Hardly untouched and unblemished
Those of you who might not want to think that we are no less a part of earthly life than are rodents and roaches, mites and maggots, as well as those of you who might want to go on believing that somehow we stand apart, pure and good, God’s highest handiwork, might consider the following excerpt from today’s op ed pages of the NYTimes, which if nothing else certainly makes us a part of it all, hardly remaining untouched and unblemished in our gated human communities.
“In its (falsely) reassuringly subtitled booklet “The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans,” the F.D.A.’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition establishes acceptable levels of such “defects” for a range of foods products, from allspice to peanut butter.
“Among the booklet’s list of allowable defects are “insect filth,” “rodent filth” (both hair and excreta pellets), “mold,” “insects,” “mammalian excreta,” “rot,” “insects and larvae” (which is to say, maggots), “insects and mites,” “insects and insect eggs,” “drosophila fly,” “sand and grit,” “parasites,” “mildew” and “foreign matter” (which includes “objectionable” items like “sticks, stones, burlap bagging, cigarette butts, etc.”).”
(E.J.Levy, Op-ED conributor, NYTimes, 2/13/2009)
