Amid the abundant downers in the news—climate change,
gun massacres, worldwide misogyny—at least one positive is emerging: we’re
beginning to care more about what we eat.
School districts around the country are realizing
they’ve been feeding kids trash lunches. New programs are serving local organic
veggies and other nutritious foods, bought locally and often at lower prices
than corporate crap. Until recently, hospitalized patients could literally die
of malnutrition; now, here and there, decent food is finding its way in.
Even when food looks okay, dubious but invisible
elements can lurk within. Do you know if your food was irradiated for
shelf life, creating potentially carcinogenic free radicals? Do you know what
your chickens or beef cattle were fed? Reuters reported today that Russia will
ban imports of American turkey, beef, and pork due to concerns about the use of
the feed additive ractopamine, a growth hormone. Ractopamine is banned in some
countries because of concerns that it could remain in the meat and cause health
problems, despite scientific evidence showing that it’s safe.
When you consider claims of “harmlessness,” please
keep two caveats in mind. First, the exculpating research was almost always done by the
corporation that sells the stuff; ‘nuff said. And second, that research takes only the short term into account. Dozens of serious toxins don’t reveal their effect for
decades or even entire generations. That fact alone makes most additives
and processes corporate dreams in terms of liability: we’re exposed to so many
questionable substances that we can’t prove a cancer that appears today was caused
by something ingested twenty years ago.
What do we do about that? I actually don’t think we
need protective laws as much as we need to educate ourselves about food and buy
only what we know to be healthy. The “invisible hand of the market,” as
economists call it, takes care of business: the American turkey that Russia will
no longer import is a $516 million loss for the ractopamine crowd.
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ReplyDeleteNot hard to imagine that the 'synthetic food' movement that ramped up in the 60's has something to do with the incredible increases in intestinal disease, organ disease, cancer, etc. that has taken place in out 60 year-old+ population. It has crept up on us, slowly altering our norms, as subtle as the daily changes in the look and size of our children only apparent when we look at a photo from a year or two before.
ReplyDeleteWe become what we eat--we have given way to image over substance in our food.... 'nuff said.