irradiated meat

Question
What is the best way to find out if the organic meats and vegetables at a
healthfood store hasn't been irradiated? You stated that semi organic stores
might be okay. Well what about stores that sell almost all organic? I tried asking
the people at my organic store if the beef was irradiated and they were not too
sure. I thought foods being organic meant that they are not allowed to undergo
irradiation?

Answer
Well, the organic-consumer websites I checked seemed to state that US organic laws were lax enough so as to allow irradiation, if the producer wanted it. On the other hand, here's a relevant paragraph re US-irradiation practices which gives an opposite, more reassuring view:-

"A distinctive logo has been developed for use on food packaging, in order to identify the product as irradiated. This symbol is called the "radura" and is used internationally to mean that the food in the package has been irradiated. A written description may also be present, such as "Irradiated to destroy harmful microbes". It is not required to label a food if a minor ingredient of the food, such as a spice, has been irradiated itself."

My position has generally been to avoid the larger supermarkets, unless I'm on holiday abroad etc..If one buys the vast majority of foodstuffs directly from organic farmers, it becomes much easier to find out exactly what the animals are fed on etc, as, in most cases, you'll be dealing directly with the farmer or his family, whether you're ordering a delivery from the farm by phone, or attending a local farmers' market, or going to the farm itself(indeed there are  a number of Primal-Dieters wh've reported that they regularly visit the farms they buy from, to see how the animals are raised). When you buy from supermarkets, then the food will have reached you via several different suppliers, so, naturally, few, if any, at the health-food-store will have a clue as to how high-quality the food is.Plus, I've found that the smaller the producer, the higher the quality of the food - larger producers/agricombines tend to favour mass-production/quantity over quality, for reasons of profit.

All that said, if one doesn't have another alternative, then a strongly organic-oriented health-food-store is certainly better than the usual modern (mostly nonorganic)supermarket.

RPG

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