May 10, 2005

• Okay, I'm actually pretty pro-organic (worried about soil health myself), but irradiation? Why are they always picking on STUPID stuff to worry about. GM is something to worry about, not because GM is inherently bad, but because it's being done so stupidly (mostly breeding up quantity of production with no thought to any other qualities, like disease resistence or production of the next crop), but irradiation doesn't do anything to your food. Could create a bunch of nasty by-products, I don't know From Wikipedia:

  Under certain circumstances some research suggests that irradiation forms new chemicals in food, some of which are uniquely radiolytic products. However, the levels of these compounds produced in irradiated foods are deemed too low to present a meaningful risk to consumers. At very high doses, e.g. >6 kilogray, irradiation can reduce the vitamins and other essential nutrients; and negatively impact the flavor, odor and texture of food. At the doses typically used in irradiation treatment of food, e.g. <3.5 kilogray, these changes appear minimal. Independent scientific research on the subject has been extensive leading to endorsement of food irradiation by the US Food and Drug Administration, the United States Department of Agriculture and the U.N. World Health Organization as a safe, effective and desirable process for the production of wholesome food. Concerns have been expressed by activist groups that irradiation, by killing all bacteria in food, can serve to disguise poor food-handling procedures that could lead to other kinds of contamination. However, processors of irradiated food are subject to all existing regulations, inspections and potential penalties regarding plant safety and sanitization, including fines, recalls and criminal prosecutions. Others are concerned with the use of radiation, and use of nuclear byproducts, the safety of irradiation plants and accidents that have occurred previously. The use of electron beam and X-ray irradiators, which are non-nuclear, have addressed these concerns.

• I'm not all that pro-organic, but parts of this are spot on. "Search your peelings, Cuke?" Heh.
• How lame...
• I saw this posted to MeFi yesterday - along with the remembrance of Hardware Wars. I was a huge fan of Hardware Wars as a kid. I even bought it recently for my little brother, who was thrilled to finally own it. I thought both of these were great. I think Pixel's just having a bad day.
• Ouch... that was hard to sit through.
• That was shit.
• No way.. That rocked. Thanks, homun.. (And I still prefer to have non-irradiated food, thanks.. Maybe I need to learn more about why my risks are unfounded -- and I am willing to listen -- but I'm nervous about the thought of nuclear vegetables.)
• Chyren, are you sure you didn't like it? Search your peelings...
• scartol - as far as I could see from wikipedia, because they are extremely low levels of radiation, sufficient to kill bacteria, but not actually do anything to the otherwise already dead food. It's irradiated, not radioactive.
• Rocked? Please.
• Why are people more concerned about unsubstantiated claims about the possibility that irradiation may or may not be bad for you, when most of the food you eat has been doused with countless pesticides and herbicides that are well proven to be very harmful?