What Is Food Irradiation?

Food Irradiation is the process of giving food massive doses of radiation to kill microbes, and protect it from the environment, kind of like pesticides. They use ionizing radiation, which is the same found in X-rays, except exponentially more.

Negative Health Effects Of Food Irradiation-

1. Loss of nutrients

2. Changes the chemical composition of the food

3. Radiolytic by-products are often formed in irradiated food. Very few of these chemicals have been adequately studied for toxicity.

4. Irradiation can cause mutations in bacteria and viruses leading to potentially resistant strains.

5. Not enough to kill viruses. It also has the potential for mutating bacteria to make them more harmful.

Pesticides and GMOs

The way pesticides effect the environment depends on four factors: Persistence, mobility, non targeted toxicity, and volume of use. Persistence is how long it’s in the environment, mobility is its ability to move to other areas. non targeted toxicity is how toxic it is to organisms other than the pest. Volume is how much of it was used. Pesticides can become volatile and cross contaminate other farms. There is some evidence that GMOs are harmful, but not a lot. what we do know with out a shadow of a doubt that what ever is sprayed on them is. Glyphosate is commonly sprayed on them.

Alternatives-

Regenerative agriculture-

Regenerative agriculture is the process of restoring the environment through agriculture. The soil has the ability to store green house gases and fight climate change. The problem is that the soil has been destroyed through our current practices. So much so that data shows we on have about 60 harvests left if we do nothing. With the soil being decimated, the green houses gasses go up because there is not as much to sequester carbon. Also, when everything is in balance, the food is properly able to defend itself from the environment without radiation.

Organic-

In the world full of environmental stressors, it would be best to avoid them as much as we can, and stay biologically resilient. Eating organic will help diminish the overall toxic load. Not all companies that are labeled organic do things correctly, but it’s a step in the right direction. Biodynamic certification is the highest standard for organic and regenerative agriculture. Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides have been proven to be neurogenic, or estrogenic. This means that it disrupts the nervous system, or the endocrine system. It messes with the pests reproduction via hormones. Also, these are designed to kill very small things, this includes our microbiome. We are made up of these tiny organisms, and pesticides have a profound impact on them.