The FDA is to allow irradiation of spinach and other veggies in order to remove the danger of harmful bacteria, etc. like e.coli and others. This is incredibly short-sighted and a stupid solution to something we already have the "technology" to solve.
“The agency is choosing to have a high-tech expensive solution to a problem that needs a more thorough approach and one that really starts on the farm,” Ms. Smith DeWaal of the science center said.
Totally agree. But not just on the farm; in schools, at dinner tables, in the produce section. We need to educate ourselves and children about how our food gets to our table and have a real, honest discussion about the way the food industry currently operates.
Massive farms that produce tons and tons of spinach for shipment across the globe have huge implications - on our water supply, the health of our oceans (as all that "product" must be shipped aboard gigantor tankers that guzzle oil), the politics of our fuel supply, and --oh yeah-- the health of the people consuming the food, as large-scale operations are more prone to such bacterial outbreaks and are more likely to use harmful pesticides and other chemicals to make such a business at such a scale profitable and viable.
But its not viable. The very practices that keep agro-corps in business will eventually lead to their denegration as the soil corrupts, the atmosphere darkens in plumes of polluted air, the water table drops and becomes contaminated, and people figure out that their food is killing them and their planet.
Simple solutions require great courage.
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