Action Alert! Organic Foods being degraded again by FDA

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May 19, 2007

Short, Sweet and Urgent


Health and health freedom, like liberty, require constant vigilance. And activism. Now is the time. Again.



The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), like the FDA, continues to slash away at clean, healthy food, and this time the public comment period has been reduced to an absurd 7 days.



Under the USDA proposal, thirty eight new "ingredients" will be added to the National List. Only products which have been added to that list may be added to organic products and do not have to be noted on the label.

These changes were announced recently and the public comment period was limited to a totally irresponsible 7 days! That period ends May 22, 2007.

I just got home from international traveling (attending a Codex meeting in Canada and lecturing in Sana Fe) not too many hours ago and found this information in my email in box. I knew that you would want to take action on this right away. Although the time is very short, it is a matter of health importance to you and your family to defend your food supply from the dangerous USDA.



USDA Wants More Non-Organic Ingredients in "Organic" Foods


The USDA serves its food industry masters very well. The drug companies have embarked on a global campaign to degrade food quality. It's name is Codex Alimentarius. Like the drug companies, the Agribiz realizes that the worse the quality of your food supply, the more money they make and the thinner your margin between optimal health and illness. Their partners in this tragedy are the drug companies who know full well that the worse your food, the better customer you will be for drugs, chemotherapy and other highly profitable ways of managing illness which is, after all, their business.



Codex is a drug initiative (recently endorsed by the Indian drug makers association, for example) and the FDA, which increasingly acts as if it were a marketing arm for Big Pharma, declared decades ago (October 11, 1995, to be exact) that it will give preference to Codex standards over American ones. Codex has degraded Organic standards and the USDA is following right along. You can read the changes for yourself in the National Organic Products list at http://thefederalregister.com/d.p/2007-05-15-07-2388 .



Is This What You Mean By "Organic"?

Although the Agribiz (including beer) companies (which so often violate organic regulations) have been given months to lobby for the changes in these proposed regulations. By contrast, the general public has been given 7 days. These changes will, like Codex, degrade your food and eliminate your right to know what is in that food. (The US, by the way, consistently points out in Codex meetings that Consumers' Right to Know issues have no place within the Codex context although one of Codex' three mandates is to protect the health of consumers.)

Among the Big Agribiz friendly changes:
* Conventional hops (sprayed with pesticides, treated with herbicides and even, perhaps, genetically modified will be allowed in "organic" beer. Anheuser-Busch is reported to be lobbying hard for this one, by the way.
* Conventionally raised animals (treated with antibiotics, growth hormones, fed genetically modified feed, concrete, newspapers, chicken parts and bones, slaughter house waste, etc., and subject to mad cow disease (as organic herds are not) will provide their intestines for "organic" sausage casings.
* Fish oil (a wonderful dietary supplement) which has never been characterized or standardized would be permitted, allowing sub-standard oils from farm raised, chemical laced, cancer-ridden fish or poorly processed, mercury rich oils from ocean-dwelling fish would be added without further purity requirements. All fish oils are definitely not created equal. The proposed standards makes them that way, however.
* Food colorings which may have synthetic, genetically modified, chemical or allergenic components will be permitted.
* Ingredients like organic Lemon grass, Rice Starch, Beet Juice & Whey Protein Concentrate are available in sufficient quantities to allow stipulation that only organic grades be permitted. The new regulations allow non-organic ingredients to be used without label notification despite the availability of these organic ingredients.
Action Steps To
Protect Organic Standards -- and Your Health


Step 1. Send your public comment letter to the USDA by clicking here (http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/healthfreedomusa/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11431) to the USDA. Please do not delay. The Public Comment Period ends May 22.

Step 2. Notify your entire circle of influence that the UADA has once again threatened their health and their health freedom and ask them to use the link provided to send their comments. Send a brief introduction in your own words and forward this email to our contacts.

Step 3. Ask your contacts to notify THEIR contacts of the urgency of this request.

Step 4. If you or your contacts are not already on the mailing list for future Health Alerts, Please sign up on our home page, www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and urge your contacts to do so, too.

Step 5. The Natural Solutions Foundation believes so strongly in the importance of clean, bio-available and health products that we have a store devoted to exactly that: Organic supplements and personal care products. Please visit www.organics4U.org (www.organics4U.org ) and support your health and your health freedom at the same time. Remember, your purchases support your health and the portion of your purchase that supports the Natural Solutions Foundation is tax exempt. When you make a purchase you receive an email documenting the amount of your purchase which is a donation. Next year at tax time, that amount may be deducted as a donation!



Thanks for your activism! This is a long-haul battle and we need to keep fighting it whenever the attack comes!

Yours in health and freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD

Medical Director

Natural Solutions Foundation

www.HealthFreedomUSA.org

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1. It doesn't surprise me... Like usual, stay away from big manufacturers

They would most likely add these degraded "organics", make most of your own food, and try to support your local organic growers.