Random passage of the day...

Since, I often am at a loss of what to post when farm activities are lulling, I decided why not post an interesting passage from a book I am reading. Now that book is "The Revolution will Not be Microwaved - Inside America's Underground Food Movements" by Sandor Ellix Katz.

I personally, love technologies which turn hazardous industrial waste into a useful purpose for our food supply. So I had to admire our government when I read this passage...

• "In 2002, as part of its massive "Farm Bill," the U.S. Congress explicitly granted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to approve any technology capable of killing pathogens as a form of "pasteurization," not requiring special labeling. Irradiation, one such process, uses high doses of radiation - "seven million times more irradiation then a single chest x-ray," according to the Centers for Disease Control - to kill pathogens and extend shelf life. This technology, developed in the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of its Byproduct Utilization Program, uses cobolt 60 and cesium 137, both nuclear industry by-products. Irradiation, sometimes referred to as "cold-pasteurization," is often applied to fruit juices, fruits, vegetables, spices, meats, and seafood. Yet irradiation has been shown to diminish the nutritional value of food. Irradiation also alters the molecular structure of the food and generates free radicals and radiolytic products including benzene, formaldehyde, and other know mutagens and carcinogens, as well as "unique radiolyic byproducts" for which no rigorous safety testing has ever been preformed.
  

Yet a couple studies touted by the FDA shows that consumers are willing to pay more for irradiated meat!

So the question remains, will one day they ask you at a fast food place... "Do you want any Colbolt 60 with that hamburger?"