If we want to promote personal wellness - if want to have a healthier and more active citizenry - we should look at those things that fight for valuable shelf space in closets, cupboards, kitchens, attics, basements and garages. We should look at ways to safeguard our food, free of the pollutants from the air or the poisons in the water, free of the contaminants that can harm our bodies or hurt our health, free of the chemicals that can invade our food storage containers or the toxins that can leak into these supplies.
So, yes, food safety should be - it must be - a priority: It must be an issue of maintaining freshness during times of emergency and periods of everyday responsibilities. It must be a matter of concern for citizens and consumers alike, as too many people depend on the preservation of the very food that can mean the difference between sustenance and strength versus a series of often vain attempts at survival. One person who understands the importance of this topic is Alex Missry, COO of Stor-All Solutions, a division of Misco Home & Garden.
He says:"When it comes to food storage, freshness is an absolute necessity. There can be no sacrifice of that ideal, no compromise of that promise, because people rely on that fact to withstand any number of crises or challenges. Preparedness starts, then, with the right resources. It begins and ends with a healthy means of safeguarding food. Period."
I second that sentiment because, as both a scientist and as a writer about science, it is critical to inform people about the why and how of this subject; which is to say, we cannot advance the cause of corporate wellness if a majority of the country does not understand why we must do so, why we must start with something simple - why we must start with something that is easy yet essential - before we do anything else.
Nor can we move forward unless people appreciate how we can accomplish this goal, how we can improve the health of millions of Americans by enhancing the food safety of tens of millions of Americans, how we can increase the nutritional quality of the food we eat - and the meals we store - by choosing the right source to do just that. Let us remember these points the next time we discuss health and wellness.
Let us recognize that food safety is too crucial to ignore, that food storage is too consequential to dismiss as irrelevant or unimportant. Now is the time to have this conversation, so we may educate our fellow countrymen and empower consumers nationwide. Such a campaign exceeds a single topic. Such a campaign goes beyond corporate wellness in general or food safety in particular. Such a campaign gets to the heart (and stomach) of a subject too urgent for us to overlook. Such a campaign demands immediate action.
About the Author
Michael Shaw is an MIT-trained biochemist and former protege of the late Willard Libby, the 1960 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Based in the Greater Washington (DC) Area, Michael is a frequent writer and speaker about a variety of public health issues.
