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(NaturalNews) Even though stevia has not been authorized as a food ingredient in the United States, a number of food, beverage and ingredient companies are investing significant money to expand production for what they view as its inevitable approval.
Stevia, a sweetener derived from a South American plant, is said to have approximately 300 times the sweetness of sugar, with a slower onset and longer duration. Because it has no significant effect on blood sugar and has essentially zero calories, it has attracted attention as a natural, non-synthetic sugar alternative. While stevia tends to have a slightly bitter aftertaste, producers claim to have eliminated this drawback with new processing methods.
Although the Food and Drug Association (FDA) allows stevia to be used only as an ingredient in dietary supplements, the agency has said that it expects a petition to grant stevia Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status any day.
Coca-Cola has filed 24 patent applications for stevia in the United States, and has teamed up with Cargill to begin marketing the sweetener. Media reports suggest that the companies are preparing to petition the FDA.
Meanwhile, Malaysian ingredient firm PureCircle is raising $50 million to expand its stevia production by three times in the next two years. The company has already secured patents on a technique for extracting Rebaudioside-A, one of the sweeteners found in the stevia plant.
U.S. company Blue California has also developed a process for extracting Rebaudioside-A. Through comments that its process allows the price of stevia to be competitive with that of sugar, the firm has indicated that it is viewing stevia as more than a dietary supplement. While the company is only planning to begin small-scale production of the sweetener, it says that it is preparing the infrastructure to be able to scale up significantly once stevia is approved for foods and beverages.
Stevia is approved for use as a food and beverage ingredient in a handful of countries including Brazil, Canada, China and Japan.
A growing number of Americans are seeking so-called green cleaners -- products made with natural, nontoxic, and biodegradable ingredients. Sales of natural cleaning products totaled $105 million in the last year.
Some of these cleaners promise that they contain natural (instead of synthetic) agents, break down quickly in the environment, or pose less of a toxic threat to humans and ecosystems. But critics caution that just because the ingredients in green cleaners are plant-based or natural doesn't necessarily mean they're safe.
Although green cleaners may purport to list all ingredients, the market is largely unregulated -- which means consumers still must be wary of what's in the bottle. Even cleaning products labeled "natural" may contain some fraction of synthetic chemicals. Or they may contain natural ingredients consumers would rather avoid, such as petroleum distillates, some of which can cause cancer. And just because a cleaning product is biodegradable and made from plant-based sources doesn't mean that it is without potential adverse effects on health.
Plant-based ingredients included in some green cleaners include limonene (a citrus-based oil), pine oil, and the foaming agent coconut diethanolamide -- all of which can cause allergic dermatitis. And a recent study of natural and nontoxic consumer products found the suspected cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane in roughly half of 100 tested products -- including several dishwashing liquids with words such as "Earth friendly" and "eco" in their brand names.
Consumer advocates have pressed for stricter labeling rules, but the industry has resisted, arguing that long lists of ingredients would create a distraction on product labels, drawing attention away from important safety information.
I just recently found out that Subway is hosting a contest for elementary aged children, but are not allowing home educated students to enter. I encourage everyone to send them a little note letting them know your feelings on this. Maybe if they receive a huge number of letters regarding this, they will reconsider how they treat home-educated students. You can send them email at their website:
I was very disappointed to find that you state that home-educated children were not allowed to enter your contest. This is both wrong and discriminatory.
"Contest is open only to legal US residents, over the age of 18 with children in either elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted".
I don't know if you know it, but in Texas, homeschools ARE CONSIDERED private schools. So, according to Texas law, any of my children should be able to enter your contest, since you do allow private school entries. But since you have chosen to disallow home educated children, we will not be entering, nor will we or any member of my family or our homeschool organization be eating at a Subway anytime in the near future.
Do you realize HOW many home-educated students there are in the US? According to the National Home Education Research Institute…
"There were an estimated 1,700,000 to 2,100,000 children (grades K-12) home educated during 2002-2003 in the United States. Homeschooling appears to still be the fastest-growing form of education."
AND this was information is five years old. There are now MANY more home educators! In some states there are record numbers of students leaving the public education system to join the already OVER 2 MILLION home educated students. If all the home educated families stopped eating at Subway, your business would be in a bit of a pickle (so to speak).
By not allowing home-educated students to participate in your contest, you are being discriminating to a rather large portion of students. I for one will be boycotting your business. I also have a rather large blog, homeschool group, and am on several large homeschool email groups. I will be posting this information to each of them and pass the word along farther. Homeschoolers tend to stick together and stand up for what's right, so if you notice a profit loss in the next few months, maybe you should consider this.
Thank you for your time and I do hope that you will reconsider your position on this contest.
Susan Godfrey
Spiraling Food Prices Result in Deadly Violence Around the World
(NaturalNews) Anger and political unrest over escalating world food prices is becoming increasingly violent. Higher prices for the basic food commodities used by developing countries have produced clashes in Egypt and several African states. The government of Haiti has fallen from a political segue that started with a protest against food prices. An international food expert has warned of more fighting with no short-term relief in sight.
According to an article from the Washington Times, "World food prices have risen 45 percent in the last nine months and there are serious shortages of rice, wheat and corn," said Jacques Diouf, head of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at a conference in New Delhi. "There is a risk that this unrest will spread in countries where 50 to 60 percent of income goes to food."
Several people have been reported killed in disturbances as unrest in Haiti continues amid a doubling of the price of rice. A supermarket, several gas station marts and a government rice warehouse have been looted, according to the Washington Times.
The Prime Minister of Egypt has promised concessions to workers in the industrial city of Mahalla al-Kobra after days of rioting over rising food prices resulted in the death of one protestor. These clashes were described as the most serious anti-government demonstrations since riots in 1977 erupted over soaring bread prices.
Unrest has also been reported by the FAO in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Bolivia and Uzbekistan, among other countries.
The world's largest rice importer, the Philippines, has moved to head off protests following the global price doubling of rice. Higher rice prices would cut the country's gross domestic product by at least one percent this year according to Credit Suisse. Controls of domestic rice sales have been tightened and security of government storehouses has been strengthened. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warned that anyone convicted of stealing rice would be jailed.
Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank, has said that close to three dozen countries face social unrest as a result of rising food and fuel prices. He sees the countries most at risk as having "no margin for survival".
The Washington Times reports the executive director of the U.N. World Food Program was in Washington recently making an urgent appeal for funds to compensate for rising prices. "We're asking for the world to really think through how we meet the emergency needs of the hungry," she told a reporter. She claimed her agency was $500 million short for the current fiscal year in meeting needs to relieve the global food and fuel crisis.
This crisis has been building for months spurred by a confluence of events. Among them are higher fuel prices that make the transport of food more expensive, and the rotation of farmers from food crops to biofuel. Food demand is also rising as the emerging populations in China, India and other Asian countries gain wealth with which to purchase better quality food containing higher levels of protein. Weather has also been a factor as drought has hit some major producers such as Australia. Commodity market speculators have helped sustain the higher prices. Although speculators are often discounted during extreme price moves, the fact that they seldom take delivery of the actual commodity prevents market prices from reflecting true market conditions.
At a conference in Dubai, John Holmes, the chief U.N. humanitarian official predicted that the situation would continue to produce political repercussions. "The security implications should not be underestimated, as food riots are already being reported across the globe," he said. "Current food prices are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity."
According to analysts quoted in the Washington Times, price increases are across the board, not just focused on a few crops or markets. A recent survey found that the price of staple food has risen by 80 percent since 2005, including a 40 percent increase this year. The real price of rice is at a 19 year high, with the price of wheat at a 28 year high.
Along with the conversion of huge segments of farm lands to biofuels, it is also believed that demographic trends, changing diets, energy prices, and climate changes predict higher food prices for years to come. It is not just the poor who will be pushed into extreme behavior.
Sources:
Author not named, "Global food riots turn deadly", Washington Times, April 10, 2008.
Klarreich, Kathie, "Food Riots Lead to Haitian Meltdown", Time, April 14, 2008.
William Phaff, "Speculators and Soaring Food Prices", Herald Tribune, April 16, 2008.
About the author
Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 2, 2008; Page D01
Poultry giant Tyson Foods has 14 days to dismantle a national multimillion dollar ad campaign centered on the claim that its chickens are raised without antibiotics, a federal appeals court in Richmond ruled yesterday.
Tyson, based in Springdale, Ark., will have to remove posters and brochures from 8,500 grocery stores nationwide.
"We're disappointed the motion for a stay has been denied and are evaluating our legal options," said Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods. "We continue to believe we have acted responsibly in the way we have labeled and marketed our products and intend to stand our ground."
The ruling is a setback for Tyson in its ongoing battle with two of its competitors Sanderson Farms, based in Laurel, Miss., and Perdue Farms, based in Salisbury, Md. The two companies jointly sought an injunction to stop Tyson's ad campaign, arguing the "raised without antibiotics" claim misleads consumers by making it appear Tyson's chicken is safer or more healthful.
Sanderson and Perdue initially based their legal challenge on Tyson's practice of feeding chickens ionophores, an antibiotic used only in animals raised for food. Sanderson and Perdue also use ionophores.
Then during trial in federal court in Baltimore, Tyson officials acknowledged they also inject eggs several days before they hatch with antibiotics that are approved for use in humans. Dave Hogberg, Tyson's senior vice president for consumer products, said it is a common industry practice.
Hogberg said injecting eggs with antibiotics did not undermine the "raised without antibiotic" label because the term "raised" is understood to cover the period that begins with hatching.
More consumers are becoming concerned about the use of antibiotics in poultry, swine and cattle because they and many public health experts think that it contributes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant viruses in humans.
The dispute between Tyson and its competitors began last year, when Tyson announced it would raise its chickens without antibiotics, as part of a larger effort to relaunch its brand. It sought approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the use of the label "raised without antibiotics." USDA initially approved the language, then last fall reversed itself, saying it had made a mistake.
Tyson came up with a new label that said, "raised without antibiotics that impact antibiotic resistance in humans" that the USDA greenlighted.
The resulting advertising campaign proved a huge success. In a February conference call, Tyson chief executive Richard Bond told analysts the company has had double-digit increases in sales of fresh chicken raised without antibiotics, totaling an additional 70 million pounds of chicken a year.
But Tyson's success came at a high cost for its competitors, said Randall K. Miller, a partner at Arnold and Porter and lead counsel for Sanderson and Perdue. The companies sued in January seeking to force Tyson to stop making claims that its products were antibiotic free.
Sanderson blamed Tyson's ad campaign for the loss of a $4 million account, and Perdue blamed it for a $10 million loss in revenue. Greater damage, however, was done to the companies' reputations, Miller said. In seeking an injunction against Tyson's ad campaign, Sanderson and Perdue argued that Tyson's "raised without antibiotics" claim caused irreparable harm by implying its competitors' products contained antibiotics or dangerous additives and were therefore less safe.
Separately, Sanderson and Perdue also petitioned USDA to rescind its approval of Tyson's "raised without the use of antibiotics that impact antibiotic resistance in humans" label, citing both the use of antibiotics in unhatched eggs and in chicken feed.
In an April 30 letter to Miller regarding the companies' petition, the USDA said the egg injecting practice was "of serious concern."
"Rather than discuss any specifics to this particular case, [the Food Safety and Inspection Service of USDA] has requested additional information to help us determine what the facts are in this situation," FSIS spokeswoman Amanda Eamich said.
Hogberg said Tyson has been forthright with regulators. He said he hopes Tyson and USDA can resolve the matter quickly.
"As we did in working with them on the qualified claim last fall . . . we would hope the process would be similar so we can preserve this benefit for the mainstream consumer," he said.
WHILE grocery shoppers agonize over paying 25 percent more for eggs and 17 percent more for milk, Michael Pollan, the author and de facto leader of the food intellectuals, happily dreams of small, expensive bottles of Coca-Cola.
Along with some other critics of the American way of eating, he likes the idea that some kinds of food will cost more, and here's one reason why: As the price of fossil fuels and commodities like grain climb, nutritionally questionable, high-profit ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup will, too. As a result, Cokes are likely to get smaller and cost more. Then, the argument goes, fewer people will drink them.
And if American staples like soda, fast-food hamburgers and frozen dinners don't seem like such a bargain anymore, the American eating public might turn its attention to ingredients like local fruits and vegetables, and milk and meat from animals that eat grass. It turns out that those foods, already favorites of the critics of industrial food, have also dodged recent price increases.
Logic would dictate that arguing against cheap food would be the wrong move when the Consumer Price Index puts food costs at about 4.5 percent more this year than last. But for locavores, small growers, activist chefs and others, higher grocery bills might be just the thing to bring about the change they desire.
Higher food costs, they say, could push pasture-raised milk and meat past its boutique status, make organic food more accessible and spark a national conversation about why inexpensive food is not really such a bargain after all.
"It's very hard to argue for higher food prices because you are ceding popular high ground to McDonald's when you do that," said Mr. Pollan, a contributor to The New York Times Magazine and author of "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" (Penguin Press). "But higher food prices level the playing field for sustainable food that doesn't rely on fossil fuels."
The food-should-cost-more cadre wants to change an agricultural system that spends billions of dollars in government subsidies to grow commodities like grain, sugar, corn and animal protein as cheaply as possible.
The current system, they argue, is almost completely reliant on petroleum for fertilizers and global transportation. It has led to consolidations of farms, environmentally unsound monoculture and, at the end of the line, a surplus of inexpensive food with questionable nutritional value. Organic products are not subsidized, which is one reason those products are more expensive...
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