550 million eggs recalled for possible [sic] salmonella contamination will be destroyed.  150 [fixed 24/VII/10] million Pakistanis are sitting under tarpaulins in the mud with no food. Eggs are halal. Irradiation, FDA approved since 2000, would make them perfectly safe to eat and storable without refrigeration.
Just sayin’…
Author: Michael O'Hare
Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, Michael O'Hare was raised in New York City and trained at Harvard as an architect and structural engineer. Diverted from an honest career designing buildings by the offer of a job in which he could think about anything he wanted to and spend his time with very smart and curious young people, he fell among economists and such like, and continues to benefit from their generosity with on-the-job social science training. He has followed the process and principles of design into "nonphysical environments" such as production processes in organizations, regulation, and information management and published a variety of research in environmental policy, government policy towards the arts, and management, with special interests in energy, facility siting, information and perceptions in public choice and work environments, and policy design. His current research is focused on transportation biofuels and their effects on global land use, food security, and international trade; regulatory policy in the face of scientific uncertainty; and, after a three-decade hiatus, on NIMBY conflicts afflicting high speed rail right-of-way and nuclear waste disposal sites. He is also a regular writer on pedagogy, especially teaching in professional education, and co-edited the "Curriculum and Case Notes" section of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Between faculty appointments at the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, he was director of policy analysis at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. He has had visiting appointments at Università Bocconi in Milan and the National University of Singapore and teaches regularly in the Goldman School's executive (mid-career) programs. At GSPP, O'Hare has taught a studio course in Program and Policy Design, Arts and Cultural Policy, Public Management, the pedagogy course for graduate student instructors, Quantitative Methods, Environmental Policy, and the introduction to public policy for its undergraduate minor, which he supervises. Generally, he considers himself the school's resident expert in any subject in which there is no such thing as real expertise (a recent project concerned the governance and design of California county fairs), but is secure in the distinction of being the only faculty member with a metal lathe in his basement and a 4×5 Ebony view camera. At the moment, he would rather be making something with his hands than writing this blurb. View all posts by Michael O'Hare
well that's a nice message to send. Take these previously Salmonella-tainted eggs, and you're welcome??
Not good.
When I was young, I was taught to assume that *all* eggs were salmonella-infected; you were safe if you hard-boiled or fried them, but eating caesar salad, cookie dough (or, say, soft-boiling incautiously) was taking your life in your hands. I was surprised to learn that that assumption has changed.
Compare and contrast:
"Take these previously Salmonella-tainted eggs, and you’re welcome"
with
"Irradiation, FDA approved since 2000, would make [the recalled eggs] perfectly safe to eat "
Similar statements, or different statements? We report, you decide.
Yah shure.
—————
Silly objections just to object notwithstanding, I find it hard to believe no one else has thought of this and we aren't moving in this direction.
Are you trying for the Megan McArdle "I was only off by a factor of ten" award? (150 million Pakistanis under tarpaulins?)
No-one really knows what this number is, but the Guardian says I'm too low by 25%
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/…
or would have been if I could type properly; thanks. Fixed.
Compare and contrast:
“Take these previously Salmonella-tainted eggs, and you’re welcome”
with
“Irradiation, FDA approved since 2000, would make [the recalled eggs] perfectly safe to eat ”
Similar statements, or different statements? We report, you decide.
=================
I was under the impression that Americans, apparently a whole lot more reasonable than Europeans when it came to GMO food, were implacably opposed to irradiated food. Is this not the case? Or is it the case that plenty of US food is being irradiated, just silently (and if so why not eggs)?
The general point is surely that it's a hard act to pull off saying "Sure, sure irradiated food is safe — that's why WE eat none of the stuff. But feel free to show us how foolish we are (and, by the way, would you mind if our medical scientists swing by in a year to test and make sure that the food had no side effects)".
Maynard Handley:
It's as safe as most things we eat, and available in much of the U.S. But no, not popular.
Umm…I'm willing to bet that people who are literally starving with not much in the way of alternative food sources would be more than happy to try irradiated eggs. I really don't see what the controversy would be.
@BM,
Salmonella isn't killed by frying eggs unless you fry them hard. Over easy (the way most people like their eggs fried) won't get the job done, nor will soft scrambling and poaching.
I for one would welcome irradiated eggs, because it would make it much easier and safer to make mayonnaise.
Michael, on what month did you fix the 150/15 thing? 🙂
Or pay Pakistan the true cost of running a war in their back yard. Just sayin…
We're big on sending our trash to other countries so why not these tainted eggs eh?
Heaven forbid this sort of thing is prevented, how could that happen when we have that FDA's touted safety net
Irradiation, now salad greens & spinach is safe for us all, zap zap… don't worry it's low ppm.
If it's not eggs tainted, its nuts, if not nuts, it's strawberries, we are clearly clueless on the disgusting practices that take
place behind closed doors, but it's okay we'll just irradiate it all.
(CNN) — Fresh eggs being produced by farms at the heart of a massive recall are making their way to consumers via facilities that pasteurize the eggs, process them and rid them of any possible salmonella.
"The fresh eggs from the recalled firms are being diverted to USDA-approved facilities for pasteurization," Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Patricia El-Hinnawy said Wednesday.
[…]
Fresh eggs from recall farms being pasteurized, processed