Sanet Post, Bob MacGregor
Irradiation/technology evaluation -Reply
January 22, 1997

Steve Verhey asked:

"3. How would the technology affect the two ends of the food supply/consumption chain that interest us most in sustainable agriculture: the producer and the consumer (as individuals, not as corporations)?" and concluded: "irradiation fails question 3"

I think this is too quick a conclusion. First, if (as Dan pointed out) a large portion of the human population is going to continue to be jammed into cities, transportation of foodstuffs is essential. In addition, there will be opportunities/need for international movement of agricultural commodities into the foreseeable future. Irradiation offers a possible tool for:

a. preserving nutritional quality of food during shipping and storage to areas of need/demand.

b. expanding markets to areas which ban imports due to phytosanitary restrictions (eg, "we won't import your product because it might be infested with some pathogen or bug that is endemic where you produce the product")

c. strengthen the position of the middlemen (shippers, processors, brokers, etc.)

The focus, so far, has been on questions about adverse impacts on food quality/safety and on the evils of the middlemen. Certainly, the first issue requires careful, trustworthy research. My understanding is that some foods (and other ag. products) have proven unsuitable for irradiation treatment. I don't really know what to say about the second issue. I admit to some concern about concentration of power in so few, gigantic, international food handlers/processors. However, I haven't yet concluded that this is an unmitigated evil...

Getting back to the issue of concentration of people in cities (and changing the topic somewhat); I am curious if anyone has information of the human "carrying capacity" of earth. This would have to be stated in terms excluding reliance on fossil fuels (after all, we are talking "sustainability" here). I am sure that these mega-cities are unsustainable in this context -- there would be no way to supply them with even the barest necessities of life. However, what type and quality of life would we all have with the billions of urbanites that are forecast for the next century, distributed across the countryside?

BOB