Farm advocates point out that irradiation masks the wretched conditions on factory farms and in processing plants that create food contamination in the first place. These practices put subsistence and family farmers out of work both here and abroad and are devastating to the fragile economies and environment of the third world. Irradiation has made it into the food system because the industry has powerful friends in government that protect their interests. Building and operating irradiation facilities is also big business. The fact is, we live in a microbial world.
Contamination can occurs at any point between the farm and the fork.
The answer to food contamination will be found not by treating the symptoms, but by addressing the root causes. Read last month's article on Food Safety Claire Hope Cummings produces and hosts a weekly radio show on food and farming. She is a writer, a lawyer and is active in the growing new food movement that is working to reinvigorate local food systems and support sustainable, organic family farms. Claire enjoys growing food in her large organic garden and does native plant restoration on her land in Marin County, California. She is the author of two guides to agricultural genetic engineering, has published numerous articles on food, and is a popular public speaker.