THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 233, December 11, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OUR CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE POISONED BY OUR FOOD
By Dennis T. Avery
ORGANIC MEATS & THE DEADLY FOOD-BORNE BACTERIA E. COLI O157: FOOD IRRADIATION AS THE ONLY ABSOLUTE
MEASURE TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM OF LIFE-THREATENING BACTERIA IN MEAT -- FOOD IRRADIATION AS A PROCESS
WHICH TURNS ELECTRICITY INTO AN ENERGY THAT SAFELY & COST EFFECTIVELY KILLS BACTERIA LIKE E. COLI, DOING SO
WITHOUT SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGING THE FLAVOR, COLOR, OR NUTRIENT CONTENT OF THE FOOD -- EATING ORGANIC
MEATS DOES NOT PROTECT THE CONSUMER FROM E. COLI INFECTION
FULL STORY:
Buying “organic” or “natural” or “local” meats won’t protect us from the deadly food-borne bacteria E. coli O157. The
life-threatening bacterium sickens thousands of people every year, and kills hundreds — too many of them children.
A restaurant owner recently wrote the Minneapolis Star-Tribune claiming that, if we raised our cattle on pasture
instead of in feedlots, and bought them from local producers, the E. coli problem in red meat would disappear.
“Not true,” says a University of Minnesota physician. Dr. Michael Osterholm says:
“. . . [the restaurant owner] would understand this issue in an entirely different
light, if he had been with me when I had to explain to
distraught parents that their young daughter’s death
was due to eating an undercooked hamburger, prepared
by them, and the E. coli that caused her illness came
from meat from a cow raised only on pasture grass and
processed by the local meat packer. The cow also came
from Grandpa’s farm down the road.”
Dr. Osterholm says the life-threatening O157 bacteria are found among all cattle, grass-fed or feedlot. He points to a
recent Minnesota Department of Health study which found that eating red meat from local farms was a significant risk
factor for E. coli infection.
“In the sterile surgical suites of our ultra-modern hospitals,
almost 3 percent of all ‘clean surgeries’ still result in a
post-surgical site infection. This means bacterial
contamination from the patient’s skin or from someone on
the surgical team infected that incision. If surgeons can’t
do any better under ideal sterile conditions, how can we
expect a meat processing plant to guarantee that the
carcass coming off the line doesn’t have some hidden
microscopic E. coli? . . . [W]e can only hope that the
consumer also will take responsibility for never serving
undercooked ground beef or any inadequately cooked
meat or poultry product.”
The restaurateur quoted a 1998 paper from Cornell University, which studied only three cows — and never checked any
of them for the O157 bacteria! Too much of our public food policy is being built on such “smoke and mirrors,” as some
farmers and food marketers try to justify higher price premiums.
Dr. Osterholm further states:
“In the end, there is only one absolute measure to address
this issue: food irradiation. This process, which primarily
uses an electron gun — just like the one in your TV, except
at higher power — that turns electricity into an energy that
safely and cost-effectively kills bacteria like E. coli. It does
so without significantly changing the flavor, color or
nutrient content of the food. Routine irradiation of meat
and poultry would do for those food commodities what
pasteurization did for milk: make them safe.”
Thank you, Dr. Osterholm.
Food irradiation is the most widely studied food safety measure in history, and has been for 30 years. It’s been approved
and recommended by U.S. physicians, the World Health Organization, and virtually every significant group of health
professionals across the planet. The Food and Drug Administration has known since 1982 that O157 was a threat to
American lives, but it didn’t approve irradiation for meat until 1997. Even now, FDA requires that irradiated foods carry a
warning label, and the “radura” symbol. So far, both stores and consumers have shied away from the irradiated products
— even though the irradiation helps keep the products fresher, longer.
Don’t let the people who market those high-priced organic and natural food products pretend they can protect us from
deadly bacteria. The longer we support the illusion that we can protect our families by paying more at the checkout
counter, the more victims E. coli 0157 will claim.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Science, Ethics, & Human Health:
Human Health & Public Policy
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and is the Director of the Institute's Center for
Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org). Formerly he was a senior policy analyst for the United
States Department of State, where he won the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. He is the co-author, with
atmospheric physicist Fred Singer, of the book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years (Blue Ridge Summit,
Pennsylvania: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). Readers may write Avery at Post Office Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421. Email:
cgfi@rica.net
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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