{"id":3902,"date":"2012-10-17T20:03:36","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T01:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=3902"},"modified":"2022-07-21T14:37:55","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T19:37:55","slug":"the-usda-ban-on-raw-almonds-is-a-food-freedom-issue-not-a-food-safety-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2012\/10\/17\/the-usda-ban-on-raw-almonds-is-a-food-freedom-issue-not-a-food-safety-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"The USDA ban on raw almonds is a food freedom issue, not a food safety issue!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Almonds\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Update July 21, 2022:<\/strong><\/em> Small Scale Raw Almonds Under Attack in U.S.; European Imports Unregulated<\/a>. Currently “small growers are able to operate exempt from a host of expensive and burdensome regulations and sell raw almonds directly to their customers. . . The proposed change would likely drive small growers out of business, lead to imported almonds from Europe not subject to the same regulations and deny consumers the health benefit of this simple nutritious product from sustainable growers.”<\/p>\n

[Update:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>On February 22, 2013: the DC Court of Appeals “held that California almond producers don\u2019t currently have the right to even\u00a0argue<\/em>\u00a0that the USDA overstepped the bounds of its authority with the Almond Rule.”\u00a0\u00a0 The Almond Rule had actually extended the power of the USDA to “mandate how<\/em> dairy, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and animals are processed.” (source<\/a>)\u00a0 Another blow to food freedom!<\/strong><\/em>]<\/p>\n

Whether or not you eat, or even like, almonds, you should care about the USDA’s ban on raw almonds, because the ban is most certainly a Food Freedom issue.\u00a0 U.S. organic almond growers are not free to sell their natural raw product and we, as consumers, cannot buy raw almonds grown in the U.S.\u00a0 In 2007, the USDA mandated that all U.S. grown almonds be pasteurized (heated) or, for non-organic almonds, gassed with the toxic gas propylene oxide<\/a> (PPO), a probable human carcinogen.\u00a0 Almonds treated with PPO are banned in Canada and the European Union but allowed, even encouraged by the ban, in the US.<\/p>\n

Don’t be fooled if you’ve seen U.S. almonds labeled “raw.”\u00a0 The USDA allows<\/em> almond growers and processors to label almonds as “raw” even though they’ve been pasteurized or gassed!\u00a0 How about that?\u00a0 Is that truth in labeling?<\/p>\n

Why did the USDA impose a ban on raw almonds? A few people became ill from Salmonella traced to open containers of non-organic almonds in 2004.\u00a0 Likely in fear that people would stop buying almonds, large agribusinesses asked the USDA<\/em> to ban the sale of raw U.S. grown almonds.\u00a0 Since it seems that the USDA almost always does whatever big agribusiness wants, a ban was issued on the sale of US grown raw almonds in the U.S.<\/p>\n

There is no similar restriction on imported almonds<\/em><\/strong>, even though there is no difference in the risk of illness<\/em> between imported and U.S. grown raw almonds!\u00a0US customers now must buy much more expensive imported almonds, if they want their almonds raw and unprocessed. In another strange twist of the law, U.S. growers may ship their raw almonds overseas with no restrictions!\u00a0\u00a0 Unbelievable but true!\u00a0 They just can’t sell them in the U.S.\u00a0 How weird!\u00a0 Another oddity with the ban–growers can sell their raw almonds at farm stands but not in organic food stores or any retail store.\u00a0 Does this seem like a true food safety issue?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 It’s a food freedom issue!\u00a0 It’s a market control issue.<\/p>\n

The ban on raw almonds has hit the California organic almond growers especially hard.\u00a0 Customers who want organic almonds often want them raw and unprocessed.\u00a0 The California organic almond growers sued the USDA in 2008 to regain their right to sell raw almonds.\u00a0\u00a0 The USDA has pursued this case very aggressively, partly because it is viewed as a test case for the USDA which wants the power to require all raw, healthful foods to be “killed”<\/em> (the “kill step” so favored by the FDA’s John Sheehan<\/a>) by pasteurization, gas, irradiation or other processes.\u00a0 The USDA’s view is that “killing” all raw foods is good for the consumer, because killing bacteria makes foods safer!?<\/p>\n

Why should we want raw unprocessed almonds instead of cooked or gassed almonds?\u00a0 First let’s just acknowledge that no one should eat almonds gassed with a carcinogenic.<\/p>\n

So let’s move to the second treatment–pasteurization\/heating of organic almonds. We buy raw almonds because they are rich in nutrients.\u00a0 We don’t want those nutrients damaged or reduced by heating (pasteurization).\u00a0 Almonds are high in protein (with a fairly well balanced amino acid content), linoleic acid (the body’s main essential fatty acid), vitamin E, and contain phytonutrients.\u00a0 They are very good sources of many minerals such as calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.\u00a0 Pasteurization destroys enzymes and valuable phytonutrients and lowers vitamin E content.<\/p>\n

Even if heating weren’t destructive of nutrients, do we really want the USDA to have the right to ban<\/em> any raw foods, any<\/em> foods?\u00a0 The USDA’s FDA is also trying very hard to ban raw milk.\u00a0 This is definitely a food rights, food freedom issue!\u00a0 If the USDA wins this one, what food is next?\u00a0 It is essential that we have the basic, fundamental right to choose the foods we want to eat for our health and that of our children.\u00a0 Our health and our lives depend on it!<\/p>\n

How can we help the California organic almond growers?\u00a0\u00a0 We can donate to help them win their lawsuit against the USDA.\u00a0 They have already been hurt economically from the lack of raw almond sales, and, as you probably know, this type of litigation takes many years to process through the legal system. Visit Action for Almonds<\/a> to help with their legal expenses so that they can continue fighting the USDA so they once again may sell their healthy, untreated almonds.<\/p>\n

We can also tell others about the attempts to restrict our freedom to choose the foods we want to eat.\u00a0 The more knowledge people have about what is being done to our food supply, the less they will be fooled by misleading labels such as those calling cooked\/gassed almonds “raw.”<\/em> \u00a0 We need accurate labeling.\u00a0We need to know what’s in our food and what’s been done to it!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/em><\/p>\n

Staying Healthy with Nutrition<\/em> by Elson M. Haas, MD,
\nAlmonds<\/a><\/em>, The Weston A. Price Foundation<\/p>\n

Additional Information Sources (added August 14, 2015)<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Almond<\/em> (Wikipedia)<\/a>
\nCourt to Farmers: \u201cYou Don\u2019t Have the Right to Fight the USDA!\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Photo credit: Wikipedia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This post is shared on Fill Those Jars Friday: October 19, 2012<\/a>, Freaky Friday 10\/19\/2012<\/a>, Monday Mania 10\/22\/2012<\/a> and Fat Tuesday: October 23, 2012<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Update July 21, 2022: Small Scale Raw Almonds Under Attack in U.S.; European Imports Unregulated. Currently “small growers are able to operate exempt from a host of expensive and burdensome regulations and sell raw almonds directly to their customers. . …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,16,11,63,172,18,19,58],"tags":[278,282,27,26,25,64,61,174,40,280,281,24,127,31,403,279],"class_list":["post-3902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access-to-good-food","category-food-freedom","category-food-rights","category-food-safety","category-nutrition","category-organic-food","category-real-food","category-usda","tag-almonds","tag-carcinogen","tag-fda","tag-food-freedom-2","tag-food-rights-2","tag-food-safety-2","tag-healthy-foods","tag-nutrition-2","tag-organic","tag-phytonutrients","tag-ppo","tag-raw-milk-2","tag-real-food-2","tag-sustainable-farming","tag-usda","tag-vitamin-e"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p70SEj-10W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3902"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7793,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions\/7793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}