The National School Lunch Program
Background
Questionable Approval Process
Minnesota Pilot Education Project
Lunch Money Funding Neo-Nazis
Dirty Bomb
In July 2004, after a 7 year struggle to win the trust of American consumers, Surebeam Corporation, the world�s largest irradiation company filed bankruptcy amidst allegations of accounting fraud. Surebeam�s patented electronic beam technology was marketed to consumers as safe and wholesome, providing the only irradiation technology derived from non-radioactive source materials. Since then numerous supermarkets and restaurants discontinued use of irradiated beef citing reasons ranging from poor sales to concerns regarding the remaining source materials; Cesium-137 and Cobalt-60. Also impacted by Surebeam�s bankruptcy has been the funding funneled to Minnesota businesses to endorse its widespread use. Lulled by the silence, few consumers would suspect that 96 Minnesota school districts ordered irradiated beef for the 2004-2005 school year and most schools failed to mention it to parents or staff.
Background
On May 29, 2003, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) lifted its ban on irradiated ground beef in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and in January 2004 irradiated ground beef was subsequently made available to American schools for the first time. State Education Departments purchase commodity products which now include irradiated ground beef, from the federal government (USDA) and offer the commodities through their statewide distribution system to school districts. If a state decides not to carry irradiated ground beef, the product would not be available through the NSLP but could be purchased through an alternate source. Minnesota�s Department of Education (MDE) was one of three states to order irradiated ground beef from the USDA for the 2004-2005 school year.
Originally, the USDA predicted irradiated ground beef would cost 13-20 cents more per pound than non-irradiated ground beef but initial bids reflected a price hike of 29-80 cents more per pound. Inaccuracy was not confined to price predictions, the marketing materials used by the USDA to promote the use of irradiated beef in schools glossed over controversy and contained blatantly incorrect, outdated information. Citing cost and safety concerns, officials from all three states canceled their orders for irradiated beef for the current school year.
The decision to serve irradiated beef is made annually by individual school districts. Since irradiation kills most bacteria in meat it has been promoted to our schools as a �safe� approach to food-borne illness. This offers little reassurance when you consider that most incidences of contamination in school food occur during storage and preparation, where irradiation is ineffective. Proper sanitation, storage and cooking remains the only surefire answer to food borne illness. Additionally, irradiation depletes nutritional value and induces vitamin loss while creating new chemical, some of which have never been tested.
Questionable Approval Process
Unique Radiolytic Products (URP�s) is of primary concern to many scientists throughout the world and remains untested by the FDA. URP�s are unpredictable molecules created when food is broken down by radiation. Marcia van Germert Ph.D. was the toxicologist who chaired the FDA�s review of the 441 existing studies on irradiated foods in 1982; she concluded the studies did not prove the safety of irradiated foods. Despite her assertion the FDA granted approval of food irradiation. In a 1993 letter to New Jersey Assemblyman John Kelly, van Gemert referred to the FDA�s review of the 441 studies on irradiated foods done in 1982 and reasserted: "The studies reviewed in the 1982 memo from FDA were not adequate by the 1992 standards, and are even less adequate by the 1993 standards to evaluate the safety of any product, especially a food product such as irradiated foods.� After the disagreement over irradiated foods van Germert left the FDA and according to a 1998 interview with City Pages, she has �tried to stay out of it.� But admitted openly: �The data was very poor. My constant concern was for radiolytic products�These are chemicals that are unique and it's difficult to tell how the body is going to react to them."
Recent research has shown that one type of chemical created by irradiation, alkylcyclobutanones, promotes cancer development and genetic damage in rats and genetic damage in human cells. Children are often one of the most sensitive populations to toxins because proportionally, they consume more food, air, and water pound for pound than adults.
Most consumers would be surprised to learn that the FDA granted its approval of irradiated food on the basis of seven studies. Dr. Donald R Louria, Ph.D., Chairman, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, addressed this issue when he testified in June1987 before the House Committee on Energy and the Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Environment: �Clearly, there are many potential biases in selecting such a small number of studies on which to base major decisions�There were unexplained stillbirths in the litters of rats given wheat irradiated with twenty thousand rads; recalculation of that stillbirth rate shows a significant increase. This study is hardly an endorsement for the safety of irradiating food. The other study, intensively reviewed, has similar problems with statistical significance, unexplained deaths, and abnormalities in animals given irradiated foods that are treated dismissively and virtually ignored� Taken together, these studies could not possibly establish the safety of food irradiation. Indeed, two of the studies suggest the technology is not safe.�
In December 2004, the FDA once again caved in to industry pressure when they announced their decision to grant their petition to increase the permitted energy level of X-rays used to irradiate food. At the increased dose it is possible for the components of the food to become radioactive. Industry claims that radioactivity will be short-lived.
With high pressure endorsements for high tech solutions to the problem of food borne illness it�s almost impossible to believe that E. coli bacteria can be almost entirely eliminated by switching the cow�s diet to hay a week before slaughter. Despite a simple, readily available solution, irradiation still threatens to end up in Minnesota schools with no funds dedicated to long term health studies. In contrast, federal funds earmarked to promote consumer acceptance of irradiated foods have been more than available.
Pilot Education Project
In the fall of 2002, the Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) of the USDA provided the MDE with a $151,000 grant to develop food irradiation education materials in three Minnesota school districts. The materials developed during the project were used as a template for a national irradiation campaign. The original pilot project proposal stated "A successful outcome...will be the acceptance and introduction of irradiated meat in select districts." Despite the language contained in the contract MDE told WCCO television the project was a: �survey�we aren�t promoting a specific technology.� In the Final Assessment and Evaluation Report school board members issued a scathing review accusing the USDA of inundating communities with pro-irradiation propaganda that lacked credibility. None of the participating schools placed orders for irradiated beef yet the pilot project was deemed a success by the USDA and the education material, viewed as propaganda by some school officials, were distributed nationwide.
Lunch Money Funding Neo-Nazis
Some of the America�s most questionable ground beef has been purchased by the USDA and distributed to school cafeterias nationwide. According to Eric Schlosser�s book Fast Food Nation (2002, p. 218): �Throughout the 1980�s and 1990�s, the USDA chose meat suppliers for its NSLP on the basis of the lowest price, without imposing additional food safety requirements.� In a 1983 investigation NBC News reported Cattle King Packing Company, then the USDA�s largest supplier of ground beef for the NSLP, routinely mixed rotten meat into packages of hamburger meat. Their facility; infested with rats and cockroaches. The owner of the company, Rudy Stanko, was later tried and convicted for selling tainted meat to the federal government. He had been convicted two year earlier on similar charges. The previous felony conviction didn�t inhibit his ability to supply the USDA with one�quarter of all ground beef served in the NSLP (Schlosser 2002).
According to the Rocky Mountain News, while in prison, Stanko wrote �The Score�, a book about the "Zionist conspiracy" which destroyed his $20 million dollar meatpacking company. After he was released from prison in 1990, Stanko was named supreme leader or pontifex maximus of the World Church of the Creator. World Church of the Creator, is a neo-Nazis, white-supremacist organization whose membership includes Matt Hale. Hale was convicted in 2004 of soliciting the murder of U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lefkow. By 1995, Stanko moved to Montana, where he ran Creator Publishing in Billings, which sold virulently racist publications of the church, including the White Man's Bible.
In 1998, the USDA withdrew inspectors from Bauer Meat�s and later declared Bauer�s meat products �unfit for human consumption,� detaining nearly 6 million pounds. Almost one-third of the meat had already been shipped to school districts. Shortly thereafter, a dozen children in Finely, Washington were sickened by E. coli 0157:H7 (Schlosser, 2002)
Last spring, the USDA chose Qualipaq Meats of Swoyersville, Penn., to supply irradiated ground beef and hamburger patties to the National School Lunch Program. A sample of Qualipaq's ground beef was found to be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7 six months earlier, meat destined for the School Lunch Program. The entire batch, some 48,120 pounds of meat, was eventually sent to a federal cooking facility, though none of it made it into school lunches. Qualipaq blamed a supplier for selling it contaminated meat; the USDA blotted out the supplier's identity from public records. Soon after, the USDA stepped up its inspections at Qualipaq and found repeated food safety violations, including tools, utensils and other equipment being kept in unsanitary condition.
Dirty Bomb
Food irradiation raises many formidable issues and the issue of nuclear waste doesn�t prove to be any lighter of a topic. The reactor byproducts Cobalt-60 & Cesium-137, used in the irradiation process have never posed a greater threat to Americans than they do today. Both radioisotopes serve as prime fuel for a �dirty bomb�. Unlike conventional explosives which rely on a single blast, a �dirty bomb� blast spews radioactive material, potentially rendering an entire section of a city uninhabitable for years. In a two-year study conducted by Center for Nonproliferation Studies, researchers concluded that terrorists are �all but certain� to set off a radiological weapon in the United States, due to the amount of time it will take authorities to track and secure all the radioactive materials. With all the tax dollars spent on promoting the expansive use of radiation, it would now appears that too few tax dollars have been spent on keeping track of the hell-spawned material and as a result the public once again, has been placed in harms way.
Irradiation is unnecessary, unwanted, and expensive. Most grocery stores have pulled irradiated beef from their shelves due to poor sales; school children should not be used to create a market for a technology that consumers have overwhelmingly rejected in supermarkets around the country. The National School Lunch Program feeds our nation�s most vulnerable children; therefore it is vital that meals served at school are healthy, nutritious and safe. Unanswered questions regarding safety must be formally addressed before irradiated ground beef is fed to school children in any state.
Currently, there is state legislation that not only ensures every parent the right to know about irradiated food in school lunch but prevents school officials from making a unilateral decision without input from the communities they serve. Contact your legislators: (Representative 651-296-2146, Senator 651-297-0504) today and tell them to support
S.F. 1450 & H.F.1795 (2/2/2005)
Jody Scott- Olson lives in Little Falls, Minnesota with her daughter Alexa. Olson�s efforts to educate consumers regarding the potential health risks associated with irradiated foods began in 1998 while working for an environmental group in Minneapolis. Since then she has written articles, lobbied for state and federal irradiation right-to-know legislation and currently heads the Minnesota Voices for Choices campaign with longtime friend Mary Strohmayer. In recent years she has interviewed with the New York Times, Washington Post and WCCO television