Melamine for dinner...

[astra_nomer]

...plates is fine. But not so much in the food itself.

"FDA scientists" have decided that chickens fed melamine-tainted feed are fine for human consumption. As as scientist, I want to believe them. If they say that amounts of melamine detected in chickens were well below health safety limits, I'll take their word for it.

But my gut reaction is to be really, really skeptical, and seriously consider buying only organic chicken and other meat. Because really, scientists are only human and are therefore prone to error. For instance, I'm often skeptical of press releases regarding astronomy, because I often know the assumptions they make to justify their claims. Then again, maybe I'm falling for the "can't trust scientists" rhetoric that the Bush administration has been so good at spreading. That's a seriously scary thought.

My brain and my gut are at war with each other. What would you do? Would you eat chicken that had eaten melamine-tainted food (assuming you're not vegetarian, of course)?

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to find a local source for chicken. This might get me to do so. But probably not.
It's yet another reminder that our food supply is a mess, but I suspect that the melamine won't be in the food for long, and

I don't view it as a conflict between brain and gut, honestly.

What the FDA means: "eating animals that have eaten melamine-tainted feed won't kill you or make you really sick anytime soon."

That still doesn't mean:
"We're sure that nothing bad will ever happen to you if you spike your body with some melamine for a while." There's no way it could mean that.

So my gut reaction to the food supply being fucked with and my brain's reaction to trust scientific results are aligned if you ask me.

Side rant -- perish the thought we should do something about bacteria contamination of food, which kills a lot of people (probably more than the number of pets that died from the melamine contamination.)

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are a lot of issues about the safety of our food supply that I choose to ignore because it's convenient. I've been poking around to see if there are farmers' markets in my area that have organic meats. Haven't turned up a whole lot yet.

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

Actually, I worry a lot more about your side rant than most of the other crap they tell us about food. I actually consider random food poisoning much more likely to kill me than most of the other things in what I eat.

On the other hand, I tried shopping organic and watched the grocery bill go from $60 to $110. So we may just have to stick with the farm share for now...