Nuke the Food, Save the Government Welfare Scientists

USDA scientists say irradiation could be key to food safety "We used pretty aggressive levels of chlorine and found they weren't very effective at all. But when you have E. coli inside a leaf, and you irradiate it, the E. coli dies." What about the people who eat the food that was treated in such a way as to eradicate a life form? What effect does the ionizing radiation have on nutrition and cellular integrity?

Brendan Niemira, a microbiologist at the USDA's Eastern Regional Research Center in Pennsylvania who led the research, apparently is not concerned about nutrition, only microbes.

This is the problem with welfare scientists, they are paid with tax dollars to do things that would not be done if free market forces were at work. Where is the investigation as to why E. coli grows on spinach? Could it be the terrain? And if so, why not alter the terrain rather than nuke the vegetable? At least let the consumer decide if she wants to nuke it at home.

If irradiation is the key to food safety, then we have lost hope of ever restoring true understanding as to how to grow food that is fit for human consumption. Far be it from me to point out that we should be more concerned with saving the humans than saving the food, unless of course, humans intend to eat. Then save the food as well, but it all comes down to our understanding of The Law of the Terrain, Milieu or Environment.

You provide the soil in which life-sustaining or pathogenic microbes grow. Change the soil, change what grows there. Irradiate the food and irreparably disrupt its genetic integrity. Do you really think that ionizing radiation will make the food healthier? Enough of the "fear the microbe" garbage. Just grow the food "healthy" in the first place and watch the problem disappear along with this artificial need for "nuclear waste miracle grow" plant food.