Sep 17, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that would have required school boards to take formal action and provide detailed information to students and parents before serving any irradiated food in schools.
In a brief veto message published on the governor's office Web site, Schwarzenegger said the bill would impose needless costs on school districts.
"While we always want to keep parents informed of a variety of issues, imposing the additional administrative duties proscribed [sic] in this bill would increase the cost on school districts by an estimated $5.3 million annually," the governor stated. "Since information concerning irradiated food is already available from a variety of sources, these funds would be better spent in the classroom."
The bill, introduced by Assembly Member Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, was prompted by the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) move to offer irradiated ground beef to schools participating in the National School Lunch Program. The bill was officially sponsored by Public Citizen, a group that opposes food irradiation.
The measure would have required school boards to take formal action before allowing the serving of irradiated food. In its final form, the bill also would have required schools to inform students and parents of the purpose of irradiation and its effects on the nutritional value of food, provide them with "objective" and "balanced" scientific information on irradiation, and require that irradiated food items be labeled as such.
Armando Viramontes, a spokesman for Hancock, told CIDRAP News, "The idea was to require informed choices. . . . We felt that parents needed full information when they make choices about what their kids eat." He said many schools now provide menu information on their Web sites, and schools could use the same means to inform students and parents about food irradiation.
The bill passed the California Senate Aug 24 on a 21-16 vote and passed the Assembly the next day by 42-35, according to information on the California Legislature Web site.
Viramontes said an override of the governor's veto is highly unlikely, since no legislation has drawn the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto in California since 1980.
Rather than try for an override now, Hancock will probably join with supporters of another nutrition-related bill that drew a Schwarzenegger veto this year in efforts to change his mind, Viramontes said. "We want to see the governor rethink these bills next year," he said.
As originally introduced last February, the Hancock bill would have barred the California Department of Education from receiving any irradiated ground beef from the USDA for distribution to schools. The original bill also would have required schools serving irradiated food to give parents information about alleged "potential adverse health consequences of irradiated foods" and to provide other menu choices. But those measures were dropped from the final bill.
Irradiation of raw meat and poultry to destroy pathogenic bacteria was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1997, and the USDA followed suit in 1999. Other foods for which irradiation is approved include fruits and vegetables, seeds, herbs and seasonings, eggs, and wheat. The process has been endorsed by numerous health and medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
