Re: sanet-mg-digest V1 #939
Phil Gillman (pgillman@cafarmersmarkets.org)
Thu, 01 Apr 1999 12:17:06 -0800
The major problem with irradiation lies not in its safety, but in the
fact that it is just a tool that allows mega agribusiness to run huge
opperations it levels of cleanliness and safety that none of us would
ever want to work in, but that will pull their employees soley from the
ranks of immigrants and extremely poor. It will no longer matter if food
is kept clean for safety, as IBP will just irradiate the e-coli infected
burgers, rather than preventing the infection in the first place. If you
want to ensure a high quality food product, the solution is not to boil
the spoiling milk, thereby making it safe (but not quality) for human
consumption, but to sell the milk locally and make that which you cannot
into cheese, yoghurt, etc- items that provide safe storage. I have no
problem with pasturization, but i do have a problem with companies like
kraft storing raw milk for weeks in milk silos, and when it is to
contaminated to pass of as milk, or even as easy cheese , making it into
powdered "parmesan". The solution to guarrentee safe quality product is
to purchase it from some one you know, some one that will be personally
effected if you get sick. Buy your meats from a local grazier, have them
cut and packaged by your area butcher, and i guarrentee that if you
prepare them well, they will be healthier, safer, and tasteir than any
meat you ever get at the store- this is doubly true for vegetables- go
buy organics from your local farmers' market- go visit the farm-
buy your spices in smaller quantities- why do you need to have a package
of nutmeg for 1 year oxidising and losing quality- neverming 10- if you
are worried about bugs in your flour or dried goods- then buy less, and
freeze them when necessary- no body has ever made any claims that NASA's
food tastes good, and you'ld be hard pressed to find a French chef that
prefered irradiated chicken breasts over fresh slaughtered chicken from
the market-
Alright i'll stop rambling-
but i reitterate, the reason that i am opposed to irradiation in
vegetables and meats is that i believe that it will only lead to more
reckless abuses by american agribusiness-
the one final question is- what do you think low level gama radiation
does to complex chemical compound like pesticides and hormones? we have
no idea, but given the amount that just sunlight changes such things, i
dont have much faith...
Phil Gillman
pgillman@cafarmersmarkets.org
Buy Local, Think Global
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