Global Week of Action Against Food Irradiation

GLOBAL WEEK OF ACTION AGAINST FOOD IRRADIATION

November 23 - 29, 2003

Add your organization to the statement below for the International

Day To Stop Food Irradiation on Nov 23.

Please send the name of your organization and your organization's representative to Andrianna at anatsoulas@citizen.orgby Nov 20, 2003.

Statement Against Food Irradiation
We, the undersigned, dedicate the week of November 23-29 to Global Week Of Action Against Food Irradiation. People from all continents unite to declare the world must be safe from the questionable and unnecessary technologies of food irradiation.

Food irradiation is another tool to increase the corporate control and monopoly of the world's food supply, thus exacerbating the already unsustainable global food and agriculture trading system that prioritizes profits over people.

Irradiation encourages monoculture and the further expansion of cash crops at the expense of a country's food security, biodiversity and the livelihoods of small farmers and other small producers. Food irradiation at the same time puts at risk the health and safety of unsuspecting consumers. It sacrifices ecological sustainability by encouraging mass production that is dependent on increased chemical pesticide use.

Radioactive waste used in irradiation facilities is transported long distances, increasing the risk of radioactive accidents that would damage the local ecosystem and threaten public health. Irradiation facilities have a record of leaks and accidents that threaten localecosystems and water supplies.
Irradiation destroys vitamins-up to 90% of vitamin A in chicken, 86% ofvitamin B in oats and 70% of vitamin C in fruit juice. As shelf lifeincreases, more nutrients are lost. Irradiation produces new compoundsin food that have been linked to cancer development and genetic damage.

Fifty years of research have shown serious health problems in labanimals that ate irradiated foods, including premature death, mutations,nutritional deficiencies, reproductive problems, fatal internal bleeding, suppressed immune systems and stunted growth. Irradiation facilities that function with radioactive cesium-137 or cobalt-60 threaten workers and communities with radioactive leaks and accidents. Because irradiation extends shelf life; multinational food corporations are looking at the Global South to produce foods for irradiation where labor is cheap; farmers' rights are not protected; government officials are easily bought; and, environmental standards too weak.

In no time, areas devoted to staple food crops would further decrease as corporations try to "capitalize" on the potential of cash crops for the food irradiation market. By using irradiation to mask "barriers to trade," such as invasive insects and unsanitary food production,multinational food corporations can reap massive profits by producing cheaply these hazardous and unhealthy products in the global south and selling them at high prices in consuming nations. The labor and the resources of the Global South are shipped overseas without just compensation. The people will not be reimbursed for the destruction of their environment and their low standard of living caused by neo-liberal trade agreements.

We, the undersigned organizations, demand the following:

We demand national legislation to be passed, banning food irradiation.

We demand that no more food irradiation facilities be constructed around the world.

We demand that food be produced sustainably with diverse methods that conserve the environment, protect the waterways and support a diverse ecosystem.

For more info, visit www.noglobalirradiation.org