Text 5666, 69 rader
Skriven 2008-04-19 19:08:00 av JOAN MACDIARMID (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JIM WELLER
Ärende: Re: irraiated Foods 1
=============================
 Hi, Jim,

 JW> Don't take this personally. The article is getting flack, not you.

 Actually, I could hear Fred snickering as he posted
 that, knowing he would be stirring things up and
 starting some interesting arguments!
 FAB> the American Chemical Society -- a pro-chemical group that
 FAB> represents the interests of industrial chemical manufacturers.

 JW> That's simply not true. The American Chemical Society is the
 JW> certifying body for chemists, not an industrial lobbying group. One
 JW> is not a Professional Chemist merely by having a B.Sc. in chemistry
 JW> or the word "chemist" in your job title but by passing the ACS board
 JW> exams that test knowledge in the field. My dad took great pride in
 JW> his ACS membership as it gave him professional recognition and
 JW> status without a degree (his formal studies were interrupted by
 JW> WWII). He got certification after years of on the job training and
 JW> self study. (He also took pride in the fact that not every
 JW> university graduate got certified on the first attempt.) They also
 JW> rate and rank universities. Their monthly journal publishes a lot of
 JW> research.

 I'm not sure they still offer board examinations.
 But they did have a set of required chemistry
 courses at the bachelors level to get an "ACS-
 approved" degree in chemistry. You could get a
 Bachelors in Chemistry at U. of Alabama, or you
 could get a Bachelors in Chemistry (ACS-approved).
 I went for the latter, just in case, though it
 didn't require me to take any courses I wouldn't
 have wanted for the major anyway.

 JW> And vegetables, fruits and their juices are in fact no longer "living"
 JW> things the minute they're harvested or processed into juice, despite
 JW> his choice of words.

 Well....juices for sure! But you can harvest beans,
 dry them out, wait till next year, plant them, and
 they will grow into bean plants. They were still
 alive, just dormant. You can grow a sweet potato
 vine from an end of a sweet potato from the produce
 section of the grocery store. Harvested potatoes
 are way too alive and trying hard to grow sprouts
 out of the eyes! And almost all fruits have seeds
 that are alive, though the fruit's flesh might not
 be technically alive. Though even then, the fruit
 might ripen well after picking, like my tomatoes
 I shelf-ripen after picking them green before the
 first frost. So they really are sort of alive, in
 most cases. It would be interesting to see if one
 could take seeds from an irradiated (per USDA
 suggestions) winter squash and plant them to get
 a nice vine with more of the excellent squash?

 Of course, it would be silly to irradiate a winter
 squash, which will either be peeled for steaming
 or likely baked in the shell, which will not be
 eaten. Maybe an interesting capsicum might be a
 better example. I have never tried to save a seed
 from a pepper to plant later; I don't know if the
 seeds in peppers as we eat them are mature enough
 to grow if planted.

 Joan MacDiarmid

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