(The following was filed for a Business Week story in July 1991.)

Food Irradiation Plant, Vindicator in Mulberry, Causes Florida Controversy

By Bob Andelman

Interview with PAUL HOGAN
(Flack for Vindicator of Florida, former M.E., Tampa Tribune)

"In 1986, USDA decreed that EDB could not be used anymore in agriculture. It had been used to kill fruit flies in citrus. Other citrus-producing areas - Japan, California - would not accept Florida fruit if it was not certified fly-free.

Other than EDB, there are two methods to eliminate fruit flies in Florida:
1. The so-called "fly-free zone" on the east coast
2. For those not in the zone, cold treatment. Citrus could be handled in refrigerated units during transit.

"A bunch of guys were sitting around Plant City having a drink and crying about the fact they couldn't use EDB when someone mentioned they had heard of a process called irradiation."

Gail, frankly, the history is a little muddled here. Hogan says Sam Whitney, who owns Trans-Phos Truck Lines, had turned control of the company over to his sons and was looking for something to do. Eventually, he formed Vindicator of Florida with 70 other investorts to build an irradiation plant, perhaps with the blessing of the state Dept. of Agriculture.

The plant's location in Mulberry was ideal because of Central Florida's abundance of citrus and strawberry crops which might be processed at the plant and shipped out via the Port of Tampa. And the industrial park where Vindicator is being built is on high ground, important because a basement had to be built for the plant, according to Hogan.

Nordion International Inc. (formerly AECL Radiochemical), 447 March Road, Kanata, Ontario, Canada is the builder of Vindicator and at least 160 industrial gamma irradiator in 46 countries.

Joe Hice at Hill & Knowlton, Tampa, is a possible contact, but I'm unclear as to his connection. H&K apparently has clients in related fields and may be aiding Vindicator in developing support materials.

Who will process food at Vindicator?
"There are a lot of companies that don't want to be in the lead, but they damn sure want it to happen so they can use it.

"Whitney is not going to say who he's working with because he doesn't want Food and Water picketing them."

Sam Whitney, Pres., Vindicator of Florida

Institute for Food Technology, Charles Wixom

About Whitney:
Hey came to Florida in the late '50s from Illinois and built a pipeline for aviation fuel; then he moved on to start Trans-Phos, which hauls phosphate from the mines to the mills. Although retired, he still has the title of chairman.

Vindicator of Florida made its first public stock offering in December. The offering was handled by PCI Financial Services, Inc. of Tampa. It is selling between 4 and 5, according to Hogan. The original 71 stockholders include 7 doctors, 1 dentist, 3 attorneys, 4 CPAs, 18 citrus growers, 11 strawberry growers, 2 tomato growers and the rest are various businesspeople.

There may have been some minor scandal regarding the original stockholders; one may have bought stock while on the FL Citrus Commission; two others bought after leaving the Commission (maybe sooner).

Irradiation is used on citrus to eradicate fruit flies. It does not extend the shelf life of citrus. It does extend the shelf life of strawberries and potatoes (keeping spuds from sprouting).

Whitney says he originally planned to spend six months on Vindicator; it's almost five years now. He hasn't been paid a penny, either, although he says his contact calls for payment of $1 a year. He owns 15% of Vindicator stock and is its largest stockholder.

He talks quickly, almost slurring his words in a rush to get them out. He talks almost as if he were on a mission from You-Know-Who. Whitney is definitely a true believer in irradiation.

Interview with SAM WHITNEY
(President of Vindicator of Florida, Inc.)

"We're waiting now for shellfish to be approved (for irradiation). We have shellfish people in here every day. They're being devastated by (problems) in shellfish.

"We even have some big chains that say they'll start taking seafood from Florida if it's irradiated."

Says the strawberry growers are still committed to irradiation, but "The citrus people are afraid of an osteopath practicing holistic medicine."

Says UK would take irradiated Florida shellfish.

How will products be labeled?
"They'll be marked (irradiated). If it's to kill fruit flies, it'll say it. If it's poultry, it'll say, 'Irradiated to protect against salmonella."

"Right now you play Russian Roulette. We want to protect the consumers. We'll put a big label on there and tell you why it's irradiated. If food is not irradiated, it can kill you. This won't."

On FDA:
"We've been working with them for the past 4 years. They're going to make (labeling) mandatory."

"We're going to encourage a big sign that says 'Irradiated food.'"

Construction will be finished by July 20; first irradiated products should roll out by end of August.

Will consumers pay more for irradiated foods?
"Right now you pay double for fruits and vegetables because of rotting. Strawberries are double and triple as much.

"For an average size chicken that now costs $2.40, it'll cost $2.45 to kill the stuff that can kill you. We think every housewife in America will pay a nickel more."

Not all Florida citrus will need to be irradiated; only those that are bound for places where fruit fly larvae might be dangerous to the indigenour citrus industry (Cal., Tx., Hawaii, Japan).

"Nobody's ever tested tomatoes. We ship 'em green and they ripen en route. We're going to do some testing on that." Whitney says it may be possible to let tomatoes vine-ripen, then irradiate them and ship them on to market ready to eat.

"Mushrooms are a big item. We's extend them for 15, 16 days with a quick shot of gamma radiation."

Food "will still spoil. It'll just take longer to do it. Radiation is not a miracle. It's just a process. It has specific applications for specific reasons."

Says it will kill trychinosis in pork.

"People in South Africa have been irradiating strawberries for 22 years. They say that's why housewives buy more. You buy 'em here, get 'em home and they already have mold."

What about increased bruising due to irradiation?

"Strawberries. Some tests were done. The product was handled rough and it did bruise easily. Some tests did show that. We're going to set up proper packaging so it doesn't jostle in transit."

On Dr. Burnstein:
"He puts out crap. We've got evidence from every scientific group in America, and still people write him (Burnstein) up."

On Hawaii and Alaska:
"There is not enough papaya in Hawaii that makes a plant viable. Alaska's only got one product: fish. Fish we're still (studying). We don't know whether we can handle it yet."

Etc.:
"I'm here because I've got a family. I work every day and every night because I've found out a lot about food and I don't like it. We're going to put safe foods in the marketplace so the consumers won't have to guess what foods are safe.

"I love chicken. Fried chicken, chicken a la king, stewed chicken. I haven't tasted chicken in a year and a half (because of food poisoning scares). That's unfair to the chicken industry, but I can't do it."

The plant will employ 35-40 when it opens, double that at high strawberry season.

Limitations:
"This plant could not irradiate all the poultry used from Key West to Palm Beach. We use about 1-billion pounds per years in this state. We (Vindicator) could handle 250-million pounds at this one plant.

"We're going to build a lot of plants when people learn what we're doing. We're going to try to have other states have safe food."

Labeled fresh?
"Of course. It will be fresh fruit. Well, yeah."

2nd INTERVIEW WITH SAM WHITNEY
Whitney is an irrascible, feisty storyteller and espouser of neat bits of wisdom and philosophy. He's a Florida cracker with an Illinois high school education, a mind as sharp as any city slicker and a long face like a hound dog. It's easy to underestimate him but undoubtedly difficult to best. The twice-married father of five and grandfather of 14 doesn't work hard at being likable, he just is.

Unlike most businesspeople of his wealth and success, his office is devoid of civic plaques, photos of himself with celebrities and politicians, whatever. His walls are full of blueprints and aerials of Vindicator, the floor lined with materials used to take his show on the road in public presentations.

Irradiation and the Vindicator plant are what the 67-year-old self-made millionaire lives for. "We're talking about food that's contaminated vs. food that's not," he says. He works seven day weeks, starting early and finishing late; claims he hasn't taken a day off in 2-1/2 years.

He believes in the righteousness of what he is doing. He is on a mission, though "God" never came up. "Other companies helped me and my family make money," he says. "Sometimes you look back and say, I have to do something that's right. And bringing safer foods to the grocery store is right.

"I don't want glory of any kind because I haven't earned it. Once the plant is open and producing safe foods, maybe then I'll have earned it." (He teases his secretary, Dana, about paying him the $1 a year he's been due for the last four years. "You haven't earned it yet," she says, turning the tables on him.)

Prospectus confirms what Whitney maintains about his compensation: he gets none. Never has. Before going public in April, Vindicator had sold 2 million shares in two private sales of stock. All 600,000 shares put on the market in April have been sold, raising an additional $2.7-million.

Of the 2.6 million share of Vindicator in circulation, Whitney holds 14.6 percent. He says he has "hundreds of thousands of dollars" invested in Vindicator, but won't be more specific than that. "I've made substantial investments myself," he says. "We're not going to reveal that rich Whitney kid pissed away everything."

FYI: Whitney claims Food & Water is not registered to raise money in New Jersey.

Says American and Soviet astronauts eat irradiated food in space; NASA gets its irradiated food from labs at the University of Lowell, Mass and Stanford University. Also says my contact at Nordion was misinformed, that there are irradiation plants for food around the world, including France, Japan and Israel.

Why is he doing this?
"Doyle Conner asked me if I'd help (farmers) set it up.

" ... I'm a very hearty eater of raw shellfish. The more I learned, I had to stop eating shellfish. And I'm a big chicken eater. Then I learned I was playing Russian Roulette. I've had salmonella poisoning two or three times in recent years.

The downside of being pro-irradiation:
"We get attacked by people who said we're greedy, who said we're trying to kill people. The abuse you take from activists is amazing. I've been called everything in the world. It's a tough fight. You're being attacked personally, your family is being attacked. Most people don't have the money to fight. If I had to rely on this for income, I'd have been out of this 5 years ago."

"I made a decision 1988 that we were going to build an irradiation center to have safer food in the United States, no matter who came to fight. I'm more determined than ever. Our group has to fight this battle. We are not going to be ruled by fear. We are going to be ruled by knowledge.

"Call me a fool, but I got involved. I'm staying here."

Whitney says that big business has had a tight grip on farmers for years, buying fruits and vegetables for canning and freezing at unfairly low prices. "The only one looking out for fresh fruits and vegetables is the American grower. Any time the American grower can put up his product fresh, he realizes a bigger profit."

In other words, he thinks that if farmers can deliver a product to market that will be fresher longer, than can make more money and have more control over prices to canners and frozen processors.

More on Bernstein:
"This osteopath - when he said we'd kill people, he shot himself in the head."

THE PROCESS
Fruit will arrive at Vindicator in its finished packaging, ready for market. No loose fruit will be treated at the facility. Ditto for seafood, poultry, etc.

Trucks will back up to one of six loading docks, where pallets will be unloaded to a conveyer belt. The belt mechanically carries the food (18 pallets at a time) into the 6-foot block walls of the irradiator where products receive a quick blast of cobalt radiation and then continue out. The pallets are then loaded back into the truck for market.

"(Food) will not be touched by anybody," says Whitney. "It's got to be finished when we get it. We'll be the last stop on the way to market. Once we irradiate, we don't want it touched by anyone but the grocery store. Otherwise we could re-introduce bacteria."

Packages will be labeled at Vindicator that they have been irradiated - and why.

"Pasteurization is a process similiar to ours. (Milk) is still sold as fresh, but it's pasteurized."

Vindicator is not equipped to store foods. It's like a rest stop on the highway - easy in, easy out.

"We're planning to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

The Vindicator warehouse looks like any one of thousands in Florida. Hard to believe there's anything revolutionary going on inside, until you see the 4300-ton concrete block house around back with the 6-foot walls and ceiling.

ACCORDING TO WHITNEY:
o It will take 45 minutes to irradiate an entire truckload of poultry for salmonella.
o 18 minutes will take the average truckload of fruit in and out.
o More specifically:
Strawberries 8 minutes 30-35 K rads
Citrus 4 16
Poultry 30 300
Shellfish 22 100
o Irradiation will add 2 cents per pound to the cost of poultry, 1 cent per pound of citrus, and 36 cents per flat to the cost of strawberries

POULTRY
"Poultry will be a major item in the irradiation process in future months. We're writing the protocols right now on how to do it. USDA is reviewing the procedures - they expect to have it done about the time we open our plant."

"If we get shellfish approved, by the time (Vindicator of Florida) opens, we'll have to open another plant in Louisiana or north Florida.

ADD: Public shares of stock sold in April for $4.50.

"I've written to stockholders. I've said if you want your money back, if you aren't in for the fight, I'll buy you out. Nobody took me up on it."

FYI: Construction & outfitting cost: $6.8 million

FYI: Says a linear accelerator has not yet been developed yet to handle something as large as a pallet of food.

Vindicator is a Cobalt plant, which he compares to hospitals around the country which have cobalt centers.

WHAT ABOUT THE PUBLIC's NEGATIVE VIEW OF RADIATION? (i.e. Nagasaki)
"The sun is a radiator. If you roast something in your oven, you're radiating it. It's a beautiful word.

"Irradiation means germ-free and it means good. People go out and radiate themselves at the beach till they're burnt. We're not going to burn anything."

STILL, WON'T THE PUBLIC NEED TO BE EDUCATED?
"I don't think the American public wants to be educated on how foods are processed. They want to trust the regulatory people to have safe foods in the marketplace.

"All irradiation does is kill germs. If that's bad, I'm sorry.

"There's still people who won't use a microwave oven, but every restaurant in the country has one now."

WISDOM:
"I've never done anything in life to make a profit. Yet I've done well. Most people fail because they WANT to make money.

"I tell people I hire, if you look at a clock, you're an idiot. You work till you're exhausted. Then you work a few hours more."

ON MULBERRY
"We've been welcome here since Day One. I've been around Mulberry for 30 years. This is where I made my living."

INTERVIEW WITH CARL GROOMS
Manager and co-owner of Fancy Farms in Plant City

Grooms is a partner in Fancy Farms, a 72-acre strawberry patch, with James A. Crocker. Crocker is a prinicipal shareholder in Vindicator. Grooms, however is not involved in Vindicator.

"If the people who buy the berries ask for irradiated strawberries, they'll get 'em. I don't think the farmers are the people who will (decide). It's going to be public perception - whether the public will see the little emblem on the package and be afraid to eat it or not.

"It's going to be a wait and see situation, see how the consumers accept the irradiated strawberries. It's like the microwave. The process is safe.

"You bring me a bowl (of irradiated berries) right now, I'll sit down and eat it.

"I think the end result to the consumer is they're going to get a better fruit to eat.

"This will also increase the market distance for the product. Strawberries is a perishable product. With the irradiation, it will extend shelf life. You will be able to ship the berry further. If we can ship fresh berries overseas - if we can get the quality of berry to downtown London as to downtown Lakeland, that's got to be a great market.

"I don't look to irradiate very many berries this year. If the people want it, it'll be tried. It's not going to be forced on them.

"People buy produce on eye appeal. If you've got strawberries that's pretty, appealing and you've got another pint that's decaying, the housewife is going to buy the one that looks the best.

"I look for it to be the wave of the future.

INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE AUSTIN
Owner, George H. Austin, Inc., Alva, FL.

Austin has 100 acres of citrus, mostly oranges. He also buys and sells citrus. He is a past-president of the Culf Citrus Growers Assn.

"I don't really have any strong feelings one way or another. I haven't heard a lot of pros or cons to the issues. We have some other methods (fly-free zone and cold treatment) of certifying fruit as fly-free.

"I have been bombarded with correspondance and cassette tapes from Food & Water Inc. I take that stuff with a grain of salt. I think they're taking advantage of the emotional aspect of it.

"It's one of those issues that I feel is not important enough at this time to take sides on. I'm not verly concerned with it either way. It's fine we're doing research in this direction, but I doubt with the issues of food safety and environment issues that there's going to be a lot of consumer acceptance to irradiated foods. I don't think the time is right.

"They haven't proven to me that it's a way to address (citrus problems). Right now I can't see any real need for having this available. I think the methods we have available to us are working."

Additional info from Sam Whitney

Customers will be charged on an hourly basis for time in the irradiation facility based on $450 to $500 per hour.

He has no pending contracts for poultry. "We have commitments from strawberry people that are big," he says, adding that if FDA approves the process for shellfish, he has "big" commitments from that industry as well.

ART NOTE: The comic book character The Hulk was a product of gamma radiation. It turned him big, angry and green.