Fwd: [SoFlaVeg] Keep Irradiated Food Out of Your Child's Lunch.

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Be Well, Misty

 

http://www..com

 

 

KEEP IRRADIATED FOOD OUT OF YOUR CHILD'S LUNCH!

 

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety/food_irrad/articles.cfm?ID=8493#103

 

The meat industry is targeting the National School

Lunch Program and turning your children into guinea

pigs for irradiation technology. Previously, the USDA

prohibited the purchase of irradiated meat for the

National School Lunch Program. However, Congress

passed a provision in the most recent Farm Bill that

opened the door for irradiated food in the program by

telling the USDA that they could not prohibit it. Now,

the meat industry has stepped up its pressure on the

USDA, and a decision on whether to recommend

irradiated meat to schools is expected by year's end.

 

Most worrisome for parents is the fact that irradiated

food does not have to be labeled when served in school

cafeterias! Taxpayer money should not be used to prop

up this questionable technology at the expense of the

safety of American children and their parents'

right-to-know what they are eating!

 

The good news is: there is still time to keep this

food out of schools, but you need to make your outrage

known at the local level!

 

Click HERE for talking points.

 

Find out more about the problems with the USDA meat

testing program by reading the report Hamburger Hell.

 

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

 

Talk with your local PTA and alert other parents and

teachers in your area to the dangers of irradiation!

 

Talk to your district school board! Let them know that

you do not want your child subjected to this

controversial technology. (Public Citizen can help

parents and teachers work with their school boards to

keep irradiated food out of their schools. Contact

Monique with Public Citizen at 202-546-4996 for

materials and suggestions on how to get started.)

 

Write a letter to the editor of your local paper

explaining the situation at hand and asking for

parental support! Include your contact information or

share Public Citizen's contact information.

 

Raise this issue with your congressional

representatives! Your senators and representatives are

in their home districts right now trying to gain

support for the upcoming election. Go to a public

forum where they accept questions and bring up this

issue! In voting for the most recent Farm Bill, your

legislators also directed the FDA to begin allowing

alternative labeling for irradiated food, such as the

term " pasteurization. " Ask them how they plan to

protect the consumer's right-to-know if food has been

irradiated, now that they have gutted the labeling

laws. Also, ask them how they plan to prevent the use

of irradiated food in the National School Lunch

Program.

 

Write to the USDA! Tell the Secretary of Agriculture,

Ann Veneman, to protect America's children by NOT

recommending irradiated meat for the National School

Lunch Program.

 

Write to: Ann Veneman, U.S. Department of Agriculture,

Room 200-A, Whitten Building, 12th and Jefferson Dr.

SW, Washington, DC 20250

 

Call: 202-720-3631

 

 

QUESTIONS TO RAISE:

 

If the safety of this technology is questionable, why

serve it to children?

 

Is the Bush administration going to experiment on

school children just to aid the fidyl food irradiation

industry, which has had a difficult time making it on

its own in the marketplace?

 

How much longer is this administration going to let

the meat industry get away with producing food that is

contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7, listeria or

salmonella without a proper inspection and testing

regime?

 

Is this administration willing to put our children's

health at risk to let industry off the hook on

cleaning up their processes?

TALKING POINTS:

 

Irradiation is not an acceptable way to deal with

filth on meat.

 

The health effects of children consuming irradiated

meat are unknown.

 

Irradiated food in schools need not be labeled, which

obstructs parents' right-to-know what their children

are eating.

 

The National School Lunch Program is meant to provide

children with a healthy well-balanced meal, not

nutritionally deficient food treated with a

controversial technology.

 

There is an appalling lack of research into the

long-term health effects experienced by children who

are exposed to toxic chemicals in foods. Dr. William

Au, a toxicologist at the Department of Preventive

Medicine and Community Health, University of Texas

Medical Branch in Galveston, has argued that " the

scientific community and regulatory agencies have very

little knowledge regarding how children respond to

insult from toxic chemicals. These concerns also apply

to toxicological risk with respect to eating

irradiated food. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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