AJ Soprano’s Food Conspiracy Theory
A great moment in tonight’s Sopranos episode: when AJ, before worse things happen, rants at a family dinner about how meat is unsafe because the FDA is letting companies spray viruses onto the meat to eliminate bacteria. I don’t know about you, but I let out a huge: “Huh?”
Turns out AJ was right: last August, the FDA approved a cocktail of bacteriophages that attack the bacteria that causes listeria, a classic food-borne bacterial disease that can sometimes be fatal (500 people a year in the US die from listeria). The spray is developed by the biotech company Intralytix, and according to their website its a totally safe additive that can only add to a reduction in food-borne illnesses.
The sceptics say that there’s too much unknown about the properties of the phages, and that - on the face of it - putting viruses onto foods is a bad idea.
So: is it a conspiracy theory? There’s sure a lot of crazy websites out there: here’s a Google search - most of the hits are to fringe nutritional websites. And here’s the FDA’s FAQ about the approval.
So if nothing else, AJ was definitely on to a genuinely deep conspiracy theory. Kudos to Sopranos creator David Chase for catching this one.
May 21st, 2007 at 2:04 pm
The bacteriophages are for real, and they’re a good idea. Unlike antibiotics, they adapt to their prey’s mutations. This is humanity forming yet another ecological partnership, similar to the ones we’ve made with the cats and the dogs. (who also are predators we befriended to keep down pests)