Coke, Pepsi changing colour to avoid ‘carcinogen’ label

Coca Cola and Pepsi will make a manufacturing process modification for the soft drinks caramel colouring to avoid a California law that would have forced them to label the drinks carcinogenic.

Coke, for one, insists it is not “changing our recipe or formula in any way.”

“The Coca-Cola Company asked its caramel suppliers to make the necessary manufacturing process modification to meet the requirement of the State of California’s Prop 65,” company spokesman Ben Sheidler said in a release. “As a result, no warning is required.

“While we believe that there is no public health risk that justifies any such change, we did ask our caramel suppliers to take this step so that our products would not be subject to the requirement of a scientifically unfounded warning.”

And those changes “do change our product. The caramel color in all of our products has been, is and always will be safe.”

Full Article

Diet soda tied to heart attack, stroke risks: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Diet soda may benefit the waistline, but a new study suggests that people who drink it every day have a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke.

The study, which followed almost 2,600 older adults for a decade, found that those who drank diet soda every day were 44 percent more likely than non-drinkers to suffer a heart attack or stroke.

The findings, reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, don’t prove that the sugar-free drinks are actually to blame.

Full Article

Prices will go up on Organic Milk

We were thinking about getting into the organic chocolate milk market and had a few meeting with some key insiders in the organic milk market and decided not to do that. Now 2 months later all that information was confirmed in an article out today on the AP.

 

Supplies are low and demand is up for organic milk products. One of the largest organic coops has made their farmers mad and once thier contract is up they won’t be renewing, at least not at the current prices. The coop is making all the money and leaving the farmers in the field.

 

While it is a good thing that demand is up for organic milk not so good that supplies are low. Price increases are not what we need as consumers.

 

Organic milk low as demand up and farmers struggle

 

WESTVILLE, N.Y. – “Got milk?” is getting to be a difficult question when it comes to organic.

 

Because even as more consumers are willing to pay premium prices for organic milk, supermarkets are having trouble keeping it on the shelves as high feed and fuel prices have left some organic dairy farmers unable to keep up with demand.

 

“The market has surged faster than supply,” said George Siemon, CEO of Wisconsin-based Organic Valley, the nation’s largest cooperative of organic farmers, “and at the same time we had high feed costs reduce supply, so we had a double hit here.”

 

Organic milk shortages are nothing new. As the milk — which federal regulations require be from cows fed organic feed and free from production-boosting synthetic hormones — rose in popularity during the past decade, there haven’t always been enough farmers to meet demand (it can take three years to transition a conventional dairy farm to organic).

 

The shortages have been serious enough that major chains like Hannaford Supermarkets in the Northeast and Publix Super Markets in the South recently posted signs in the milk aisle advising shoppers of reduced supply. Some relief is expected with the seasonal spring boost in production. But industry watchers say this shortage is more worrisome because of the alarming jumps in the price of organic corn and other feed coupled with higher fuel costs.

 

“It’s kind of like a treadmill thing,” said Siobhan Griffin, an upstate New York organic farmer whose cows chomp hay in a hilly pasture. “If you make less milk you make less money, and then you can’t afford to make more milk.”

 

After a recent dip during the recession, sales of organic milk — which can sell for twice as much or more as conventional milk — are strong again. Sales for organic whole milk were up 16 percent from January through November of last year compared with a year earlier, even as sales of conventional milk declined, according to federal agricultural statistics.

 

Molly Keveney, a spokeswoman for Horizon Organic, the No. 1 selling organic milk-brand, estimated a 7 percent growth in organic milk demand in a time of flat supply.

 

Some farmers have switched to less expensive feed, but that reduced production. Griffin, who runs Raindance Organic Farm 55 miles west of Albany, is losing money as costs outrun prices. She sold 15 cows in the fall so she could afford to buy feed for her remaining cows.

 

In Elko, Minn., Tim Zweber of Zweber Farms said his family sold about 20 milking cows since the fall because of the feed costs, leaving them with about 100. Zweber — who like Griffin is a member of the Organic Valley cooperative— said the price his family receives for its milk versus the high costs of producing it results in margins that are very tight.

 

“If you can’t make any money doing it, take the word ‘sustainable’ out of organic,” Zweber said with a laugh.

 

In fact, some struggling farms are switching back to conventional milk or leaving the dairy business entirely. Milk Thistle Farm, a Hudson Valley farm that was a popular vendor at New York City farmers markets, recently announced that it no longer could afford to continue production.

 

Horizon and Organic Valley say they have more dairy farmers making the transition to organic. But Ed Maltby of the Northeast Organic Producers Alliance said not as many farmers are making the switch because of the economics.

 

The farmers’ plight illuminates an unusual feature of the U.S. dairy economy: Most farmers do not set their own milk prices. Organic farmers typically enter into contracts with processors. This provides stability compared with the month-to-month pricing of conventional milk, but it has caused problems once food and fuel costs took off.

 

Both Organic Valley and Horizon Organic, owned by Dean Foods Co., have raised the prices they pay to farmers to account for higher production costs.

 

But many struggling farmers say they need more. The Northeast Organic Producers Alliance, for instance, is petitioning for a 60 cent a gallon hike. The Western Organic Dairy Producers Alliance recently sent a letter to processors seeking an increase that would add 22 cents to a half gallon for consumers

 

That might be a tough sell.

 

There are questions over just how much consumers — even those who will pay a premium to support sustainable family farms — will pay for a half gallon of milk. Western alliance president Tony T. Azevedo said he’d like to induce retailers to kick more of their percentage back to the farmers, though he acknowledges that’s “a pretty daunting task.”

 

Some farm advocates say additional price pressure comes from industrial-style organic farming operations with 1,000 or more milking cows that are producing more milk for “private label” store brands sold in supermarkets and box stores. The large-scale operations, some with their own processing plants, can produce the milk less expensively than traditional farms and put pressure on all producers to keep prices low.

 

The growth of these industrial-style operations has angered small-farm advocates who say they violate the spirit of organic, sustainably produced food.

 

“Forget about the letter of the law for a second, these do not comport with the values that the consumers think they’re supporting when they’re buying organic milk,” said Mark Kastel of the Wisconsin-based farm-policy group The Cornucopia Institute.

 

Though no one knows when supply will catch up with demand, many expect it to at least ease in a couple of months with the production boost that comes each spring when the fields are in bloom and cows can graze. Hannaford is telling customers to expect more consistent inventory levels in April.

 

Maltby is more pessimistic.

 

“Perhaps when the cows go out to pasture in the spring, there might be an increase in production, but we don’t anticipate that happening dramatically,” Maltby said. “Nothing will really change until the price that the farmer gets paid starts to meet their cost of production.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Short of buying a cow and having your own supply of truly great raw milk, it looks like you will have to begin paying up for organic milk very soon.  It is already over a dollar more per gallon than conventional milk, which i personally would not touch.

 

Arsenic in Organic Brown Rice Syrup

That aresenic is being seen in potentially higher concentrations in brown rice syrup does not surprise me in the least. Rice in general is know to contain arsenic in very low concentrations. Once you process anything, including rice, you can concentrate any bad stuff within the new processed product.

 

Thus our stance that the consumption of any processed product, especially a highly processed product such as brown rice syrups and such, is not a particularly good thing to do healthwise. Best to keep your diet to raw vegetables, lightly cooked if necessary, organic proteins and raw juices. That would be optimum. If you use that as the base of your diet and add a few processed products as possible you will be better off.

 

It is a razor’s edge and you must know yourself and just be aware of what you put into your body.

 

The article that came out today can be found by clicking here.

Nanny state report: NC school officials confiscate preschooler’s homemade lunch

A North Carolina elementary school forced a preschool student to eat cafeteria chicken nuggets for lunch on Jan. 30 after officials reportedly determined that her homemade meal wasn’t up to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s standards for healthfulness, according to a report from the Carolina Journal.

The newspaper reported that the four-year-old girl brought a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips and apple juice in her packed lunch from home. That meal didn’t meet with approval from the government agent who was on site inspecting kids’ lunches that day.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Child Development and Early Education requires that all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs must meet USDA guidelines. Meals, the guidelines say, must include one serving each of meat, milk and grain and two servings of fruit or vegetables. Those guidelines apply to home-packed lunches as well as cafeteria meals.

The Carolina Journal reported that the girl and her mother wish to remain anonymous to avoid public scrutiny, but she did write to her state representative to complain about it.

“I don’t feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide lunch for her from home,” the mother wrote in a complaint to her state representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County.

“What got me so mad is, number one, don’t tell my kid I’m not packing her lunch box properly,” the girl’s mother told a reporter. “I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn’t really care for vegetables.”

Feds shut down Amish farm for selling fresh milk

The FDA has won its two-year fight to shut down an Amish farmer who was selling fresh, raw milk to eager consumers in the Washington region, after a judge this month banned Daniel Allgyer from selling his milk across state lines, and he told his customers he’ll shut his farm down altogether.

The decision has enraged Mr. Allgyer’s supporters, some of whom have been buying from him for six years and who say the government is interfering with their parental rights to feed their children. But the Food and Drug Administration, which launched a full investigation complete with a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and a straw-purchase sting operation against Mr. Allgyer’s Rainbow Acres Farm, near Lancaster, said unpasteurized milk is unsafe and said it was exercising its due authority to stop its sale from one state to another.

Adding to Mr. Allgyer’s troubles, Judge Lawrence F. Stengel said if he is found to violate the law again he will have to pay the FDA’s costs for investigating and prosecuting him.

His customers are wary of talking publicly, fearing the FDA will come after them.

“I can’t believe in 2012 the federal government is raiding Amish farmers at gunpoint all over a basic human right to eat natural food,” said one, who asked not to be named but who got weekly shipments of eggs, milk, honey and butter from Rainbow Acres. “In Maryland, they force taxpayers to pay for abortions, but God forbid we want the same milk our grandparents drank.”

Full Article

Junk Food still in Schools

Mostly a PR stunt, although with good intentions, the push to reduce child obesity has very few teeth. I feel that the institutions that are responsible (yes large corporations vie daily to influence the RDA of foods etc that are introduced into our schools) for the foods in our schools are interested mostly in profits and have little regard for the health of our children.

 

In my opinion we need to focus more on nutrition and less on profitability. Source more fresh produce for local schools from local growers when possible. Take out the vending machines, do away with canned and processed foods offering ONLY ORGANIC FOODS AND NO GMOs!

 

 

 Junk food widely available at U.S. elementary schools despite anti-obesity push

By Dina ElBoghdady, Published: February 6

 

Nearly half of elementary school children can buy junk food at school, a trend that contributes to the childhood obesity epidemic and underscores the need for federal regulation of school snacks, according to a study published Monday in a pediatric journal.

 

The study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, comes as federal regulators are crafting a proposal that would set new nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold in vending machines, snack bars and elsewhere in schools.

 

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The proposal will not cover foods that are part of the federally subsidized school meal program. That program was revamped recently by the Obama administration and requires participating school cafeterias to start serving twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains and less sodium and fat when the next school year begins.

 

Consumer advocates are hoping for an equally dramatic change in so-called “competitive foods” that are sold outside the school meal program. They say these foods, including potato chips and cookies, are widely available but barely regulated in schools.

 

Federal law bans only a small subset of competitive foods, such as sodas and certain types of candy, from being sold in cafeterias during mealtime. But those products are available to kids in other venues at school, even during lunch, according to the study, which was published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Such foods also include sandwiches, pizza and other a la carte items that are not federally reimbursed.

 

“Really, it’s a very weak regulation at this point,” said Lindsey Turner, lead author of the study and a health psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “We’re at a time of transition and opportunity for these competitive foods.”

 

The study, based on mail-back surveys from about 3,900 public and private elementary schools nationwide, found that about half of the students could buy foods in one or more competitive venues during the 2009-10 school year. Access to these foods did not change significantly during the 2006-07 through 2009-10 school years.

 

The study highlighted “striking” regional differences. About 60 percent of public elementary school kids had access to sugary snacks in the South, where childhood obesity rates are the highest. This compares with 24 percent in the West and 30 percent in the Midwest. But fruits and vegetables also were more available in the South.

 

The study assessed only access to snacks, not consumption or the link to obesity. It cited a separate 2009 study, however, in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association showing that 29 percent of elementary school students consumed competitive foods, usually unhealthy ones. A separate study strongly linked the availability of unhealthy foods and drinks in competitive venues with greater calorie intake.

 

In early 2010, the American Beverage Association said that its members had voluntarily reduced the calories in drinks shipped to schools by 88 percent. Its members also stopped offering full-calorie soft drinks in elementary school vending machines.

 

Jim McCarthy, president of the Snack Food Association, said he had not seen this week’s study. But the group’s members, including Frito-Lay and Kraft, have been voluntarily reducing fats, sodium and sugars in their products for at least six years, he said. Last week, the chairman and highest-ranking Democrat on the House agriculture committee wrote a letter urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to make sure that the final proposal is consistent with the standards set for the federally funded school meal program.

 

If you haven’t taken a look at the school menu lately you might want to have a look. Then ask yourself, honestly, is that a healthy way to eat…for anyone?

Monsanto petition tells Obama: ‘Cease FDA ties to Monsanto’

A two-year-old Food and Drug Administration appointment is stirring up online protests once more.

In 2009, President Obama appointed Michael Taylor as a senior adviser for the FDA. Consumer groups protested the appointment because Taylor had formerly served as a vice president for Monsanto, the controversial agricultural multinational at the forefront of genetically modified food.

In recent days, a petition calling for the former Monsanto VP’s ouster is gaining steam.

“President Obama, I oppose your appointment of Michael Taylor,” the petition on Signon.org reads. “Taylor is the same person who was Food Safety Czar at the FDA when genetically modified organisms were allowed into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is a travesty.”

Over the weekend, the petition was signed by thousands of people. At this writing, it has around 60,000 signatures of its 75,000 goal.

Requests for comment from Monsanto and the FDA were not immediately returned.

Signees of the petition argue that Monsanto should not have influence at the FDA because it will hurt farmers and threaten plants and animals. They cite scientific research that has found genetically modified foods could be a cause for chronic illnesses or cancer in the U.S.

Full Article

How they are doing local food across the pond!! Some great ideas

The post below is about some innovative movements growing in the UK. Take a look!

Matt McD posted before on why a focus on “food miles” over simplifies the local food debate. And Lloyd and Pablo, in their post on the Carbon Footprint of Local Food, have also made the case that local is about much more than location—with means of production, distribution and point of sale all contributing to the bigger picture.

The fact is that food grown close to home is just one part of a much broader rethink of our food system that is already underway. From people-funded farms and backyard agriculturalists through crop mobs and anti-food waste efforts to high-tech clean energy-powered produce distribution and rooftop supermarket farms, there’s room for innovation at every point along the supply chain.

Here’s a neat series of videos on how different parts of the UK are stepping up to the challenge.

Keep buying local to revive your local economy and long term self sufficiency by shopping at farmers markets

We are reminded in this article by Suzi Parrasch, how widespread farmers markets are becoming and the transformational effects they can have on our local economies.

Not so long ago, the end of summer meant the end of fresh, local produce for most of the country, as farmers markets tapered down operations in early fall when the ground started to harden. But not anymore. According to the US Department of Agriculture, winter farmers markets have seen a 38% increase since 2010, and today there are more than 1,200 winter markets operating across the country.

“Consumers are looking for more ways to buy locally grown food throughout the year,” Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan said. “Through winter markets, American farmers are able to meet this need and bring in additional income to support their families and businesses.”

As the USDA’s blog points out, winter farmers markets provide an opportunity for consumers to enjoy winter crops such as squash and pears, fresh from their local farmers. “Our sales at the winter market even out our income over the year, eliminating some of the highs and lows of our financial situation,” Skip Paul, a farmer at Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton, RI, told the USDA.

Many markets move inside for the winter months, but not all. “We have a fire pit to help people keep warm and a very loyal following,” Judy Stroske of the Loudoun Valley HomeGrown Markets Cooperative, which runs a winter market in Leesburg, VA, told USA Today. Stroske acknowledged the weather plays a role in what’s available week to week, but there’s always a selection of meat, honey, salsa, baked goods and dairy — and, as she asserted, no refrigeration worries.

As Merrigan told USA Today,”It’s a win-win for consumers and farmers.”

The USDA credits some of the growth in winter markets to the rise in hoop house technology. Hoop houses — simple, inexpensive steel tubing draped with plastic sheeting — allow smaller farmers to extend their growing season at low cost, especially in colder climates. In fact, as USA Today reports, the USDA began helping farmers pay part of the costs for hoop houses in 2009, and has since co-funded about 4,500 — many of them in Wisconsin and Alaska.

And here’s something that may surprise you, many of the states with the most winter markets are in chillier parts of the country. Take a look at the top ten list:

1. New York

2. California

3. Pennsylvania

4. North Carolina

5. Ohio

6. Maryland

7. Florida

8. Massachusetts

9. Virginia

10. Michigan

Don’t know if there’s a winter farmers market near you? Check out the National Farmers Market Directory and make it a New Year’s resolution to buy local — even in the winter.

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