The United States of Pasteurization

[walnutty]

From Living Tree Community:

Dear brothers and sisters,

Think of it! Over 1.3 billion pounds of almonds are being harvested, the largest crop ever. About half of this will be exported, the remainder, for domestic use, will be fumigated. That's right. 600,000,000 pounds of almonds - fumigated! Moreover, they are not exactly using the roses of May- propylene oxide is a carcinogen. The stuff, much like ether, used to be added to the gasoline tanks of stock cars to give them an extra bit of ummpph! Alas, it was discontinued as it was considered too dangerous. Also, we were edified to learn, its military explosive. No one goes near the stuff unless dressed in a space suit with rubber hands and boots and this, Big Almond in its benevolence, is bringing into your kitchen.

Curious, isn't it, how at the same time, Big Almond has pledged to make almonds "the healthiest specialty crop" pouring money into studies that bolster enthusiastic nutritional claims about heart health and cancer prevention.

To compound this tragedy, it is setting a dangerous precedent. Unless challenged, it might mean almost all fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables might be treated with chemicals, heated or irradiated .On a deeper level, this making of almonds into something both sterile and dead, is part of an assault on wild life. Whether giving kids Prozac who are just acting like kids or purporting to "evaluate" kids with battery of tests, its all part of the same mentality obsessed with homogeneity and terrified of aliveness.

Eating an almond has now become a political act. Making an almond smoothie is like putting your John Hancock on the Declaration of Independence! The kindly and benevolent folks who've been fumigating your almonds, have brought you onto the world stage.

Brothers and sisters, you have a date with history!

http://www.livingtreecommunity.com/

[Veganforlife]

I just feel like how dare they? I mean how dare they mess with Mama Nature's harvest and dictate what goes into my body?. I know. I have the choice not to eat these almonds, which I probably won't after my twenty-five pounds are finished, unless I can find a non-chemical laden source. But to fool the public into thinking they are getting something healthy? It's Hitler-ism. It's not that much different then how he fooled people. Only this is a slower, money-making death. Sad, isn't it?

Thanks for posting this...

[tvillemom]

This absolutely makes me SICK!! Where are WE.....we should be SEEN ANDHEARD!!! I have NO IDEA how to protest this. I'm going to find out how to call me congressman.

Story:
My DAD invested in some shares in a company. It has been YEARS and nothing has been posted yet on the stock market...there were BIG people fighting it...stocks were over sold, etc....lots of problems. My dad started calling congressmen...and I think he even tried to call THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.....(there was that many shares sold...and probably billions to trillions of $$$ at stake for alot of people!)
Now their stock is actually on the market, and it was commented through the message boards that "this would've never happened if people wouldn't have called their congressmen, and gotten the right people involved....and we even think someone called THE PRESIDENT!"

ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.....AND BUNCHES OF US CAN CHANGE THIS RULING.

Wendi

[River Mom]

This absolutely makes me SICK!! Where are WE.....we should be SEEN ANDHEARD!!! I have NO IDEA how to protest this. I'm going to find out how to call me congressman.

Story:
My DAD invested in some shares in a company. It has been YEARS and nothing has been posted yet on the stock market...there were BIG people fighting it...stocks were over sold, etc....lots of problems. My dad started calling congressmen...and I think he even tried to call THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.....(there was that many shares sold...and probably billions to trillions of $$$ at stake for alot of people!)
Now their stock is actually on the market, and it was commented through the message boards that "this would've never happened if people wouldn't have called their congressmen, and gotten the right people involved....and we even think someone called THE PRESIDENT!"

ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.....AND BUNCHES OF US CAN CHANGE THIS RULING.

Wendi

I'll call my congressman in the morning. Thanks for shaken me up;
RM

[walnutty]

Futher info from Living Tree Community:

Alert Your Fellow Americans!

We have prepared a Press Release. We'd like to ask your help in getting it out. Could you please send it to your local newspapers, tv, radio and other media. Suggest that you follow up by phone to call it to their attention. In addition you can send it to CNN, Fox News, Associated Press, NY Times, Boston Globe and the Washington Post.

Thank you indeed!



Press Release:

Dear Editor,

Over one billion pounds of almonds are being harvested here in California. The California Almond Board in conjunction with the USDA has mandated that they be fumigated. Now almonds have been grown in California for over 150 years. During that lengthy span there have been but two outbreaks of Salmonella, one in 2001 and another in 2004. Both occurred with conventional almonds, not organic. What’s going on here? Its not hard to conjecture that it has something to do with the advent of large scale industrial processing. An almond grower clued us in:-
Almonds are harvested by having a machine come along and shake the trees. The almonds fall to the ground and are gathered up. Now conventional almond orchards are often fertilized with fresh manure. (This is prohibited for organic almonds where manure has got to be well composted.) Its not hard to see this as the source of the contamination. But that’s not all.

The almonds are then put in bins and loaded on trucks. Around a processing plant there may be acres filled with trucks sometimes waiting for days till its their turn to unload. So the almonds sit there in the hot sun, in bins covered with tarpaulins. The almonds are moist and are there baking in the sun What more ideal conditions for every sort of bacillus to flourish? Could there be a more perfect petri dish?!

The problem could be resolved, it seems to us, by foregoing fresh manure and by just in time scheduling so that there is no need to have trucks waiting around for days. Instead they have chosen to fumigate. What a delightful solution. (Reminds us of the meat packing industry- instead of cleaning up the unspeakable conditions in slaughter houses, they want to irradiate meat.)
Organic almonds are handled differently our farmer friend told us. They are grown in orchards filled grasses and wild plants. All summer long the orchards are mulched and mown. The grasses and trees are alive with insects, birds and animals. This biodiversity is a natural check against any untoward organism. Conventional almonds on the other hand are grown in lunarscapes. The ground beneath the trees is bare-after all, nothing must get in the way of production.

Now propylene oxide is a substance very much like ether. It is a highly toxic, flammable chemical compound. It was once used as a stock car racing fuel, but, we are told, it has been banned by the National Hot Rod Association as too dangerous to handle. It is also used as a military explosive, we were edified to learn. No one gets near the stuff unless dressed in a space suit equipped with a respirator, rubber hands and boots. We were further edified to learn that The United States Food & Drug Administration approved its use to "pasteurize" raw almonds. But we find this, somewhat difficult to understand, as propylene oxide is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen. “Probable”, although it has caused cancer in laboratory animals, because no one has been willing to imbibe the stuff to see what would happen. One would imagine that this would be of concern to an agency ostensibly charged with safeguarding the nation’s health. But then there are many things one could imagine. We learned further that propylene oxide belongs to the so-called “radiomimetic” genotoxic chemicals group, because it induces similar biological end-points as ionizing radiation. The chemical’s effects on food include gene mutation, DNA strand breaks, and neoplastic cell transformation.

Needless to say, this is quite unsettling as regards the long term effects on the health of those who eat almonds regularly. It appears that propylene oxyde may be more of a health risk than whatever harm might be caused by Salmonella outbreaks.

At a time when Americans are increasing concerned the safety of the food they eat, the Almond Board has sent them a powerful message about better toxicity through chemistry. We note that the propylene oxide treatment of foods is banned in the European Union, Canada, Mexico and most other civilized countries.

Let us also remember that almonds are consumed by children, adults, expectant and nursing mothers and elders.

Yet the California Almond Board is rushing to fumigate. As we see it, this is a dangerous precedent. Before long, most food sold in the United States will be genetically modified, irradiated, pasteurized, homogenized, hydrolyzed and labeled “natural”, of course.

Almonds are the most nutritious of nuts. It is tragic that the California Almond Board is fumigating them. In doing so, they are destroying a thriving American industry.

The San Francisco Chronicle recently did an interview with us and others in the industry. It appeared as a front page feature story:

Organic Almond Supporters Roast Pasteurization Plan
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/23/BUE8RN9HJ.DTL

There is a wealth of additional information on our website at: http://www.livingtreecommunity.com/store2/arti.asp

As we see it, California almonds are the heritage of the American people. Almonds are grown nowhere else in North America but here. They are the result of the intentionality of family farmers, the fertile soil of the great Central Valley, water from melting snow in the high Sierra Mountains and the California sunlight. They are our birthright.

I would be pleased to provide further details.

With kindness and appreciation,

Jesse Schwartz, Ph.D.
President
Living Tree Community Foods
(510) 526-7106 ext.12
(510) 526-9516 fax
jesse@livingtreecommunity.com
http://www.livingtreecommunity.com

[walnutty]

...bumping up...

[Dj 247]

I refuse to buy the processed almonds or products made with them. The end. When they start losing money as in sales they will rethink what is healthy I'm sure.