Richard Rhodes

Richard Rhodes is an author whose works include Deadly Feasts: Tracking the Secrets of a Terrifying New Plague and The Making of the Atomic Bomb. In the following viewpoint, he argues that irradiation— the bombarding of food with gamma rays to kill disease agents such as bacteria and fungi—is a potent technological solution to the problem of food-borne illnesses. He contends that irradiation, for instance, could have prevented the recall and subsequent destruction of 25 million pounds of ground meat produced by a processing plant owned by Hudson Foods in August 1997 after samples were found to be contaminated with dangerous bacteria. Rhodes asserts that irrational public fears of radiation and the opposition of some environmental groups have prevented food processors from utilizing this technology, thereby causing needless suffering and death from preventable food-borne diseases...