Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Is this for real or not?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
--------------

Mandatory Almond Pasteurization -Plus-  Another Story on Bees & GM Foods

MANDATORY ALMOND PASTEURIZATION


All Almonds will be Pasteurized starting 2007! No label allowing "truly raw
almonds" Almonds labeled as "Raw Almonds" will still have been pasteurized!
A big lie and fraud!! You are about to be denied your food freedom choices!

Did you know that starting in the fall of 2007, truly raw almonds will not
be available in the USA or Canada? See link below for the pasteurization
plan.

http://www.almondboard.com/Programs/content.cfm?ItemNumber=890&;
snItemNumber=450

The FDA, USDA and the California Almond Board has developed a marketing
order which mandates that all almonds must be pasteurized. This came about
because " two outbreaks of salmonella,  associated with conventional
farms several years ago". Industry has now overreacted in grand fashion and
they do not
even know it yet.

No outbreaks have been associated with raw organic almonds to date that we
are aware of.

This has everything to do with lack of biodiversity and the sterile farming
methods used on conventional farms. On these farms few weeds or grasses
grow on the floors and little sunlight reaches the floors.  To the
contrary, Organic farms support and encourage biodiversity with green
floors in the orchards and this discourages pathogen growth. Unfortunately,
organic almonds are shelled and bagged on the same production facilities as
conventional and are
being subjected to the same rules.

There is an even bigger issue. The FDA has decided not to tell the consumer
the truth about this processing step. The almonds you will buy in Whole
Foods this fall may still say "raw almonds but they will have been
subjected to
high heat and a five log kill step...that they are calling Pasteurization".
This lie is being permitted by the marketing order!!

The FDA in association with the USDA and the Almond Board is in fact
denying you the information required to make informed choices when you buy
food. You will not be able to identify a pasteurized almond from a truly
raw whole, enzyme rich, unprocessed almond.

The almond board claims that the almonds will still sprout ( still some
life in them ) and that the flavor does not change. But yet no research has
been performed to see what kind of opportunistic bacteria will take over
when the
almond has been sterilized. It is not a whole natural food anymore. It will
now be a processed food. Millions of dollars are being invested to install
expensive pasteurization machines in all Almond plants in order to follow
this
"sterile foods are better foods edict".

Demand that your source of organic raw almonds be exempted from this short
sighted food safety debacle.

Demand that a label be permitted that identifies "truly raw almonds" and if
required even put a warning label on them. Also demand that pasteurized
almonds be identified as well. It seems that every time a government
warning is applied to a food, that in itself becomes a certification that
that is the food you should eat.

It is very clear that the FDA does not understand the origins of the
massive immune depression epidemic in America. A sterilized diet makes for
a weakened immune system. FDA website
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/795_antibio.html explains antibiotic
resistance quite well, but ignorantly and blindly never mentions
pro-biotics which prevent disease and infections. Whole unprocessed living
foods are in this category of foods.

Weakened immune systems are associated directly with cancer, osteoporosis,
asthma, allergies, Crohns, IBS, Colitis, GERD, chronic disease ,infections,
antibiotic use and resistance and human death, Ulcers and the list goes on
and on.

Raw almonds are a wonder food just as they are. Let consumers make the
informed choice and be responsible for the consequences.

The almond farmers do not even know what they have been led into by the
FDA. This consumer choice option will surely increase almond sales. Denial
of a choice will be a marketing disaster. Freedom is lost gradually... bit
by bit and bite by bite... with the great assistance of passive unconscious
in activism and sheepish.

You are conscious and aware of this path. Lets fight today and send a
message. We must have unprocessed food choices.

These are the people to contact....please fax, call or email them and
demand:
1. A true almond label that states clearly that " almonds have been
pasteurized"
2. A second consumer choice label that warns that the "almonds are raw and
unprocessed".
3. That you will not tolerate the pasteurization of your almonds and having
them still labeled as a "raw almond". That this is a fraud and a lie.
4. Tell them that the proposed marketing order denies consumers of freedom
to identify and choose whole unprocessed foods.

Marketing Committee Members
Scott Hunter, Chairman
Hunter Farms
12237 Rose Avenue
Livingston, CA  95334
Work:  (209) 564-9991
Fax:  (209) 394-8007
Email:  scotthunter@nextel.blackberry.net