*** Please reconsider allowing irradiation of foods. Or, at a minimum, please
require labeling for it everywhere, including restaurants, institutions, etc.,
so that wherever we purchase food, we can make informed decisions. Thank you. *** Please do NOT allow the irradiation of food! This will be extremely dangerous to your immune system! Since it appears that MOST people in this country could care less about what happens to "other" people, maybe the folks at the FDA should eat this stuff for a few years BEFORE you inflict it on the American citizens! ***Dear Policymaker, I am writing to voice my opinion on the irradiation of food - vegetables and almonds for example. I do not agree with ionizing radiation being used on my food. Ionizing radiation is destructive not only to the life of the pathogen but also to the food or vegetable itself. I am a vegan and depend solely on my vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts as the source of nutrients. I do not want someone destroying part or all of those nutrients in the name of supposed safety. Vegetables can easily be washed by both the grower and consumer to reduce pathogenic organisms. I ask you to please reconsider this unnecessary, destructive action on my food sources. Avanda Demperio, DC ***Please do not pass any laws allowing irradiated of food. *** I am highly appalled at the fact that it is not required by law that all irradiated fruits and vegetables are labeled accordingly, and that restaurants and other food establishments are not required to inform the consumer about their raw materials having been irradiated.
This is supposed to be a free country. But, how free are we the people when we
don't even have the information we need to freely make a decision as to which
fruits and vegetables we want to buy or which food establishments to eat at. IT IS
OUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE, AND TO BE INFORMED IN THE MAKING OF OUR
CHOICE. We as a people should not be forced to eat irradiated/toxified foods
simply because vested interests have a profit agenda they want to pursue.
LET'S GET SOME ACTION GOING ON THIS, and KEEP THE PUBLIC INFORMED ***I do not support spraying or any other method of further contaminating our food as a national FDA policy. And if you do you must require that all restaurants state that their food is treated. If we have a scare of contaminated food, it is OK to do without until the problem is solved. Otherwise you are sending a message to the food producing industry that it is OK to get sloppy about contaminates
because the food will be treated. Who are you really helping. The people of this country, or massive food producing companies. Linda ***We don't want irradiated food, but if you are going to irradiate the food, at least we should know it. Nursing homes and hospitals should never be allowed to feed this garbage to our most vulnerable citizens ***I stand firmly opposed to the nuking of American produce instead of the better supervision of sanitation at factory farms. With undocumented aliens working in the fields without adequate outhouse facilities, it takes no genius to figure out what happens to American food: the same thing that has given tourists in Mexico Montezuma's Revenge for decades! Please realize our feeling that it is OUTRAGEOUSLY ILLEGAL for you to destroy the integrity of our produce and other healthy foods! Give us back our almonds, strawberries, papayas and hands off our lettuce and spinach, and stop acting as the:
FEDERAL DISEASE
ADMINISTRATION,
as you rule for drugs and against the healthy foods that can allow us to live without disease. *** I do not wish to eat anything that has been radiated. *** We say NO to GMO and irradiated foods. This is NOT what nature intended, so don't fool with it, please!! *** Please do not allow irradiation of vegetables. We (or you) do not know the long term consequences of this process on humans.
Thank you: Fred ***I object to this action on the part of the FDA. This is totally unnecessary. ***I'd like to second the following letter from Karen Giles already received by you, as it says exactly what I intended to say myself:
I buy organic spinach and leafy greens for my health. It would
be devastating if you destroy my opportunity to buy food I believe to be nutritious, by irradiating it. I can no longer buy almonds because they can no longer be raw and unprocessed. Please don't destroy leafy greens too. People who don't want irradiated food have a right to buy it. And why would you make it harder for small farmers to compete against factory farms?
I believe that neither a Marketing Agreement nor a Marketing Order are
appropriate models when seeking to protect food safety on a national scale. Both
models would allow a small board of processors and handlers to set the rules for
all farms in the nation who wish to sell their vegetables to processors.
It puts disproportionate power in the hands of large operations and corporations,
who would most likely be represented on these boards. This board would be given
the government-sanctioned authority to dictate the growing practices for all other
farms?large or small?in the nation, which I believe to be an inappropriate model
and level of authority. I am also concerned that appropriate guidelines, suitable for small as well as large farms, have not yet been developed.
I encourage the USDA to delay the implementation of federal standards until scientifically proven methods for reducing E. coli 0157 contamination have been demonstrated. The California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA) guidelines have already been implicated in two recalls, showing that more research is needed before a set of uniform standards can be required throughout the nation.
Furthermore, federal regulations would discriminate against many farmers who
employ organic farming practices and farmers who promote biodiversity on farms,
as has been the experience with the California guidelines.
The adoption of such rules on a national level would harm the environment, and
more environmentally friendly guidelines must be developed if they are to be
mandated nationally.
I would also like to note that the risk of E. coli 0157 contamination comes
predominantly from ?fresh cut? lettuce and spinach?the pre-washed, pre-cut bags
of greens that have recently become so popular. Therefore, even if the USDA were
to require standardized growing practices, it should apply only to large-scale
suppliers of ?fresh-cut? bags of leafy greens, and exclude whole leafy greens that
have never been implicated in an E. coli 0157 outbreak, such as kale, arugula,
and chard. A one-size-fits-all approach is totally inappropriate in addressing this important health and environmental rulemaking proposal.f federal guidelines were to be enacted, there should be an exemption based on
scale?small-scale farmers should not have to follow the same rules as large-
scale operations that have been responsible for past widespread contamination.
Moreover, exemptions should exist for traditional farmers selling locally and for
farmers with organic certification. Although no fresh food production is risk free, the smaller operations, with hands-on management, pose an infinitely smaller risk to the nation?s citizenry.
Finally, I oppose the proposed Marketing Agreement because it would likely be
costly and overly burdensome to small- and medium-scale growers and could
potentially drive these farmers out of business. As a consumer of leafy greens and
a supporter of environmentally sustainable, local food systems, I urge the USDA
to not support one-size-fits-all requirements that would dictate to farmers how to
grow their vegetables, especially when such guidelines are not evidence based and are written by and for large-scale operations?farms, that based on past experience, might very well need additional regulatory oversight.
Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Karen Giles ***I object to the irradiation of foods due to the potentially damaging effects of
radiated nutrients and their ingestion by the human body. ***I do not wish to eat any foods that have been irradiated. All foods can be safely eaten after soaking in an apple cider vinegar solution for 5 minutes. If consumers were told to do this with all fresh vegetables there would be no salmonella or e coli problems. I strongly urge you to reconsider this. At the very least, the consumer should know with labeling and notification on restaurant menus that they will be eating dead food. Thank you Jacqueline Harte ***Please do not RADIATE our foods. This doesn't make any sense. The free radicals, not found in nature, would end up causing more harm than good. There are better and safer ways to protect our food sources. Thank you for your time and consideration. ***I don't support the Ionizing Radiation of our food supply to rid pathogens to improve its safety and extend its shelf-life.
We have modified vegetable oil to create solid trans fats (margarine, lard and
others) because we thought that it was better for us than animal fat and butter.
Trans fat also have extended shelf life, but at what cost. We were wrong with
trans fats and I believe we would be wrong to a radiation that could modify another food we eat.
It is my under standing that our children's schools, hospitals, nursing homes and
restaurants are exempt from the radiation labeling requirements. That leaves a
huge portion of our population uninformed and unprotected.
Lets use washing and other safe techniques rather than radiation that modifies our
food. Sincerely Richard E. Van Antwerp ***Please, please, please, don't approve irradiation of our food supply. I don't think this process has been thoroughly checked out to make sure that it does not destroy the foods it is supposed to make safe. Even though there are a few cases of food poisoning it doesn't warrant the destruction of the nutrient value of that food. Why not make sure lettuces and spinach are labeled well with directions for washing and let it go at that? By destroying all the bacteria living on these plants you are also destroying the human bodies ability to build up immunity to them. Be more careful with what you are doing!
***Irradiating food kills the living parts of them, making the nutritional value
like eating cardboard. Please don't do this to us. Do not irradiate our fresh
fruits and vegetable. There are so many other things to do instead, like
growing them in our own communities under greenhouses all year long. We need to
get more self-sufficient anyway. ***I am against ANY approval of irradiation of vegetables as a means of preserving or "killing" any bacteria or "bugs" present. This results in damage to the vitamins and enzymes present in the veggy that is essential to the body and exposes the body to unknown products!
W. L. Hamiter Statesville, N.C. ***Please do not let this become standard procedure. I do not want to eat anything irradiated! Perhaps I will be able to choose non-irradiated foods at the grocery store, but how will I know what is being fed to me when I am eating in a restaurant, what my children are eating in the school cafeteria. We are loosing our choices for healthy food and I am quite apalled! Please don't take away my freedom to eat healthy! There are too many side effects being discovered after 10 or 15 years....too late to do anything about it. You can not honestly tell me that there is absolutely no way the irradiated food could affect people in a negative way. Again, please leave us with a choice. Find other ways to make our food crops safe. ***Why is it not a no brainer that cancer and other dreaded disease rates are higher now than ever in American history? The allmighty dollar over fresh and natural foods seems to be the over riding interest regarding our food sources. Please stop irradiating our food supply!! Tammie Seaman Anaheim, California ***Use of Ionizing Radiation is just another kick in the teeth to the consumers of
these products. Now we will be subject to radiation treatment of our produce.
Something is definitely wrong with your thinking process!! What happened to
getting good nutrients from fresh vegetables, not radiation. Not only is it
unhealthy to all but, many will not even know about it and could prove quite
detrimental to their health. As we try to do our grocery shopping it now takes
hours to get through the store just to try and read all the "warnings..etc"
attached to each item. Why not hold the producer accountable for their
production and cleanliness instead of punishing the consumer
Makes sense to all of us! ***Do not make a mandatory law to irradiate foods. That will drive a whole new onslaught of unhealthy people over time since radiation will kill the nutrients in the foods. Please consider the millions of people health that can end up being affected.
Sincerely, Ed Calhoun *** ***I am vehemently and unequivocally opposed to irradiation of produce, or any natural food, being irradiated as a precaution against infection. We have labored for years to find ways to insure good,
clean food, and we need to exercise those means--and develop new ones as well,
without the use of radiation. I am a cancer survivor, and I have an interest not so much different from all Americans, to avoid all toxic materials which could negatively impact the functioning of my body and what natural function and protection it can give me. I do NOT want my food irradiated! That is
too easy an answer, and it is not a good answer. Period. *** I strongly oppose the proposed irradiation of food. As a professor of
biochemistry in the College of Medicine at the Univ. of IL, I am aware of huge
potential problems in formation of free radicals and destruction of essential
fatty acids with the dosages that will be required to kill microorganisms. It
is unwise to ingest such food since cancer and heart disease are likely to
increase. It is better to keep insisting of proper growing of food and
treatment by the consumers of food before consumption. It is unfair to subject
those of us who do take care to toxic substances that we cannot avoid. ***
Irradiation id the first step to malnutrition and disease due to lack of nutrients, it cannot be allowed. *** Radiation is not the answer to the dilemma. At a time when our health issue are running rampant...which is likely related in a million ways to our diet...using a process to make our food even more "un" nutritional is like the final nail in the coffin. *** I strongly oppose FDA 1999-F-2405. *** I am concerned about the future of all who consume irradiated foods. Mutation of dangerous pathogens exist when you mess with mother nature.The human body
isn't designed to cope with un-natural change.Please leave well enough alone.
*** Humans, including the citizens of the United States, consume vegetables for the
best reasons,: they are necessary for good health. Our government should be
protecting us against destruction of beneficial enzymes and other nutrients in
these foods. The risk of contamination from harmful bacteria is so slight
compared to the damage to be done by irradiation that it is nonsense to allow this
harmful procedure. Officials of the FDA should research these harmful effects
thoroughly before subjecting our citizens to further harm.
Investigations with the intent to find the source of harmful bacterial contamination
to lettuce and spinach should be conducted; no matter where the fault for this
lies. If it is from dairy operations waste water, then that problem should be
cleaned up. Don't ignore the source of the problem and instead contaminate
further our nation's vital foodstuffs. *** Please stop food irradiation. It is not safe for humans. There are alternatives to
food irradiation. Please refer to www.organicconsumers.org/irrad/alternatives.cfm
for more information. ***I do not believe irradiation is an acceptable alternative to kill bacteria. If this process is used, all
products using this method should be well labeled. This includes restaurants and food processing companies. *** Please DO NOT allow radiation to be used on any human foods. *** Do not irradiate food.
Irradiating food makes food more dangerous, not safer. Some major concerns with
food irradiation include:
-The formation of free radicals, which can set off chain reactions in the body that
destroy antioxidants, tear apart cell membranes, and make the body more
susceptible to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, liver damage, muscular breakdown
and other serious problems.
-Serious health problems in laboratory testing, including, including premature
death, fatal internal bleeding, cancer, stillbirths and other reproductive problems,
mutations and other genetic damage, organ malfunctions, stunted growth and
vitamin deficiencies.
-The creating mutant forms of dangerous bacteria, like E. coli and Salmonella
-Nutrient loss in foods, including the destruction of vitamins and essential fatty
acids.
-The formation of carcinogenic chemicals, like benzene and toluene.
-While irradiated lettuce and spinach must be labeled in supermarkets, there are
currently no labeling requirements for restaurants serving irradiated produce or
other items. Patrons and clients may consume irradiated lettuce and spinach in
the future without their knowledge, nor consent. *** As an ex physicist, I know something about radiation and its effects. Please do
not let food eaten by humans, or pets, be irradiated. Thank you. ***Please, food should not be irradiated - what's the point of eating it if the
nutrients are compromised or destroyed. Will irridation of vegatables kill the nutrients that cause us to eat the vegetables in
the first place. Why not have the vegetable providers clean up their act so they
don't introduce any bad bacteria into our food in the first place. If we kill
everything, then why eat vegetables at all. ***Please do not do this to our food! We eat veggies and fruit for nutrition. If you
irradiate them, they are worthless. Do not let the need for "safe food" be met by
ruining the food and releasing the industry of responsibilty to do so.
In addition, the nutrients in food are our best defense against disease. Our diets
are weak enough as is. The rate of disease in our county will sky rocket even
further in this county if we further lessen the nutrients we are eating as a culture.
***Irradiated food destroys nutrients in the food. Why do you want to feed this to Americans? Do you hate your fellow countrymen that much? ***Please do not force Americans to unknowingly eat radiated food! This is not only dishonest but
takes away our right to know what we are ingesting. Your job is to protect us. This allows the food growers and processors to not take the responsibility to follow proper procedures because they know they can just radiate it. This is all about money and not about the health of Americans public. Shame on you if you allow this.
James Perry ***How about running a pilot program at the FDA having all employees eat only irradiated and GMO foods for 10 years. While we wait for the results use
alternative means. *** I believe the irradiation of food is dangerous and should not be allowed. Problems with the food supply should be solved in other ways. ***Please, do not allow the irradiation of foods. You are worried about a few incidents of food poisoning of some sort and for this you want to destroy the beneficial enzymes and nutrients that the food possesses. For all of the cancer patients and others who need to be on organic food and absorb as many nutrients as possible to boost their immune system, this is a blow against their chance at recovering health.
By allowing irradiation, you will also be telling the growers that it is not necessary to follow rigid practices in terms of cleanliness in growing, packing and shipping their products because it won't matter that bad bacteria be in the food because it will be irradiated. Stop Irradiation! ***Please don't irradiate our vegetables, or any other food! Irradiation kills bacteria and it also kills the
nutrients in the food that makes it healthy. Please leave it up to the consumers to properly clean their vegetables and let us have natural food to eat, as nature intended. ***Irradiation of foods is toxic and dangerous. It does not make sense. All it does it makes the consumer vulnerable to more dangerous diseases and illness and does nothing to protect him or her. ***As licensed healthcare professional and a nutritionist I strongly protest the irradiation of food (especially vegetables). The ionizing radiation will destroy enzymes and other vital nutrients. Thank you. ***Please do not radiate organic vegetables.
Yours Janet Marcus Concerned Consumer ***Irradiating food makes food more dangerous, not safer...please review alternatives to basically irradiating all the nutrients out of the food and potentially creating mutant free radicals that could prove to be very harmful. Regards, Kevin *** We are now being used as guinea pigs for drug results for side effects and I strongly dislike the idea of irradiation of vegetables and foods because it's hard enough to get the nutrients for building our immune syatem! ***Consumer Comments on Food Irradiation
Please do NOT allow the irradiation of food! This will be extremely dangerous to your immune system! Since it appears that MOST people in this country could care less about what happens to "other" people, maybe the folks at the FDA should eat this stuff for a few years BEFORE you inflict it on the American citizens!
***I stand firmly opposed to the nuking of American produce instead of the better supervision of sanitation at factory farms. With undocumented aliens working in the fields without adequate outhouse facilities, it takes no genius to figure out what happens to American food: the same thing that has given tourists in Mexico Montezuma's Revenge for decades! Please realize our feeling that it is OUTRAGEOUSLY ILLEGAL for you to destroy the integrity of our produce and other healthy foods! Give us back our almonds, strawberries, papayas and hands off our lettuce and spinach, and stop acting as the:
I encourage the USDA to delay the implementation of federal standards until scientifically proven methods for reducing E. coli 0157 contamination have been demonstrated. The California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA) guidelines have already been implicated in two recalls, showing that more research is needed before a set of uniform standards can be required throughout the nation.
Furthermore, federal regulations would discriminate against many farmers who
employ organic farming practices and farmers who promote biodiversity on farms,
as has been the experience with the California guidelines.
The adoption of such rules on a national level would harm the environment, and
more environmentally friendly guidelines must be developed if they are to be
mandated nationally.
I would also like to note that the risk of E. coli 0157 contamination comes
predominantly from ?fresh cut? lettuce and spinach?the pre-washed, pre-cut bags
of greens that have recently become so popular. Therefore, even if the USDA were
to require standardized growing practices, it should apply only to large-scale
suppliers of ?fresh-cut? bags of leafy greens, and exclude whole leafy greens that
have never been implicated in an E. coli 0157 outbreak, such as kale, arugula,
and chard. A one-size-fits-all approach is totally inappropriate in addressing this important health and environmental rulemaking proposal.f federal guidelines were to be enacted, there should be an exemption based on
scale?small-scale farmers should not have to follow the same rules as large-
scale operations that have been responsible for past widespread contamination.
Moreover, exemptions should exist for traditional farmers selling locally and for
farmers with organic certification. Although no fresh food production is risk free, the smaller operations, with hands-on management, pose an infinitely smaller risk to the nation?s citizenry.
Finally, I oppose the proposed Marketing Agreement because it would likely be
costly and overly burdensome to small- and medium-scale growers and could
potentially drive these farmers out of business. As a consumer of leafy greens and
a supporter of environmentally sustainable, local food systems, I urge the USDA
to not support one-size-fits-all requirements that would dictate to farmers how to
grow their vegetables, especially when such guidelines are not evidence based and are written by and for large-scale operations?farms, that based on past experience, might very well need additional regulatory oversight.
Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Karen Giles
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