Irradiated Lunch?

Will irradiated meat appear in NYC school lunches this winter?

In a press release made public this spring, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would make irradiated beef available to the National School Lunch program beginning in January 2004. It will be left up to each school district whether or not they will actually serve irradiated beef to its schools' children.

According to the NYC-based Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE), the NYC office of School Food and Nutritional Services recently stated that NYC schools will not be offering irradiated meat in their meal programs starting January 2004. However, as far as we know, NYC has not promised this in writing, there is no official moratorium on purchasing such beef in the future, and there exists no requirement that parents be informed if our schools start serving irradiated beef.

Irradiation is touted by the irradiation industry as a method of treating foods to limit the presence of potentially harmful bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella. That sounds good. But here's what else we know:

• The rationale for food irradiation does not have its origins in food safety, as much as it has its origins in finding uses for nuclear materials, and the need to dispose of nuclear waste. After we dropped the atom bomb, the nuclear arms industry sought a way to convince the public that there are good uses for atomic energy. The nuclear powered coffee pot didn't last. But nuclear power did, and so did the push for food irradiation.
• The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not followed its own protocols for safety testing of irradiated foods. There has been a lot of testing of irradiated foods, but testing has not followed the scientifically accepted methodologies.
• Tests in Germany of irradiated foods have revealed that foods develop carcinogenic compounds as a result of irradiation.
• Tests show that the vitamins depleted by irradiation are A, B-complex, C, E and beta carotene.
• While our government focuses taxpayer dollars on developing a public relations campaign to convince us that irradiation is healthy, the European Union is spending public funds on more in-depth safety testing.
• Children are more susceptible to toxic substances in their environment because they eat, drink and breathe three times as much as adults, pound for pound.
• Only one study on the effects of irradiated food consumption on children has ever been conducted [Bhakaram, C. and G. Sadasivan. "Effects of feeding irradiated wheat to malnourished children." Amer Journ Clin Nutr 28:130-135, 1975]. A chromosome abnormality called polyploidy – which has been associated with leukemia and direct exposure to radiation – was detected in malnourished children who ate recently irradiated wheat.
• Irradiation is not 100% effective in destroying harmful bacteria. Nor does it prevent poor handling by shippers, retailers or consumers and post-irradiation contamination. It also does nothing to remove the pathogen carriers: the fecal matter, urine, pus and vomit that contaminate meat in many facilities.

Perhaps you don't want your children or your neighbor's children to be "guinea pigs" in the next round of unofficial food irradiation testing. It is not too late for you to get involved locally, and to keep irradiated meat out of our children’s school lunches. Contact your school’s superintendent, food service director, and other parents, and let them know how you feel about irradiated food in school lunches. You can make a difference!

To find your superintendent, go to http://www.nycenet.edu/SchoolsDistricts/ and click on the region on the map in which your school is located. This will take you to contact information for the regional superintendent. From there you can link to the school’s homepage, which has the names of the food service director and the PTA president.

For information and resources to use for organizing against irradiated food locally and nationally, go to http://www.safelunch.org or call Monique Mikhail of Public Citizen at (202) 454-5185.

You can also get information and materials from GRACE and the NYC Save School Lunch campaign at http://www.factoryfarm.org/topics/irradiation.

Volunteer needed: GRACE seeks a long-term volunteer who can commit a minimum of ten hours per week to the NYC Save School Lunch campaign. Schedule flexible, but consistency desired. A team of supermoms or other interested individuals is welcome to apply. Travel expenses and small stipend for lunch provided. Please contact Christina Salvi at GRACE at 212-726-9161 or csalvi@gracelinks.org for more information.