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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 1989)
_Editorial r l 1 Toxic food imports leave a nasty taste Here's a little food for thought: You may want to closely examine that apple before you eat it Or that pasta salad. Or that filet of fish Chances are it's the first and last time the food has been through any sort o! inspection whatsoever The Food and Drug Administration, which is re sponsible for seeing to it that what we eat is edible, has progressively gotten behind in the area of imported food inspection. According to a report by the House F.nergy and Commerce Committee, out of one million food shipments imported to this country in 1HR7. the FDA tested only 2 percent tor bacteria and other impu rities Of this 2 percent, an alarming -1(1 percent did not meet FDA standards. While i ongressional hearings began lost week to address the already overwhelming problem, solutions will come a little too late tor victims of the inadequate inspection system. 77je !Will Strri't Journal last week reported that 22 Mississippi State University students were poisoned last February after eating mushroom omelets in the school cafeteria. The tainted mush rooms. imported from China, eventually caused the sickness of lot) people in three states before the FDA ordered a recall of the c aimed item. There is little wonder why hacteria-laden food is able to pass inspection at our borders. The fact is, some ports of entry don’t even have inspection programs Until two weeks ago, the FDA had never surveyed what was coming across the Canada-North Dakota bor der in Pembina, N.D.. even though the port is the bus iest in the state In Nogales. Ariz., one pesticide inspector struggles to inspect 7(H) trucks of produce per day coming from Mexico. In contrast, there are 85 IJ.S Agriculture De partment officials posted at Nogales, but they inspect ing produce for blemishes and size, not for poisons. Aren't our priorities a bit twisted here? It seems that most rational people would rather eat a bruised apple than one that will bring about intense physical harm It's slightly comforting that Congress is address ing the issue, but the statistics that are emerging from the investigation are quite frightening Anyone prone to paranoia about food contamination may want to ig nore the facts in this situation Fven if poisoned food is discovered during an in spection. there is a good < banco it will gel across the border anvvvay It seems that some importers blatantK ignore rejection In the FDA and simply ship their product <n ross at another port, one that probably won't look twit e at the food A recent FDA survey found that Americans end up eating 12 percent of food that hail been re jet tod at some point. Is it hint htime yet? ...50 IPEPE APE mo significant SIDE EFFECTS TOTWS DRUG? MOME Ujwtpboevep. DEPENDWG, OF uOOfi5E. ON uJMAT <£U MEAN 9Y 'SlGMiFlCAMT. Ifcvrr imkA rvQCOM'? KKJTWIM6. ^WUUM . ^ S|0£ 1 EVFE£TS. \ Hurricane caught government sleeping Hurricane Hugo is now nothing more than a memor\. hut the destruc lion it left be hind will he felt for years to < nine. When the burnt ane shimmed into the South Carolina coast early hist week, it was tailed the most destructive storm in a quar ter t entury It lived up to its hilling, killing an as yet undetermined amount of people, anti lining anywhere from Si billion to $.) billion in damage. Now coast residents of North and South Carolina are picking up the pieces of their lives and trying to move on Conservative estimates sav more than a quarter of a mil lion people are now unemployed bet ause of Hugo. Most will he getting their jobs hack when the businesses they worked for re open Hut some, like commercial fishermen, have no business to go hat k to Hurricane Hugo |ust reaffirmed that man is no matt h for the most destrut live fort es of nature Hut while we cannot beat a storm, we tan at least be prepared for it The one gl int tact left over from the hurrit ane is peo ple were not as ready toi it as the\ could have been The hurricane leveled St Croix an is lantl m the I S Virgin Islands. tla\s before it hit the Atlantii seaboard booting and rob beries betaine popular pastimes of the is land's inhabitants, unhiding local police fort es detailed to stop it Troops were finally dispatched to end the looting, but for a few days, anarchy reigned This was not only avoidable, it was inexcusable. rile federal rear lion, both in South (laro lina and in tin* V irgin Islands, was pitifully slow Victims of disasters need immediate help, not the half-hearted, piecemeal sup port the government has provided. Cieorge Hush has said many times his ad ministration would "watch over" the envi ronment first came the l'aide/, incident, where millions ol gallons of oil spilled from the tanker onto Alaska's coastline, and now this Both times, the Bush administration was i aught flat-footed and unaware. There are a lot of comparisons between Hugo and the Yuhir/.. Both proved to he lar more destructive than originally thought, and both t mild have been handled better Bush's personal $1,000 pledge to the liurrii ane victims was a ni< e tom h of public relalions i onceived sentimentality, hut will do little to (lean up South Carolina, let alone rebuild it Hi onoinii relief will need to he measured in the billions, not thousands, to do am good I lurrw anes are part ol life to South Caro lina's ( iti/eus The sad l<K t is some of the damage could have been avoided. Experts are saying it will take a decade to shrug oft the effects of the storm \\ e are left with the inescapable < one In sion th.it the government should have been better prepared. Letters Snowstorm Regardless ot thr suli|i'i I at hand. Hr rt Trvha stums to limit; his tint tit* agenda <it ideas with him Irving to respond to him is .1 hit liki- lr\ mg to tight .1 snowstorm w ith .1 shovel Boil ing duw 11 Ins latest pin t* ot writing [OI)h‘. Sept -f>| has 1 .nnviin i'll im* ot two things Insi that hi* believes lit* is right, anti si'iunii. that hit believes people he agrees w 1111 are right To explain mv vim- ot tin* term "human" in referring to tire tetns 1 repent a portion o) my essay that Tryba refers to In ()< loin a 1*H>7 the lirst Inter national (lonfereure on Abor tion brought together respet ted authorities from around the world in the fields ol meiln me law, ethir s and the sor ial st i enr ex Tin* lirst major ipiestion this mm nl.ir group nl experts con Melon'll W .IS "when does lltl ni.111 lih* beginThe\ i on i IiiiIimI lh.it they "i oiild 11 in I no point in time bet ween the union ol sperm .mil egg and the birth ot the infunl at which point we could s.n that this was not a human life "The changes occurring he tween implant, a six-weeks eni hryo. a six-months fetus, a one week old i hild or a mature adult are merely stages of de velopment and maturation ” II we .ire determined to hold onto views. v.ilucs or lie Inn mrs that ignore or ilem plain re.ili t\. we ilo not cause that realil\ to slop being true Ue merely set ourselves at odds with it and in so doing, we sacrifice our integrity \\ ilhain Moore Stall musii Theology lor nciirlv 1.200 years theol ogy was called "Queen of Si i ences " l liis description sun l^esls the application ol earh wit Theologs is a word formed Irom the ('.reek words "theos" (Cod) and "logos" (word) Hence theolog\ is the study of the "word ot God" or "holy si ripture The word "Si i ence" is from the Gatin word of "si ientia" (knowledge) I'he Quern is the r onsort ol the king kind’s represent puss er .mil wealth Thus theolo gians .ire the consorts ol those who 'wield power ami wealth They exploit their kuovsl edge" and skills tor their own benefit as well as the benefit ol the masters ol powers and wealth (lies serve I’he theist concept (aid" is <i human fictional construe lion "(Ind" is no more real than "Superman" or "Hat man" anil similarly, ai < om modales infantile imagination Theology is an art. not a si i •nice. The power theist reli gions sin i ended in foisting on masses ot ignorant people sug gests theologians’ intellectual .mil social value lies some where between that of an e\ pert on Shakespeare and a used (ar lot’s fastest talking sales man (;hina ai.hievcd a high i i\ ili /atinn and its peoph* lived mor <i 11\ ,iml ethically tor _’.TiiM) years under athcistii Confu ( iainsin I'lie (ioldeu Rule Do not unto others that whit h you would not have them do unto you”, advocated by Con tin ins is the foundation tor peaceful, harmonious society (Ionfu< ius said: "Never have anything to do with those who pretend to have dealings with the supernatural It you allow supernaturalisni to get a loot hold in your country the result will be .1 dreadful calamity Bert Try ha Kugene _Letters Policy The Kmer.dd will attempt to print all letters con taining comments on topics ot interest to the t hiiver sitv community. Comments must be fadualh act u rale and retrain from personal attacks on the ( Intruder of others