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The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) filed a letter with USDA this week supporting a legal complaint that calls for an investigation of the two factory farms that the Horizon organic dairy company manages and sources for a significant portion of their “organic” dairy products. As discussed in previous issues of Organic Bytes, since 2006, the OCA has called for a boycott of Horizon’s (Dean Foods) dairy products, due to the corporation’s practice of packing as many as 8,000 cattle onto feedlots, with little or no access to pasture, and then misleadingly labeling these products as “organic”. OCA’s ally, The Cornucopia Institute has filed several legal complaints with the USDA, demanding an investigation of the factory farms, but such requests have, thus far, fallen on deaf ears. Serving as a representative for our 850,000 members, volunteers and subscribers, the OCA is putting heat on the USDA to investigate and sanction the Horizon factory farms.
Learn more: http://wwww.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm

In the midst of dramatically declining bee populations, the German Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVD) has suspended the approval of eight toxic insecticides believed to be responsible for the fate of these important pollinators. The suspended products include chemicals containing imidacloprid and clothianidin, the majority of which are produced by Bayer Company and have been suspected for years of contributing to declining bee populations.France banned the use of imidacloprid in 1999, and rejected Bayer’s application for clothianidin this year. Despite the call for prohibition of imidacloprid from German apiarists and environmental groups as early as 2004, a crisis in bee populations–a reported 50-60% loss, finally forced the government to take action. The U.S., where these products are still approved for use, has also been experiencing extremely alarming rates of bee colony collapse, while areas away from cropland have thriving bee populations.

Imidacloprid and clothianidin are both neonicotinoids, meaning that they target nerve cells in a similar way to nicotine, acting as neurotoxins to sucking insects such as beetles and aphids. Clothianidin was approved for use in the U.S. in 2003 as a seed treatment for corn and canola, despite the fact that the EPA acknowledges it is “highly toxic to honey bees.” Imidacloprid has been approved for use in the U.S. since 1994 for soil, seed and foliar uses and is commonly used on rice, cereal, maize, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, fruit, cotton, and hops. It is also approved for non-dietary uses on turf, ornamentals, buildings (termites), and cats and dogs (fleas). These two products account for over $1.25 billion in global annual sales for Bayer.

As the global bee crisis mounts, chemical industry officials insisted yesterday at a meeting of the Pesticide Programs Dialogue Committee there is no link between the use of neonicotinoids and colony collapse, citing a lack of scientific evidence. However, imidacloprid has been linked to neural effects in honeybees, including disruptions in mobility, navigation, and feeding behavior. Studies in France (2004) and Italy (2003) both found that imidacloprid caused deleterious effects in honeybees including reduced foraging, disorientation and inability to return to their hives. Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate in Penn State University’s entomology department said last year that researchers at Penn State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that while they cannot tie colony collapse to any single factor, they have zeroed in on a new, unnamed pathogen found in the dead bees, and on the role of pesticides.

Honeybees pollinate over 130 crops, and contribute over $15 billion in annual crop sales in the U.S. alone. It is estimated that 1.1 million bee colonies in the U.S. died last year, which is almost 50% higher than usual annual losses. (Daily Green) This global crisis provides an opportunity for the U.S. to lead the way with France and Germany in protecting our pollinators, an important component of our environment and food system. However, both imidacloprid and clothianidin remain approved for use in the U.S.

www.beyondpesticides.org

Consumer Reports journalist, Doug Podolsky, took a stab at homeopathy in the recent issue of Consumer Reports. Despite over two-hundred years of successful use for a variety of ailments, homeopathy is quackery, according to Podolsky who writes, “Check whether over-the-counter products are labeled homeopathic. If they are, we think you should put them back on the shelf.” Podolsky’s Consumer Reports piece references a 2005 study indicating homeopathy is ineffective, but he fails to mention the study has since been debunked. Unfortunately, due to the prestige of Consumer Reports, the article has already gone viral, as marketing firms and pharmaceutical companies spread it far and wide in an attempt to snuff competition from the natural health world.

www.organicconsumers.org

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.

www.naturalnews.com