From tainted spinach to irradiated spinach. Or from bad to worse. Just another reason to grow your own. Why do we try to eat dark green veggies? For the nutritional benefits. They irradiate spinach and now they’re trying to do it without labeling. The short version of this food supply tragedy goes something like this; vegetables are high in water content. The radiation mutates the water component causing free radicals to form and greatly diminishes the vitamin content. In the case of spinach it messes with the folate. What’s good in spinach? Folate. Can you get folate from vitamins? There is new evidence that vitamins are not effective. Makes me feel better about not taking them. Makes me realize I should plant a row of spinach weekly.
Good Food on KCRW had a great show yesterday and interviewed a guy from The Center for Food Safety. Listen to the Good Food interview, then go to the site and get full story. Write, vote, donate and educate yourself on the issue.
Here is SoCal and specifically Long Beach we live near the port, freeway and airport. I get pangs of guilt when I think about the large particles my kids are inhaling because I have chosen to stay here. I get full blown agita thinking that maybe the food I am feeding them is or could make them sick! We simply must know what’s we’re feeding our families, and if you grow it you know it.
Look for the symbol of irradiated food symbol (icon above) when you do your shopping and realize that the term cold pasteurization is the corporate food industry’s choice for a more deceptive term for radiation. Be diligent and start planting!!
This has been my mantra since day one. I rather eat an aphid infested squash than a radiation treated tomato.
I know!! Aphids add a little protein and the kids almost never see them.