Beginning next January, school boards nationwide will have the option of allowing irradiated meat to be served to children as part of the federal school lunch program.
The only question we have is, why on earth would any district choose not to use such meat?
When it comes to public reaction, irradiated beef often falls into the same category as fluoridated water. It has been used for decades with no sign of trouble, and it is endorsed by trusted and venerable institutions of health, and yet a small and vocal group of activists insists on sounding alarms.
In this case, the word "radiation" brings a knee-jerk response from some. An official with the consumer group Public Citizen was quoted by the Scripps Howard News Service as saying, "the USDA is willing to put our children's health at risk to help cover up the meat industry's sanitation failures." Her contention is that if meat processors were more careful about keeping their slaughterhouses clean, irradiation would be unnecessary.
We don't have any first-hand knowledge as to the cleanliness of slaughterhouses, but we do find it interesting that groups opposed to modern health techniques are so quick to attach the most sinister of motives to government officials who, after all, are mere humans with families and children of their own. Government officials most likely aren't so eager to please the beef industry that they would jump on a process that hadn't been proven safe.
The irradiation process, by which meat is passed through an energy field that kills, among other things, E. coli, is used in more than 50 nations. It has the approval of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Dietetic Association, the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and other health-related organizations. It has been used in various ways for more than 40 years and has scanned the food eaten by astronauts for 30 years. It doesn't completely eliminate the danger of food-borne illnesses, but it makes meat and other products a lot safer.
When it announced last week it would offer irradiated meat for schools, the USDA said it hoped school districts would let parents know if they choose to use the products. We're all for public disclosure. It would be nice, however, if the districts would provide a little education, as well, as to what irradiation means. Parents may focus on the word "irradiation" without stopping to listen to anything else. The truth is, this is a welcome way to make school lunches better. We hope school districts in Utah will use it.