With talk about Genetically Modified Foods and the increase in outbreaks of food-related illness, it's interesting to realize the subject of just how safe consumer food is has been a topic of conversation going back as far as the days of Teddy Roosevelt and the advent of the Pure Food and Drug Act.

But in 1988 you'd think the problem would have been past us. But no. Aside from health concerns about cholesterol and fat, there were concerns about the new wave of Genetically Modified Foods hitting the market. And not only were there questions about safety with regards to those foods, but with the toxic content of Poultry, Meat and Fish - particularly fish.

This panel discussion, part of the weekly CBS Radio News program Newsmark, first aired on June 26, 1988, assembles a group of experts-at-the-time. Dr. William Castelli from The Framingham Heart Study. Ellen Haas, a food and health policy advocate. Dr. George Pauli from the FDA. Dr. Lester Crawford from the USDA. Jeannette Helm from The Egg Board and Erin Moriarity, consumer correspondent for CBS News.

The sense you get, from listening to this discussion, is that a lot of the regulation that was prevalent over the years in food inspection had simply been abandoned, with reports that Fish, for example, was a scant 10% of what it needed to be in 1988.

Since the era of GMO hadn't really dawned yet, much of the concern over food was confined to Salmonella and unsafe processing conditions. Although there were hints that more than a few eyebrows were raised over just what was going into Genetic Modification, it wasn't given the same level of attention it has lately. And maybe it was just being ignored.

24 years ago and the problem has, if anything, increased. Much has been attributed to lax inspection procedures and nothing appears to have been done to rectify it. Now of course, the affect of Genetically Modified Food is being addressed and the dangers are only now being talked about.

24 years ago we were wondering. 24 years later we know. And the Salmonella hits just keep on comin'.

Here is that Newsmark broadcast - "What's Safe To Eat", broadcast on June 26, 1988.

Update: Ending up the first week of our emergency drive still halfway there. Absolutely grateful beyond description for the donations in the past few hours. You got us to the 50% mark, and that's a hopeful sign. I know it's a pain, hearing about this with every post, but I can't stress how much I need your help. At it stands, there is a very good chance of losing the Archive, which will mean all the recordings you've been hearing and would hear will be gone. When that happens there's no point in continuing with Newstalgia, as the whole reason for having this website was to make those recordings available to you, for free, for learning, for broadening your horizons. If you feel that's worth a buck or two (or as much as you can), please consider making a donation in order to keep this site up and keep the archives a vital source of history at your disposal. We can do it - I swear we can.

Keeping going with our spotlight on the homegrown; tonight it's The Pixies and a session they recorded for John Peel at the BBC Maida Vale Studios in 1988.

Here's the rundown from that session, recorded on October 9, 1988:

1. Dead
2. There goes My Gun
3. Manta Ray

And it officially starts the weekend!

("will pick fruit, trim trees, clean toilets - all the jobs you wouldn't be caught dead doing")

(Note: This is a repost from February - the Newstalgia House computer is still dead and we're trying as quickly as possible to get back up and running, but in the meantime . . . since the Health Care Bill has passed a major hurdle and become a historic landmark, there are other issues going on in our country right now. And as was evidenced by the 100,000+ rally yesterday in Washington, Immigration and its reform is the next big issue to tackle. It's no recent problem. It's been with us longer than the issue of Universal Health Care, and battle lines are clearly being drawn as we speak. As soon as is humanly possible, I will be posting speeches and documentary material pertaining to the Immigration question going back to the 1930s in an effort to try and provide you with historic perspective on a very thorny and passionate issue for a lot of people. And as soon as we get back up and running, I will bring those to you. Bear with me. - Gordon)

Ever since we actually became a country we've been tackling the issue of what to do about the unannounced, the undocumented, the illegal. That group of people which, in lieu of the Red Scare (now that it's gone) has given whole other groups of people something new to attach fear and hysteria (and a goodly amount of hate) to - illegal aliens and the immigration issue.

In retrospect the issue flairs up every few years, usually in the context of bad economic times. The desire to lay blame usually goes to the easiest targets; people you know nothing about and yet (we're led to believe) are seemingly everywhere. Just like Communists in the 1950s.

It was the same in 1988, when this documentary first aired (January 10, 1988). CBS Radio ran an installment of their Newsmark series on the then-burning issue of illegal aliens in the U.S.

John Blackstone (CBS News): “Whether we see them or not, these undocumented workers are part of this society, but for most of us their lives remain a mystery. According to Government figures, undocumented workers contribute $23 billion a year to the U.S. economy. And while some blame illegal aliens for American unemployment, the General Accounting Office report released in 1984 says undocumented workers do not take jobs from American citizens. To most Americans, the illegal immigrant is more a statistic than a real face.”

Twenty-two years later, the fingers of blame are pretty much pointing in the same direction with hate and fear achieving the same results.

Something of a bumpy day, this January 11th in 1988. The Stock Market was slowly recovering from it's precipitous drop the previous trading day, with the Dow Jones losing over 140 points. Nervous breaths were being held all over the world.

Questions were being raised, with proof being offered that the Libyans had nothing to do with the Berlin Disco Bombing that resulted in U.S. bombing of Libya in 1986, but rather a Palestinian terrorist group. That one got quickly swept under the rug.

Speaking of Palestinians - friction was increasing between Israelis and Palestinians in Israeli occupied territory, with 30 deaths reported so far.

The Soviet Union announced it would be participating in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul South Korea after all. This after the U.S. pulled out in 1980 in reaction to the Afghanistan invasion and the Soviet Union pulling out in 1984 in reaction to the U.S. pulling out in 1980 as a reaction to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. . . confusing, I know. All was good to go by 1988 and the athletes were happy.

To go a step further, Mikhail Gorbachev called for a Sino/Soviet Summit to be held sometime in the near future. Quoted in a Chinese interview, Gorbachev wanted an improvement in relations between the two Communist nations. The Chinese were semi-warm to the idea.

Arizona Governor Evan Mecham vowed he would not resign in wake of the scandal involving him and campaign contributions. But by the looks of it, he was destined to be dragged, kicking and screaming out of office.

And on the subject of scandals - former Reagan Press Secretary Lyn Nofziger was the latest to go under investigation for influence peddling in relation to the Wedtech Scandal.

Where would we be without a heady whiff of scandal at least somewhere every day?

And that's what was going on this January 11, 1988 via The CBS World News Roundup.

So many bands get lost in the shuffle. I don't think any period of time in Music has been immune. I used to think the biggest concentration of neglected or underrated bands came from the 1970's. But then, I can also say that about the 80's and feel pretty certain that characterization could go to the 90's as well.

The Lilac Time were one of those neglected, and certainly largely ignored bands over here. Even though they've released 16 albums (the last being in 2007 before their breakup) to critical and audience acclaim in the UK and Europe, they never really caught in the U.S. and that was a shame, as they were a very talented group with a string of memorable tracks to their credit.

Tonight it's a live session recorded for the John Peel Program over the BBC. The tracks were recorded in 1988, around the time their s/t debut album was issued on Fontana Records.

Here are the tracks:

1. King and Queen Of Carioca
2. Street Corner
3. Take Time
4. Hargeesha

Like I always say, it's never too late to get turned on to something.

On this particular August day in 1988 Republicans were meeting in New Orleans to nominate a Presidential candidate and for the Presidential candidate to nominate a vice-President. He picked Dan Quayle. Little known. referred to as "The Blow-Dry Candidate" and "a warmed over Robert Redford", Quayle was thrust deer-like into the spotlight and the RNC went Terpsichorean in portraying Dan Quayle as the Next Coming.

Time would tell. The man who gave us endless hours of enjoyment over his breathless declaration that it was "a terrible thing to lose your mind" and to have a well-publicized battle of wits with a nine year old over the spelling of Potato. This was the man destined to be a heartbeat away from the Red Telephone. 'Twas the season.

And this newscast, The CBS World News Roundup for August 17, 1988 was pretty much devoted to the goings on with the GOP in The Crescent City. But other news also squeaking by had to do with 17 people killed in Russia when a high-speed passenger train jumped its tracks. North Korea sending signals of warmth that it was interested in ending their Olympics boycott and it would like to end hostilities with South Korea. Meanwhile, Jordan up and severed ties with the West Bank, leaving the PLO to figure out what it wanted to do.

Twenty-three years ago today. Fancy that.

By all accounts a normal day, this May 17th in 1988. There was a dramatic decline in the Trade deficit and stock markets throughout Europe broke out in waves of giddy. Even our own Stock Market rose 10 points over the news. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, debate was girding its overblown loins for ratification of the INF Treaty and Conservative Republicans were threatening fits and tirades. Edwin Meese fired spokesman Terry Eastland and circles in the State Department thought it was Meese who needed to be fired.

Since it was election year, news was crowded with the horse race known as Primaries and the one in Oregon had Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson sprinting to the wire. A recently released CBS/New York Times Poll had George Bush trailing Michael Dukakis by 10 points if the election were held on that particular Tuesday.

On the world front - The Honduran Ambassador was arrested on Cocaine possession charges. South African Bishop Desmond Tutu called for an Isolation Campaign against the apartheid government of South Africa. Pope John Paul II was on a 12 day Latin American visit and exchanged finger wagging on Human Rights violations with Paraguayan Strongman General Alfredo Stroessner, whose miserable record of Human Rights earned the ire of the Vatican and whose Papal criticism earned the ire of Stroessner.

And it was the 1-year anniversary of the bombing of the USS Stark by an Iraqi jet.

Not thrill-packed, but dramatic nonetheless. Here is the CBS World News Roundup for May 17,1988 (A Tuesday).

The news on the morning of December 22, 1988 was grim. Overnight, PanAm flight 103 had disintegrated over Lockerbie Scotland en route to the U.S. As news developed, it was learned a bomb was placed on board and all passengers were lost. Some groups were quick to take credit, including an Iranian group claiming it was payback for the U.S. shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane in the Gulf earlier. It was later learned Intelligence had received numerous warnings a week earlier that a terrorist attack was going to take place. Somehow, word just didn't hit the right set of ears.

Here is the CBS World News Roundup broadcast of the morning of December 22, 1988.

(Even hair was perplexed)

For all the spin, analysis and hand-wringing going on over our economy of late, we often forget it got a start somewhere. Fingers often point in the direction of the 80's where conflicting stories abound, but it's a good bet that the "supply side" theory of the economy had something to do with it.

As this episode of Face The Nation from May 29, 1988 illustrates, Treasury Secretary James Baker just couldn't break himself away from his rose colored glasses, even for a minute.

James Baker: “I noticed the intro to your program, the “yes, but . .” – but if I may say so, people have been out there saying “yes, but” since the spring of 1983. They’ve been telling us that “yes, things are okay now, but the wheels are gonna fall off, the economy’s gonna go in the tank, and it hasn’t. And it is not going to.”

Leslie Stahl: “How long is it not going to?”

James Baker: “Well . . .well into the foreseeable future. Well into the foreseeable future”

Yes, well into the foreseeable future - hopefully the future where nobody will notice what happened in the 80's. Hopefully by that future, some miracle will magically occur and all our economic woes will vanish. Or all those practitioners of Voodoo Economics will be dead, senile or too in-disposed to care.

Welcome to the future.

(Jesus and Mary Chain - the 90s were going to get interesting)

From the Electric Ballroom in London, this 1988 concert featuring the Jesus and Mary Chain generally pointed the direction the post-punk, quasi-shoegaze, alternative/Indie movement was heading. And it was promising to be loud.

Jesus and Mary Chain were a Scottish outfit who achieved a good deal of notoriety (critical as well as notorious) in Britain and Europe but, as always, not much notice in the U.S. at the time. The American audiences were still in the process of digesting U2 and getting ready for the advent of Grunge. Jesus and Mary Chain would have to wait their turn.

But if you were sampling bands in 1988, you may have heard them. If not, this is what you missed the first time around.

Who says you can never go back?