Should School Kids and Poor Women Bail Out the Food Irradiation Industry?
The recent controversy concerning rescinding the Salmonella testing requirements for beef sold to the National School Lunch Program and permitting the purchase of irradiated meat illustrates how desperate the food irradiation industry has become. Also embedded in the report language of the FY 2001 Appropriations Bill is a direction to the USDA s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to purchase foods for the government s nutrition programs using new food safety technologies that have been approved by the USDA. AMS officials interpreted this to mean that they were being directed to buy irradiated foods for the National School Lunch Programs and other federal nutrition programs, such as the Women, Infants and Children Program. The public outcry against this proposal was instantaneous and intense. Taxpayers should not be put in a position to bail out the food irradiation industry. If their products are not being accepted by the general public, they should not be force-fed to unsuspecting s
