Food! Grow your own! Or not! But know your shit.
Recently I read about that stated that to sell a washed egg in France was illegal. However, depending on your USDA inspector, it could be illegal to not wash the egg. But then you have to deal with how the eggs are going to be used (cracked and emptied or table eggs) to really get into regulations. Perhaps I will dedicate a post just to eggs in this country. Trust me when I say you won’t really want to eat anything while reading it.
So this is not about eggs, but about that simple fact that there are things in this country that we consume on a daily basis that are illegal in other countries. Because these other countries are not owned by big businesses (insert political soapbox here) but these countries do care about the safety of their population. In many countries you have to prove that the food is safe before it is sold… in ours everything is innocent until proven guilty.
So what are the top 7 banned foods, we still consume?
1. rBGH, the Bovine Growth Hormone that is found in dairy products. While we in the US struggle to just allow labeling of hormone free milk the people in the EU are living it up.
2. Chlorinated Chickens. This came into effect in 1997 and prevents all the imports of American chickens, which are bathed in chlorine, to enter the E.U. While the US has been trying, for years, to get the EU to take our chickens the E.U states: “US had been unsuccesful in reducing the incidence of bacterial infections like salmonella despite the use of anti-microbial treatment. The EU's approach to control pathogens has been much more successful, they stress.” Perhaps the US could look at why there is Salmonella in everything here and not in other places, like Japan. (Though I have heard Japan is starting to us our farming practices and the sal is on the rise.)
3. Stevia, so this one… EU says it potentially disturbs fertility and other things. Others say that it can bring about positive health effects. Honestly, I didn’t care about this one enough to research it beyond this point.
4. Food Contact Chemicals Specifically phthalates and bisphenol- while not totally banned, they are heavily regulated in the EU. Not so much here. This is also one of those that would take a lot more research just to shift through the mass of reports and studies.
5. Pesticides in your food or use in certain places…. Any use of pesticides near schools, parks or hospitals would be either banned or severely restricted. Wholesale aerial crop-spraying would also be banned. Buffer zones would also be mandatory to protect aquatic environments and drinking water from pesticides. Of course, the EU is not a Utopia, they have their people criticizing this ban. Those that want the ban lifted state "could be facing a difficult future with our agriculture and food production seriously threatened. We cannot support measures which reduce the tools available to farmers and growers to produce crops and that could ultimately jeopardize future food supply and security." Wanna know what the E.U said? Peter Melchett, said organic farmers had proven that crops could be grown with minimal use of pesticides.
"The vast majority of farmers don't use these chemicals on a regular basis anyway and those few farmers who do use them can find alternatives," he said. Changes in the way pesticides are authorised for use on crops are part of an EU goal to halve the use of toxic products in farming by 2013.
6. GMO, or Gentically modified foods The E.U is consistently under attack for this one.
First understand that this came from the people. The people of the EU demanded to have their food labeled. The US is opposed to labeling.
So in 2003 they said they required that all food/feed containing or derived from genetically modified organisms be labeled and any GM ingredients in food be traced. It would also require documentation tracing biotechnological products through each step of the grain handling and food production processes. They, the EU, has also imposed tax, tariff and trade proposal would particularly affect GMO products from the US.
So what does that mean, in 2010 the USDA did a sampling of American farmers and determined that …
93% of Soybeans grown in the US are GMO
78% Cotton
70% of Corn
Which if you think about it… you the taxpayer are paying these farmers to grow this product through subsides and what not. But they can’t sell it anymore, so it costs us money. So what do we do with it? We feed it to lifestock that shouldn’t be eating it… but we have to do something with it- and by all means we CAN NOT use it for biofuel- then the oil companies don’t get their $$.
The EU isn’t the only ones to ban this product… You have Zambia, Venezuela, Hungry tried..
Some say there isn’t enough info- but then things like this happen:
In 2010 three scientists published a statistical re-analysis of three feeding trials that had previously been published by others as establishing the safety of genetically modified corn. The new article claimed that their statistics instead showed that the three patented crops (Mon 810, Mon 863, and NK 603) developed and owned by Monsanto cause liver, kidney, and heart damage in mammals. A previous re-analysis of part of this data by the same group of scientists was assessed by a panel of independent toxicologists in a study funded by Monsanto and published in the journal Food and chemical toxicology, the reviewers reported that the study was statistically flawed and providing no evidence of adverse effects.
Still with me? Ok.. so the last one is the one that surprised me- a lot. It is not a current ban, but the EU is working on it.
7. Synthetic Food Dyes Those bright and friendly colors that bring joy to your child as she slurps down a drinkable yogurt or mixes Froot Loops with some milk are actually dangerous poisons. Or at least have the potential to wreak various forms of damage to your child - starting from neurological issues and all the way to cancer.
So there is this report out… http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food-dyes-rainbow-of-risks.pdf
It basically says:
Blue 1, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 have long been known to cause allergic reactions in some people. CSPI says that while those reactions are not common, they can be serious and provide reason enough to ban those dyes. Furthermore, numerous studies have demonstrated that dyes cause hyperactivity in children.
Tests on lab animals of Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 showed signs of causing cancer …
Yellow 5 also caused mutations, an indication of possible carcinogenicity, in six of 11 tests…
In addition, according to the report, FDA tests show that the three most-widely used dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, are tainted with low levels of cancer-causing compounds, including benzidine and 4-aminobiphenyl in Yellow 5.
Again this shows, what I feel, is a major flaw with the FDA. The FDA approves things when the risk hasn’t been sufficiently proven. In other countries, additives are approved only after safety HAS BEEN proven. I get the whole innocent until proven guilty… if you’re a criminal. (But does it really work that way in the justice system?) But when it comes to the food that people consume, shouldn’t we have a different outlook?
So this is not about eggs, but about that simple fact that there are things in this country that we consume on a daily basis that are illegal in other countries. Because these other countries are not owned by big businesses (insert political soapbox here) but these countries do care about the safety of their population. In many countries you have to prove that the food is safe before it is sold… in ours everything is innocent until proven guilty.
So what are the top 7 banned foods, we still consume?
1. rBGH, the Bovine Growth Hormone that is found in dairy products. While we in the US struggle to just allow labeling of hormone free milk the people in the EU are living it up.
2. Chlorinated Chickens. This came into effect in 1997 and prevents all the imports of American chickens, which are bathed in chlorine, to enter the E.U. While the US has been trying, for years, to get the EU to take our chickens the E.U states: “US had been unsuccesful in reducing the incidence of bacterial infections like salmonella despite the use of anti-microbial treatment. The EU's approach to control pathogens has been much more successful, they stress.” Perhaps the US could look at why there is Salmonella in everything here and not in other places, like Japan. (Though I have heard Japan is starting to us our farming practices and the sal is on the rise.)
3. Stevia, so this one… EU says it potentially disturbs fertility and other things. Others say that it can bring about positive health effects. Honestly, I didn’t care about this one enough to research it beyond this point.
4. Food Contact Chemicals Specifically phthalates and bisphenol- while not totally banned, they are heavily regulated in the EU. Not so much here. This is also one of those that would take a lot more research just to shift through the mass of reports and studies.
5. Pesticides in your food or use in certain places…. Any use of pesticides near schools, parks or hospitals would be either banned or severely restricted. Wholesale aerial crop-spraying would also be banned. Buffer zones would also be mandatory to protect aquatic environments and drinking water from pesticides. Of course, the EU is not a Utopia, they have their people criticizing this ban. Those that want the ban lifted state "could be facing a difficult future with our agriculture and food production seriously threatened. We cannot support measures which reduce the tools available to farmers and growers to produce crops and that could ultimately jeopardize future food supply and security." Wanna know what the E.U said? Peter Melchett, said organic farmers had proven that crops could be grown with minimal use of pesticides.
"The vast majority of farmers don't use these chemicals on a regular basis anyway and those few farmers who do use them can find alternatives," he said. Changes in the way pesticides are authorised for use on crops are part of an EU goal to halve the use of toxic products in farming by 2013.
6. GMO, or Gentically modified foods The E.U is consistently under attack for this one.
First understand that this came from the people. The people of the EU demanded to have their food labeled. The US is opposed to labeling.
So in 2003 they said they required that all food/feed containing or derived from genetically modified organisms be labeled and any GM ingredients in food be traced. It would also require documentation tracing biotechnological products through each step of the grain handling and food production processes. They, the EU, has also imposed tax, tariff and trade proposal would particularly affect GMO products from the US.
So what does that mean, in 2010 the USDA did a sampling of American farmers and determined that …
93% of Soybeans grown in the US are GMO
78% Cotton
70% of Corn
Which if you think about it… you the taxpayer are paying these farmers to grow this product through subsides and what not. But they can’t sell it anymore, so it costs us money. So what do we do with it? We feed it to lifestock that shouldn’t be eating it… but we have to do something with it- and by all means we CAN NOT use it for biofuel- then the oil companies don’t get their $$.
The EU isn’t the only ones to ban this product… You have Zambia, Venezuela, Hungry tried..
Some say there isn’t enough info- but then things like this happen:
In 2010 three scientists published a statistical re-analysis of three feeding trials that had previously been published by others as establishing the safety of genetically modified corn. The new article claimed that their statistics instead showed that the three patented crops (Mon 810, Mon 863, and NK 603) developed and owned by Monsanto cause liver, kidney, and heart damage in mammals. A previous re-analysis of part of this data by the same group of scientists was assessed by a panel of independent toxicologists in a study funded by Monsanto and published in the journal Food and chemical toxicology, the reviewers reported that the study was statistically flawed and providing no evidence of adverse effects.
Still with me? Ok.. so the last one is the one that surprised me- a lot. It is not a current ban, but the EU is working on it.
7. Synthetic Food Dyes Those bright and friendly colors that bring joy to your child as she slurps down a drinkable yogurt or mixes Froot Loops with some milk are actually dangerous poisons. Or at least have the potential to wreak various forms of damage to your child - starting from neurological issues and all the way to cancer.
So there is this report out… http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food-dyes-rainbow-of-risks.pdf
It basically says:
Blue 1, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 have long been known to cause allergic reactions in some people. CSPI says that while those reactions are not common, they can be serious and provide reason enough to ban those dyes. Furthermore, numerous studies have demonstrated that dyes cause hyperactivity in children.
Tests on lab animals of Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 showed signs of causing cancer …
Yellow 5 also caused mutations, an indication of possible carcinogenicity, in six of 11 tests…
In addition, according to the report, FDA tests show that the three most-widely used dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, are tainted with low levels of cancer-causing compounds, including benzidine and 4-aminobiphenyl in Yellow 5.
Again this shows, what I feel, is a major flaw with the FDA. The FDA approves things when the risk hasn’t been sufficiently proven. In other countries, additives are approved only after safety HAS BEEN proven. I get the whole innocent until proven guilty… if you’re a criminal. (But does it really work that way in the justice system?) But when it comes to the food that people consume, shouldn’t we have a different outlook?