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by

Jackie Hunt Christensen, Co-Director of IATPs Food and Health Program

The recent recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences to reduce our exposure to dioxin from our food. It's too bad the Academy's solutions focused mostly at the bottom of the dioxin food chain, rather than turning off the dioxin "tap" at its source. Dioxin is considered one of the most toxic compounds ever produced.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that more than 95 percent of our dioxin exposure comes through what we eat. Recommendations have included making numerous government agencies involved in various aspects of dioxin regulation coordinate better on risk assessment, reducing animal forage contamination, stop feeding animals back to animals and reducing dioxin intake through food for girls and young women. These do not address the central problem: the industries that produce dioxin in the first place.