of animals without even protecting us from the real problem of contamination and rot AFTER slaughter. Irradiation does not make Sicko, rotten, contaminated food nourishing. Diseases require good, healty nourishment to overcome.
Remove Corporate fingers from our food “pies” NOW, completely.
Give us REAL food produced on REAL LOCAL farms and we will begin to solve Climate Disruption, the Health Care crisis and Poverty all at once and there will be no need for ANY so-called “food safety”(sic) bills or sicko irradiation or even an “Under Secretary Of Food Safety”. Doyle has already proved his dis-integrity.
Give us someone like Michael Pollan or this administration will be condoning and participating in the perpetuation of torture and death by disease and hunger of millions of valuable human beings as well as further environmental destruction of our remaining Life Support Systems on our planet, without which no life can survive, not even the lives of the children of the elite classes.
Our First Lady does not use irradiation.
I bet Oprah would never buy irradiated foods once she was aware of the risks, if she does not already know and avoid them.
What is good for our leaders is good for our People.
If Doyle wants to eat irradiated food, let him.
Any sane person who values health and is informed would never eat irradiated food, much less promote it or force it on others, with or without their knowledge.