[RADFOOD] MORE GOOD NEWS! LA Schools Ban Irradiated MEAT!

[Guest guest]

Monique Mikhail <mmikhail

Wed, 10 Sep 2003 12:09:49 -0400

 

[RADFOOD] MORE GOOD NEWS! LA Schools Ban Irradiated MEAT!

 

*please forward widely*

*apologies for cross-posting*

 

MORE GOOD NEWS! LA SCHOOLS BAN IRRADIATED MEAT!

 

Last night the Los Angeles School Board voted 5-0 to ban irradiated

meat from their schools for 5 years. LA is the second largest school

district in the country and 72% of their students participate in the

lunch program. This is a huge win for schoolchildren and shows that it

is possible to protect your children from irradiated meat consumption at

school! Check out the press release below for more details or go to

this link to see the text of their resolution:

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety/food_irrad/schoollunch/articles.cfm?I

D=10432

 

***Contact me to start work in your own community to ban irradiated

meat from your school district!***

202-546-4996 or respond to this e-mail.

 

 

For Immediate Release:

Sept. 10, 2003

 

Contact: Francesca de la Rosa, cell (213) 446-4522

Tracy Lerman, cell (650) 867-0389

Patty Lovera, (202) 454-5132

 

LA School Board Bans Irradiated Food from School Lunch Program

 

Concerned Parents and Consumer Groups Praise Decision, Hope it Sets

Trend Across Nation

 

LOS ANGELES - In a unanimous 5-0 vote last night to ban irradiated

food from the lunch trays of the more than 700,000 students in the Los

Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the school board resolutely set

a new trend for other school districts across the country. Calling it

" ludicrous " for children to be used as a test group for eating

irradiated food when the long-term health effects are unknown, the

seven-member board passed a resolution that forbids the 677-school

system to buy irradiated meat from the USDA commodities program which

feeds 27 million children annually in the National School Lunch

Program.

 

Parents, teachers, and public interest groups urged the LA school

board to pass the resolution during tonight's meeting, noting that

California is often considered a pioneer in healthy trends. Irradiation

exposes food to a dose of ionizing radiation to kill bacteria; however,

research has shown that it depletes essential nutrients and vitamins

from the food and also produces chemicals that are known or suspected

carcinogens. Last year, LAUSD passed a soda ban, effective beginning in

January 2004, which called for the removal of sodas for sale on school

property. There are 721,000 students in the LA school district, 72% of

whom qualify for the federally subsidized meal program.

 

" I am pleased that the Board of Education has made the decision to not

expose our children to the potential risks of consuming irradiated

foods, " said school board member Julie Korenstein, who introduced the

resolution. " Today we sent an important message: the health of our

children comes first. It has clearly been demonstrated that a child's

health directly affects their ability to learn. Because there are real

questions about the health impacts of consuming irradiated foods we will

not compromise the mission of protecting and educating children by

allowing them to eat irradiated meat. "

 

Yesterday, representatives of the Healthy School Food Coalition and

Public Citizen delivered children's vitamin bottles to each of the seven

school board members, to emphasize that nutrients and vitamins would be

depleted from food that had been treated with irradiation. Since the

National School Lunch Program serves meals to the most vulnerable

children, largely low-income, the two groups deride d the USDA for

allowing the irradiation industry to profit on a questionable technology

at the expense of a healthy diet for LA's schoolchildren.

 

" I'm not comfortable with the idea of my kids eating something that I

don't know anything about, and that might not be safe for young

children, " said Arely Herrera, a parent and member of the Healthy School

Food Coalition. " I don't want my kids to be at risk. "

 

" Today's victory is shared by the many parents and teachers who are

concerned about the health and safety of their children, " said Francesca

de la Rosa of the Healthy School Food Coalition. " Once again,

California is saying no to corporations that seek to make money off our

financially strapped schools and off our children. We don't want to buy

what they're selling and I think today's vote makes that very clear. "

 

The May decision to approve irradiated meat for the school lunch

program was controversial because the USDA sided with industry over

parental concerns. More than 400 comments from Californians were

submitted during the open comment period earlier this year. Of the

thousands of comments in total, 93% opposed the proposal to include

irradiated meat in children's lunches.

 

" The USDA ignored us then, but they can't ignore us now, " said Tracy

Lerman, an organizer for the safe lunch campaign at Public Citizen's

Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. " Parents don't want to

expose their children to a questionable technology that is unnecessary

and only perpetuates the filthy conditions in meat plants that cause

food poisoning in the first place. "

 

********************

If you would like to be removed from the radfood list, send an email to

listserv with the words " radfood " in the

message.

 

If you would like to be added to the radfood list, send an email to

listserv with the words " radfood " in the

message.

 

To learn more about food irradiation, visit our website at

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/

 

Questions about the radfood list can be directed to

RADFOOD-request

-Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program