Re: AW: AW: Food Irradiation Alert - Sierra Club of Canada

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 12/4/02 4:27:11 PM Mountain Standard Time, franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT writes:


> > Yes, I think that there is a big difference. The methods of refrigeration, freezing, smoking, drying and pickling are well developed since dozens and hundreds of years. The technology is extremely wide-spread in the "Western countries". (I remember that when I was young - a long time ago! - my family did not own a refrigerator, not to talk about a freezer.) Pickling is nowadays not only a matter of food conservation, but is mostly used to produce certain food with distinctive flavour, as is smoking. But even at the old times fruits, cabbage, lettuce etc. was available also during winter time, because techniques were available since a!
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> > ges, to store them in cool cellars after their harvest. 



What a peculiar argument.  Bloodletting was around for a long time too, as was the phlogiston theory.


Refrigeration was certainly not common in Europe in the 1930s.  Freezing and freeze-drying for public consumption post-date WWII.  No one fussed about these when they were brand new, either.   Indeed, they were welcomed.   Smoking and pickling, especially the latter, can produce significant concentrations of carcinogens, as has been documented in China  (and yes, I eat all kinds oif pickles and smoked fish).  I am old enough to remember when our fridge was too small to hold everything, and when neighbors of ours (this was Baltimore in the 1940s) still used actual iceboxes.  Food stored in cellars and in iceboxes spoils more quickly than refrigerated (or irradiated!) food.  Surely there are those besides me who remember sprouting potatoes and onions and withered apples.



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> > As a contrast: What is irradiation like? You need huge processing plants, you need a very complicated logistic, you waste time to ship goods to the irradiation plant and to ship it from there to the consumers - is this extended shelf-life? You need enormous capital investments for these plants, not to talk about the licensing procedures. I do not believe that the marketing organisations pay these costs.....
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Having actually worked in a cannery (and Europeans DO eat canned food) I can tell you that a cannery is a big, big factory, as are frozen food plants.  Very little food goes directly from farm to consumer, and I imagine this is rather less in northern Europe, with its shorter growing season, than in the U. S., where farmers markets and roadside stands are ubiquitous.  Don't Germans eat oranges from Spain?  Are you suggesting that in the 21st century there is no refrigerated food transport in Europe?


> > Finally: I enjoy tropical fruits, especially when being in countries, where they are freshly supplied to the markets. I have recently been four weeks in Mexico and I really enjoyed the papayas, the melons, pineapples etc. But do we really have to have these fruits in our countries? Can't we eat apples and pears? 


Pears spoil in about a week in my refrigerator.  Now, many of us who have paid employment do not have the time to go to market every day, as women (usually women) used to have to do.  Nor do we have servants to do the daily marketing for us, as my grandmother did.  I am grateful for the food preservation that allows me to go to market only once a week.


Re tropical fruit in non-tropical countries: (1) the United States has two areas of sub-tropical climate: Florida and southern California, so we grow our own tropical fruit; (2) there is, particularly where I live, considerable trade with Mexico that involves out-of-season fruits and vegetables.  I don't notice Mexico objecting to selling tomatoes, etc. to the U. S.  (3) melons grow in New Mexico and Arizona and Colorado.  As for transport, did you get those papayas straight from the tree?     The melons straight from the vine?  If you were in Mexico City, are you sure there was no refrigrated transport involved?


Franz, you are just wrong on this one.


Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com