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Schools may serve irradiated ground beef
As of January, school cafeterias will have the option of serving irradiated ground beef. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last month that the National School Lunch Program, which buys food and donates it to schools, will start distributing irradiated meat during the next school year.
The USDA didn't have much choice: The federal farm bill passed last year by Congress barred the department from prohibiting approved food-safety technologies such as irradiation. The USDA first gave the green light in 1997 to meat and poultry irradiation, a process by which meat is exposed to radiant energy such as gamma rays or electron beams in order to kill bacteria.
School districts will decide individually whether to order and serve the meat and how to notify parents and children about the options, USDA undersecretary Eric Bost said in a press release. While the USDA says studies show irradiation is safe, consumer groups argue that not enough evidence is available to be sure. "School cafeterias are not the place to begin large-scale consumption of irradiated food," says Arthur Jaeger of the Consumer Federation of America.
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan showed his whimsical side last week, telling a class of inner-city students it's all right to be wrong. "It's OK to make mistakes but it's not OK not to try," Mr. Greenspan told a rapt young audience of about two dozen in one of the city's tougher areas, about four miles from the gleaming dome of the nation's Capitol.
Greenspan and Richmond Federal Reserve President Alfred Broaddus visited Philip Sousa Middle School as part of a joint effort with the nonprofit group Operation Hope to expand education about banking, credit, and the use of money.
He also fielded some pointed questions about interest rates and tax cuts. Student Sean Davis asked slyly whether "the next time you're on TV, is the interest rate going to be higher or lower?" Amid laughter, Greenspan smiled and answered "Yes."
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