(Fwd) The Grinch that stole Christmas dinner

["Anita Davies" <adavies@louisberger.com>]

The Grinch that stole Christmas dinner 

Copyright ) 1997 Nando.net
Copyright ) 1997 Scripps Howard 

LONDON (December 24, 1997 00:48 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- If 
the mere thought of all that cholesterol to come is clogging your 
arteries, there is yet more to fear. Environmentalists say that in 
Britain, the turkey is toxic, the sprouts are downright sinister and 
the gravy could send you to an early grave.

With exquisite timing, Friends of the Earth appear like specters at the
feast. They point out that the parsnip soup is potentially poisonous: 
Seven samples out of eight in 1995 contained organophosphate 
residues.

The turkey is likely to have been reared with four antibiotic feed
additives. The boiled or roast potatoes may contain fungicide, 
weedkiller or insecticide (23 percent of samples in 1996 contained 
more than one of those things).

In 1994 the British Ministry of Agriculture advised people to peel carrots
because of organophosphate residues in the skin. Half of the sprouts 
tested in 1995 contained fungicides.

Skip the main course and go straight to the pudding? In 1996, 12 pesticide
residues were found in 13 samples of mixed fruit, including four kinds of
organophosphate. The butter in the brandy butter could contain lindane,
and the nuts may have been fumigated with ozone-destroying methyl 
bromide, to be phased out in Britain in 2010. Three quarters of the 
chocolate samples had lindane residues.

Last year, a biologist said the nutmeg in Christmas pudding contained a
hallucinogenic alkaloid and the flour in it contained either beetles or
preservative.

Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth said the few organic turkeys to be had
in London were too expensive. "I'm looking forward to Christmas 
dinner as much as anyone, and I think it is a shame that year in, 
year out we have to put up with food that is substandard."

He does have good news: The brandy contains nothing more sinister than
alcohol.

By TIM RADFORD, The Guardian