Irradiating Organic Food

Again, we have to understand some basic food "science" before dwelling on that utopian dream of organic food - here.

"The real tragedy of the E. coli incident in Germany is that the outbreak could have been prevented if the organic industry had been willing to irradiate their produce. The bean sprout crop that was the source of the outbreak requires a warm and humid environment to grow, which increases the risk of contamination by E. coli and other disease-causing bacteria. The only certain means of reducing this risk is to irradiate the bean sprout seeds, which effectively kills 99.999 per cent of E. coli. There is no evidence that food irradiation is harmful to consumers, and also no evidence that it affects the nutritional quality of food.

Despite these facts, the organic industry continues to lobby against the use of irradiation. When President Bill Clinton's agriculture secretary Dan Glickman proposed including irradiation in the US National Organic Standards in 1998 - specifically to reduce E. coli risk - the US Department of Agriculture received over 300,000 petitions from individuals and organisations in the US and Europe opposing this move. As a result this provision was removed from the final legislation.

If the organic industry is to retain confidence it must show that it is willing to adopt technologies which put food safety first. If organic food is irradiated then the technology will be more widely accepted across the food chain in general and lives will be saved. That is a goal every food producer should be striving for."