RE: "FOOD WITHOUT FEAR" [FW]

["Grimm, Lawrence" <LGrimm@FACNET.UCLA.EDU>]

Radsafer's:

 

Ahhhh! Wonderful! Beautiful! A pro-nuclear article that uses emotional arguments (see article below).  Note hard the following refrains that flow through the article:



*	Being anti-nuclear has dire societal consequences, YOU could get hurt and die without nuclear.

*	Not only is nuclear safe, but it is the right thing to do for YOU.

*	Anti-nuclear activists are hurting YOU (Implied: they like E. Coli. Implied: they like it when E. Coli hurts and kills.)

*	Anti-nuclear activists do not want YOU to have a choice.



The beauty of the author's use of these themes is that they are absolutely true, intuitive to the reader, and require no defense (the anti has no retort without looking foolish).  Her arguments constantly strike an emotional chord with the reader.  There is no defensive posturing in the article, and it routinely attacks/belittles the anti's.  This is an article well worth emulating if you wish to write a pro-nuclear article, or engage in oral debate.      

 

There are a lot of intelligent and caring regulators out there,  but unfortunately they too often get out-voted by the "cover my butt" mentality/type regulators.   If articles and arguments, such as the one below, are constantly put before the public, the anti's will crawl back under the rock they came from, and then hopefully the regulators will wake up and listen to reason. 

 

Larry Grimm, Senior HP 

UCLA EH&S/ Radiation Safety Division. If this email is not RSD business, the opinions are mine, not UCLA's.

 



-----Original Message-----

From: Franta, Jaroslav [mailto:frantaj@AECL.CA]

Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 8:52 AM

To: Radsafe (E-mail)

Subject: "FOOD WITHOUT FEAR" [FW]







FOOD WITHOUT FEAR: IRRADIATING FOOD MAKES IT SAFER, SO WHY WON'T OUR POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS LET US BUY IT? 

November 16, 2002  The Ottawa Citizen 



Michelle Marcotte of Ottawa, a home economist, food irradiation expert and 

consultant who has prepared food irradiation regulatory applications in 

Canada, the U.S. and Australia, writes in this op-ed that for a few years 

after irradiation was approved for meat and poultry in the United States, 

most retailers said they did not want to be the first to sell irradiated 

meat. Meanwhile, processors continue to distribute, and retailers continue 

to sell, meat and poultry that are commonly contaminated with E. coli, 

salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter and other harmful bacteria. Not 

coincidentally, thousands of people continue to become sick, and hundreds 

die each year, from these preventable food-borne diseases. 



Marcotte says that to the cynical businessperson, not selling irradiated 

meat was a good business decision: using irradiation would cost more money, 

while selling contaminated meat didn't cost as much. Processors also could 

justify their decision by pointing to the small number of vocal consumer 

activists who threatened them, played media stunts and who claimed consumers 

do not want irradiated foods. 



But as the U.S. Department of Agriculture tightened its enforcement measures 

against harmful bacteria in food, recalls of contaminated meat became a 

monthly, and now weekly, occurrence. Millions of pounds of meat were wasted, 

and lawyers began winning huge lawsuits against the companies that processed 

the meat and poultry that made people sick. Suddenly, it wasn't a good 

business decision to avoid a technology that makes food safer. 



U.S. retailers began tripping over each other with announcements of the 

acceptance of irradiated meat in their stores. Huisken Meat Company of 

Minnesota began marketing frozen irradiated patties in May 2000. From their 

initial distribution in 84 stores, irradiated meat is now distributed to 

thousands of stores in more than 30 states. Schwans and Omaha Meats rolled 

out irradiated ground beef in their home delivery operations. Many U.S. 

supermarket chains are selling irradiated meat. And fast-food giant Dairy 

Queen tested irradiated ground beef patties in two stores in February 2001, 

rolled them out to 60 stores in July and now makes irradiated beef burgers 

available to all its U.S. outlets. 



Sure enough, if you give people a choice, many will buy irradiated foods, 

silly consumer activist pranks notwithstanding. 



Marcotte says that in Canada, however, processors and retailers cannot make 

the sensible business decision to offer irradiated meats, poultry or 

anything else except spices. Consumers cannot look at the products, examine 

the label and decide whether or not to buy. The reason is the same old 

refrain: government foot-dragging. 



Health Canada has been presented with several applications to allow the 

irradiation of meat, poultry, shrimp and several fruits and vegetables (to 

kill insects instead of using pesticides and the ozone-depleting fumigant 

methyl bromide). The Canadian Cattlemen's Association has prepared a 

petition for the irradiation of red meat, and Kanata-based MDS Nordion has 

prepared petitions for shrimp, poultry and several fruits and vegetables. 



Unlike their U.S. government counterparts who have to respond to regulatory 

petitions within a reasonable time frame -- say, a year or two -- Health 

Canada apparently does not. Applications to approve irradiated foods have 

languished at the department for five or 10 years, and in some cases even longer. 

In response to inquiries about their progress over the years, Health Canada 

officials would only say the applications were being "reviewed." This is 

patently nonsense, since even a Health Canada official, when given so much 

time, can manage to read the science summaries and research papers required 

in the application process. 



For the past two years, however, Health Canada scientists have been off the 

hook. At least some of their scientific reviews have been completed, with 

new regulations written and kicked upstairs to the minister's office. On two 

occasions, the reviews have gone to the cabinet council that must approve 

all new regulations before they are published in the Canada Gazette for 

comment. And there they continue to sit. It's not as if our government was 

so busy promulgating new legislation that it didn't have time to get around 

to approving the irradiation regulations. 



Perhaps you're wondering whether our government is merely looking out for 

our welfare in not approving a new food processing technology. Maybe, you 

tell yourself, those activists who say irradiated foods are unsafe are right. 

Marcotte says that anyone is free to believe that someone working for a 

consumer activist lobbying organization might be more knowledgeable than the 

host of chemists, nutritionists, toxicologists, food technologists, 

biologists and medical doctors who've spent decades reviewing the safety of 

food irradiation. So you can believe the activists -- who make their living 

by selling fear, by telling you that if it weren't for them, your food 

wouldn't be safe, although they've never tried processing food themselves -- 

or you can believe in the scientific reviews conducted by such bodies as the 

World Health Organization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the 

American Medical Association and the other public-health organizations that 

really do know what they're talking about. 



If consumer activists really believed that you will not buy irradiated 

foods, they would not work so hard to prevent you from being allowed to make your own choices. 



If the federal government would approve food irradiation, it would take a 

positive step toward improving food safety in Canada. Canadian food 

processors could begin to make smart business decisions, conduct test 

markets and inform Canadians about food safety risks with a real option for 

avoiding harmful bacteria in food. 



Irradiated foods are labelled. Consumers should have the right to make their 

own food-buying choices. 



Michelle Marcotte 

Marcotte Consulting Inc. 

31 Shadetree Cr. 

Ottawa Canada K2E7R3 

phone 613-727-1469 

FAX 613-727-8541 

marcotteconsulting@sympatico.ca 

www.marcotte-consulting.com 



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