To the Editor:
I was shocked to see today’s editorial supporting the The FDA’s approval of the use of radiation on spinach and iceberg lettuce. What I would like to see instead is the New York Times supporting a return to sustainable agriculture methods, which would eliminate any need to even consider the irradiation of foods. Perhaps if we no longer had large factory farms where animal waste is collected in huge piles that taint ground water for miles around, there would be no pathogens to poison the vegetables grown on neighboring farms. The solution should never be a Band-Aid but instead, getting to the root of the problem and resolving it.
And while we’re on the subject, the treatment of the animals who reside on such factory farms is barbaric. I’m not advocating vegetarianism but the animals that provide their flesh for our food supply need to be treated humanely and raised in the way that Mother Nature intended – outdoors in sunshine and fields of grass, not confined in small spaces, lying in their own feces, and eating corn which they cannot digest properly causing them distress and serious illness. Our country has gone woefully astray in its food policies and that’s what the most important newspaper in the world needs to be saying.
Filed under: Letters | Tagged: FDA, Sustainable Farming
