In the spirit of M's previous post--albeit a few hours early--here's an issue I'm very interested in that hasn't been addressed to a degree of my liking in the current political campaigns: the environment, in general, and the safety of my home and family, specifically.
My best friend is a government employee in the environmental and public health field, so perhaps I'm lucky to have a bit more information a bit earlier than the average American. But several stories have recently made it into mainstream media that have been scaring the crap out of me for a while.
First, the toy recalls got my attention. Toxins in my daughter's toys don't appeal to me, obviously. But then, I did more reading. What about the chemicals in plastics--like baby bottles--that can screw up our hormones? (Here's a February 4 Newsweek article about household toxins by Anne Underwood.)
And what about the food we eat? The pet food recall last April started getting me worried once again about our consideration of our animal friends. (I am a vegetarian and try to use household and personal products that haven't been animal tested but, let me tell you, they're expensive and often difficult to find!) Now the beef recall--the largest in US history--makes me cringe both in terms of animal cruelty and food safety. The G-H household eats only organic, free-range meat and dairy at home, but who knows what we're eating in restaurants. (We G-H's love our takeout!) And the videos of those poor, poor cows being kicked makes me cringe way more than the c-word.
This is a systemic problem. And I know that each candidate gives lip service to environmental issues, which these are, in a broad sense. And they give a lot more than that to the issue of health care. But what about public health? Will it take another Love Canal to get this issue back into the forefront, where it obviously needs to be?
1 comment:
I second this issue. Like you and Solon, we try to buy as many organic food items as possible (which is damn hard on a grad student's and adjunct instructor's income). We buy almost all organic produce and organic dairy products. We're eating a lot more veggie meals lately, but when free-range, hormone & antibiotic free chicken goes on sale at our local supermarket, I stock up. We've recently switched to chemical free household cleaners, and with all the information on phalates in grooming products, especially those for children, we've started purchasing organic bath products for Wild Man. Our dream is to one day build a green house, but that is a long way off.
I too would like to see the candidates address this issue. How do we avoid massive beef recalls like this? And what about the huge spinach scare a few years ago?
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