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Thread: For those that hate chemicals on their fresh produce...

  1. #1
    Featured Member pixierocksonthepole's Avatar
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    Default For those that hate chemicals on their fresh produce...

    I thought I would share this link.

    Has all the info and you can sign the petition.

    http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/.../?rc=fb_share1



    I know I can't eat strawberries anyways but this is just wrong for any kind of fresh produce. It just has such horrible side effects and who wants to eat chemical anyways? We want the produce, not the chemicals.





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    Default Re: For those that hate chemicals on their fresh produce...

    ^^^ if you think that's bad, consider what's really happening in regard to the high priced 'organic' foods you pay extra for in US supermarkets ...



    (snip)"From the New York Times…

    U.S. Drops Inspector of Food in China

    Organic food from China, like tea and frozen broccoli, has increasingly found its way onto American store shelves, typically emblazoned with the green “U.S.D.A. organic” seal also found on food grown in this country.

    The federal certification, the backbone of the organics industry, is aimed at assuring consumers that farmers and food manufacturers have passed tough, independent inspections — even half a world away.

    Now serious questions about certification in China have been raised by the United States Agriculture Department. The agency, which uses private groups to conduct most organic inspections worldwide, has banned a leading American inspector from operating in China because of a conflict of interest that strikes at the heart of the organics’ guarantee. The federal agency also plans to send an audit team to China this year to broadly review the certification process.

    Federal officials say the banned inspector, the Organic Crop Improvement Association, used employees of a Chinese government agency to inspect state-controlled farms and food processing facilities. The group, based in Nebraska and known by the initials O.C.I.A., has for years been one of the leading inspectors of Chinese organics for the United States market. Anticipating the department’s action, the group shut most of its operations last year.

    The ban, to be formally announced on Monday, is likely to propel consumer worries about organic food from a country that many associate with food safety scandals and lax regulation, involving things like contaminated milk and toys coated in lead paint.

    Whole Foods Market, the nation’s leading organic retailer, has used Chinese organics, including those from association-inspected producers, in many of its store brand products, including frozen vegetables, sunflower seeds, pine nuts and bottled teas."(snip)

    (snip)"In China, the O.C.I.A. joined forces with the Organic Food Development Corporation, an agency affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection. The association kept a small staff — one or three people in Nanjing — while inspectors from the Chinese agency went out to farms and factories. Their findings were translated into English and sent to O.C.I.A. headquarters in Nebraska, where staff members reviewed the material and made the final decisions on certification.

    The department objected to the arrangement after a 2007 audit, saying the partnership violated a rule barring certifiers from reviewing operations in which they held a commercial interest.

    The department moved to revoke the association’s accreditation and the group filed an appeal. The department’s disciplinary process is conducted in secret, and negotiations often drag on. In O.C.I.A.’s case, it took nearly three years to resolve.

    Mr. See, the former association director, said that if the group had cut its ties to the Chinese agency and kept working in China independently, it would have had to comply with a requirement that foreign companies maintain large reserves in a Chinese bank, money the group did not have."(snip)

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    Featured Member pixierocksonthepole's Avatar
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    Default Re: For those that hate chemicals on their fresh produce...

    Good news is I would rather grow my own than buy organic. Or go to the local farmer's market. It's really cheap there. This stuff is scary!!





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    Default Re: For those that hate chemicals on their fresh produce...

    ^^^ you better hurry !!! Later this week the US Senate is holding hearings on a new S510 food safety bill that may wind up killing Farmer's Markets !

    (snip)"S510 the government now wants control of your garden.

    Carolyn Hileman
    The Voice

    At first glance S510 seems harmless enough, as a matter of fact after the past few years of non stop tainted food it would almost be welcome, but once you get past all of the struck out lines and start reading the details you start to understand this is not just a bill to regulate food safety among major food suppliers it affects everyone, even those who sell at your local farmers markets. It affects local growers who sell to the farmers markets so yes, it affects you too.

    ‘‘SEC. 419. STANDARDS FOR PRODUCE SAFETY.
    18 ‘‘(3) CONTENT.—The proposed rulemaking under
    paragraph (1) shall— ‘‘(A) provide sufficient flexibility to be applicable to various types of entities engaged in the production and harvesting of raw agricultural commodities, including small businesses and entities that sell directly to consumers, and be appropriate to the scale and diversity of the production and harvesting of such commodities; ‘‘(B) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, packing, and storage operations, minimum standards related to soil amendments, hygiene, packaging,temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water;

    This section was taken directly from the 266 page bill that can be found at ls&docid=f:s510rs.txt.pdf A bill that also includes fees and rules that are to long to mention here, we dare not at this time to even speculate at the cost of implementing such a bill as in the taxes it most assuredly will entail, nor do we wish to speculate on the rising cost of food due to these new overbearing regulations"(snip)

    from


    admittedly I haven't invested much effort in researching the provisions of this bill, but some other have ...

    (snip)"S510, called a food safety bill, will subject small farmers and processors to the same regulations as multinational agricultural conglomerates. S510 will require producers of value added products to register their property with the government, pay an unspecified fee (HR2749, which passed in the House, requires an annual fee of $500), prepare and use continually a HAACP plan, trace suppliers and buyers, and comply with the government’s “best growing methods”. HR2749 allows warrantless searches and seizures of products and records. S510 additionally specifies that searches and seizures may include animals, which may be destroyed. I referred to HR2749 as “NAIS for bread and jam”; S510 could lead to mandatory NAIS for everything.

    Traceability could be a very big issue for us depending on how clear any exemptions for small farmers are and whether or not those exemptions disappear at a later date, as exemptions sometimes do! Both HR2749 and S510 aim to have full trace back and trace forward records at nearly every point of a food item’s existence, until sold to the final consumer. We will need special labels with tracking numbers that conform to Global Trade Identification numbers, even if we never sell a single item out of our own state, much less out of the country. A few years ago, it may have been an easy argument that tomatoes don’t need barcodes, but now tomatoes, greens, peppers and melons are on a “risky foods” list and may be included

    A feel good exemption added to HR2749, is that food, including livestock, that is consumed on farm or sold directly to a consumer, restaurant or grocery store is exempted. This could mean farmers must either sell cuts or contract to sell live animals, which can then be delivered to a butcher and processed under USDA or custom butchering, as the state allows. A farmer who sells at auction without registration would not be exempted. The exemption, however, still requires strict recordkeeping even for those who sell direct! Another amendment that is not as good as it seems: S-510’s amendment that delays but is unlikely to stop our need to comply with global standards.

    Small farms and processors currently have state agriculture and health departments to deal with, as well as organic, humane or other certifiers. This bill greatly broadens the FDA’s authority, even into matters Constitutionally under state jurisdiction. (Per the 10th Amendment, food that is not sold across state lines is out of Federal jurisdiction.) It also gives FDA expanded authority in traditionally USDA matters.

    If you fail to pay fees within 30 days of the due date, “such fee shall be treated as a claim of the United States Government”, which means property could be seized. Farmers could be shut down and ordered to pay recall and inspector fees for “misbranded” products, which clearly include not only safety issues, but also sloppy paperwork!

    S510 includes dozens of requirements for the Health and Human Services Secretary to “devise and implement” plans for specific food issues, which means the bill could change drastically over time. Although HR2749 exempts farmers who sell direct to the final consumer, S510 is less clear. Since size of business or gross receipts are not considered, even a one acre blueberry farm selling through retail stores could be forced to comply."(snip)

    from

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    Default Re: For those that hate chemicals on their fresh produce...

    Quote Originally Posted by pixierocksonthepole View Post
    I thought I would share this link.

    Has all the info and you can sign the petition.

    http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/.../?rc=fb_share1



    I know I can't eat strawberries anyways but this is just wrong for any kind of fresh produce. It just has such horrible side effects and who wants to eat chemical anyways? We want the produce, not the chemicals.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_iodide
    Here's what Wikipedia had to say on this chemical:
    (snip)
    Toxicity and biological effects
    Methyl iodide has an LD50 for oral administration to rats 76 mg/kg, and in the liver it undergoes rapid conversion to S-methylglutathione.[6] It is a possible carcinogen based on ACGIH, NTP, or EPA classification.
    Breathing methyl iodide fumes can cause lung, liver, kidney and central nervous system damage. It causes nausea, dizziness, coughing and vomiting. Prolonged contact with skin causes burns. Massive inhalation causes pulmonary edema. (snip)
    “What a caterpillar calls the end of the world we call a butterfly.” - ECKHART TOLLE

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    Default Re: For those that hate chemicals on their fresh produce...

    ^^and that is exactly why I think it's a horrible idea. Who would want to put something like that into their body?





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