The Nov. 24 commentary by pro-irradiation advocate Michael Osterholm ignores a number of unresolved health concerns with respect to irradiating food (e.g. possible vitamin depletion, threats to public safety from introducing additional radiation sources into communities, etc.). More important, Osterholm focuses almost exclusively on trying to sanitize feces-contaminated meat at the tail-end, rather than on finding healthier ways to raise animals for food in the first place. As they say, garbage in equals garbage out. The nation urgently needs a transition to healthier food systems. Our children are getting more obese. An estimated 70 percent of all chicken is produced using arsenic added to feed as a meat pigmenter and growth promoter. Much of American meat is from animals given routine antibiotics in feed; meat produced this way is more likely to carry drug-resistant superbugs. We can be smarter about producing healthier food -- all the way from the farm to our forks. DAVID WALLINGA, M.D., MINNEAPOLIS; DIRECTOR, FOOD AND HEALTH PROGRAM AT THE INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURE AND TRADE POLICY IATP
