Can you believe this price?

by Rick Perry

Texas Agriculture Commissioner

I was in the grocery store the other day and overheard a couple

"discussing" the running tab on their groceries. The wife put a jug of milk

in the shopping cart while her husband shook his head saying, "Can you

believe the price on this?"

No telling what that same guy would have said had he been shopping in Tokyo

where - on average - that same jug of milk sells for around $6 a gallon.

The fact is no one in the world pays less of their disposable income for

food than Americans.

Sure there are some food items on every grocery aisle that will cost you a

little more this year than last. But compared with the rest of the world, a

trip to the supermarket in the U.S. is a downright bargain. Consumers in

Japan would probably stock up on steak if they could pay $4 a pound like we

do in this country. Truth is they're paying $26 a pound for that same

sirloin.

In fact, of nine items normally found on our supper tables, shoppers in

Paris pay close to $30. Japanese residents pay almost $60. While here in

Texas and the U.S., that same supper will cost you $16.91.

So before anybody starts fretting about the high cost of eating, we might

want to stop every once in a while and think about that high quality,

abundant food supply that American farmers and ranchers have allowed us all.

Just remember: it's hard to complain when your mouth is full.

Pesticides & breast cancer

by Pat Tigges

PNAA Education Foundation

With green groups now focusing on environmental hormones. I hear much

concern from women about a link between pesticides and breast cancer.

First, if pesticides do influence breast cancer it would follow that women

with more exposure would show high incidence of the disease. This would be

especially noticeable in women who were occupationally exposed.

In 1993 a study by the Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluation and

Field Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, was

printed in the American Journal of Public Health (Vol 83, No. 9). The study

conducted statistical analysis of breast cancer mortality cases within a

database of 2.9 million occupationally coded death certificates from 1979

to 1987. The study looked for significant association between a woman's

occupation and frequency of breast cancer.

The study conclusively showed that breast cancer of women in farming and

forestry occurred at a much lower frequency than other occupational groups.

In fact, black women in "farming, forestry and fishing" were the lowest and

white female were in the lowest quartile.

Also, in 1994 a study directed by Dr. Nancy Krieger of the Kaiser

Foundation Research Institute found no evidence that breast cancer is

caused by pesticide residues that accumulate in body fat. The study was

released in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and came at a time

when the debate was heating up on the possible role of environmental

contaminants in breast cancer. Krieger's study found no increase in DDE

(main metabolite of DDT) levels in those who developed breast cancer, and

did not find evidence of a link between the level of PCBs in blood and a

woman's chance of developing breast cancer.

The Kaiser study was based on 57,000 women examined in the mid-to-late

1960s and then followed for more than 20 years.

And finally, a recent study released in the October 30 issue of the "New

England Journal of Medicine" has found that DDT and polychlorinate

biphenyls (PCBs) do not increase a woman's risk of breast cancer. The

scientists that conducted the study measured levels of DDE and levels of

PCBs in women who were diagnosed with breast cancer before June 1, 1992.

The scientists then compared the results with women with no breast cancer

and found that the median levels of DDE and PCBs were lower in women with

breast cancer than in those with no cancer.

Pat Tigges is president of the Pacific Northwest Aerial Applicator's

Education Foundation (PNWAAEF)