FEDERAL UPDATE: WESTON A. PRICE FOUNDATION
JUNE 4, 2003
USDA CHOOSES INDUSTRY OVER CHILDREN IN SCHOOL LUNCH DECISION
Despite thousands of comments to the federal government from parents,
teachers and children nationwide opposing irradiated meat in the
National School Lunch Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) ignored the will of its constituents and approved the use of
irradiation for the federal nutrition program on May 29, 2003. By
offering schools the option of purchasing irradiated meat for school
lunches, which feed 27 million children each year, the USDA could
become the largest distributor of irradiated food in the world.
USDA’s press release on irradiated foods in the school lunch program
can be found at
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=16866:569532.
However, all is not lost! Here are several positive indications that
can influence this process:
1) Over 91% of the thousands of comments submitted to the USDA on this
issue were opposed to the agency's proposal to purchase irradiated food
for school lunches.
2) Schools will have a choice between irradiated and non irradiated
meat. Therefore, it is essential that you request from your school
board and food services director to choose NOT to serve irradiated
meat.
3) The availability of irradiated meat for school lunches will not
begin until January 2004. This is a far cry from original plans to
begin serving irradiated meat this year.
4) The boxes of irradiated meat arriving at schools will be labeled.
However, labeling in the cafeteria or parental notification is NOT
required. The USDA will "encourage" schools using irradiated meat to
let parents know. Please urge your schools to properly label
irradiated meat and send home notification if they will be serving
it.
5) The USDA estimates that irradiated ground beef will cost 13 to 20
cents more per pound. This is a financial disincentive for
cash-strapped schools to spend extra money on an unnecessary and
potentially harmful food item.
6) Even before the announcement, USDA has been funding a pilot
"education" program in Minnesota to develop pro-irradiation
materials for parents and teachers. The materials developed in
Minnesota will be available for schools all over the country to use
in the fall. However, this program has been less successful than
USDA planned. One of the three participating school districts
recently pulled out of the program because they did not feel
comfortable distributing these "education" materials to their
parents and teachers!
***Your Action Is More Important Than Ever!***
USDA's announcement still leaves a way for us to protect School
children. The choice is up to local school boards and district food
service directors whether or not to purchase irradiated meat, or
choose the non-irradiated option. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE WORK AT
THE LOCAL LEVEL TO PREVENT THIS IN OUR OWN SCHOOL DISTRICTS! Please
use the following website to obtain more information on how to work
with your school district to stop the purchase of irradiated foods:
www.safelunch.org. You can download an organizing kit from this site
at http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=16867:569532.
The organizing kit is very comprehensive and useful. This kit was
created by Public Citizen – Ralph Nader’s political action
organization.
In addition, Public Citizen has issued two very comprehensive
reports of food irradiation. I highly recommend that you read these
reports (They are in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat
Reader. To download Acrobat Reader for free, go to the following web
site: http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=16868:569532).
The two reports are:
“Questioning Food Irradiation: A History of Research Into the Safety
of Irradiated Foods” -
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=16869:569532
and
“A Broken Record: How the FDA legalized-and Continues to
Legalize-Food Irradiation without Testing for its Safety" -
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=16870:569532
***Legislators Can Be Sensitive To This Issue!***
Senator Leahy of Vermont wrote to the USDA this week about the
uncertain health effects of serving irradiated meat to children. To
see the full text of his letter go to:
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=16871:569532.
Contact your representative and senators today to urge them not to
support irradiated food in school lunches, and to correct the damage
done by last year's Farm Bill and the recent USDA ruling in favor of
irradiated foods for the school lunch program. For the address of
your two Senators and Representative, please go to the following web
sites:
for House Members:
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=16872:569532
for Senators:
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=16873:569532
**SAMPLE LETTER**
Dear Senator or Representative <Name>:
I am writing to urge you to oppose the purchase of irradiated food for
the National School Lunch Program. As you know, a provision in the
2002 farm bill directs the Secretary of Agriculture not to prohibit
the purchase of commodities that have been treated with irradiation
for the various nutrition programs the USDA administers. This week,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a ruling permitting such
purchases.
This is a very controversial issue, and yet no congressional hearing
was ever held in order to change USDA policy on permitting
irradiated food into child nutrition programs. In fact, no
congressional debate ever took place on this issue. Furthermore, in
recent articles, spokespersons for the USDA have taken the stance
that Congress mandated the use of irradiated foods for the National
School Lunch Program. However, just because a technology is approved
for the programs does not mean it is required for the programs.
This provision sets a dangerous precedent. Irradiation destroys
vitamins and other nutrients, forms chemicals suspected to cause
cancer and birth defects, and masks unhygienic food production
practices. By allowing irradiated foods into national nutrition
programs, we condone our children's consumption of low quality,
unsafe, and nutritionally deficient food.
Most worrisome for parents is the fact that irradiated food does not
have to be labeled when served in school cafeterias. Current
regulations do not require either student or parental notification
when
irradiated foods are served. Parents and children deserve the
right-to-know what is being served in the nutrition programs offered in
school.
The use of irradiation is a way for the meat industry to cover up dirty
meat, and will lead to the reduction of microbial testing programs that
are designed to make sure that meat is safe to eat without the use of
interventions such as irradiation. This is already ringing true. Some
in industry, including the American School Food Service Association,
are attempting to end testing of meat destined for the child nutrition
programs. A comment they wrote to the USDA stated, "The Department
should take care to implement this provision to ensure that the full
benefit of new food safety technologies can be realized while also
eliminating unnecessary costs in the procurement system. The
Department should go to great lengths to ensure that [microbial]
testing
requirements are maintained in a manner that does not create a
financial disincentive that precludes vendors from providing an
additional level of safety." In other words, they want irradiation
to replace testing of feces-laden meat. I don't want my child eating
feces in their meat, even if it has been 'sterilized.
Currently, there is an irradiation "education" pilot program being
conducted in Minnesota and funded by the Food and Nutrition Service of
USDA. However, it was designed and is completely dominated by
irradiation proponents and industry. There is no balance of information
in the presentations or the material being used in that education
program. This is a scandalous abuse of citizens' trust in their
government. In fact, one of the participating schools recently
pulled out of the program.
The bottom line is this: 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! I
ask you to please help us stop this very questionable practice.
Sincerely,
<Your Name & Address>
*** THANK YOU***
On behalf of Sally Fallon and myself, we thank you for all your
tremendous efforts in bringing healthy foods back into our diets.
Many of you have asked why we do not incorporate an easier system
for contacting your Senators and Representatives. The answer is
cost. There are internet services available for activist/grassroots
organizations that provide one click mailing of e-mail letters to
your Members of Congress. These comprhensive services cost over $300
per month while the service we currently use from Groundspring.org
EmailNow in San Francisco costs us $19.95 per month for up to 20,000
e-mailings monthly with plain text and no formatting. A bit of a
difference. So, we ask you to bear with us. I know it takes more
time to hunt for your Members addreses or e-mail addreses; however,
we simply do not have the financial resources for the more costly
activist/grassroots services.
Best wishes to you.
Bill Sanda
Director, Public Affairs
Weston A. Price Foundation
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