News today that the corn industry is feeling the pressure of consumers who are coming to realize the significant health dangers associated with consumption of corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  However, instead of doing what is right and taking it out of our foods and off the market they are instead proposing to commit fraud by way of the FDA.

Just like with MSG, which can be labeled under a variety of innocent sounding names all sanctioned and condoned by the FDA the corn industry is seeking to hide HFCS and CS under a new name in order to fool consumers.  Their proposed names is “corn sugar”.

You can read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/opinion/16thu4.html

This really should come as no surprise.  After seeing months of pro-HFCS advertising that obviously did little to dispell the truth the next step is hiding it and if the FDA’s past actions are any indication they will get a green light to do so.  Anyone else trying to do something like this would be in serious trouble for committing fraud but as long as the FDA says it’s ok, well it is then.  After all, the FDA is all powerful now telling us that walnuts are now considered drugs and that we do not have the right to choose our own food or make choices on what we will consume.

Once again the only hope we have to eat healthy foods is to not eat processed foods and to buy directly off farms and from farmers markets that we can trust.  That is until the FDA makes it illegal to do so, which is their aim with their campaign against small farmers and raw milk.  And of course they will have an easy job of it if our renegade Congress passes the “food safety bill” that is instead a dell knell for small farms, fresh produce and sustainable agriculture and making small organic farms illegal enterprises.  But more on that later.

Hard to believe it’s summer again, and sweltering in Texas though we’ve had a nice break the last few days with a good amount of rain due to the hurricane down south. Here in Texas we’ve always taken great joy in celebrating Independence Day. After all we are one of the few states that can boast our own independence.

I find myself thinking about what that really means these days though. Are we truly free? In some ways yes, but in other ways we are definitely not. It’s been a busy summer already with reports of food and health freedoms being trampled upon by an over-eager government enforcing outrageous regulations and not just in our country.

Locally we felt it. It was with great sadness and not a little anger that I write about one episode close to home. Our local CSA was shut down by the USDA because of outrageous requirements that make sense on large farms and no sense at all on small operations selling directly to the customer. What was the evil they committed? Recycling wax boxes to save money and prevent waste instead of always using new ones when harvesting the organic produce.

In Great Britain they are now banning the sale of eggs and other food products by number instead of by weight/volume. That sounds alright on the surface but then again when you consider it is now illegal to buy eggs by the dozen or a dozen dinner rolls, or even to see how many rolls are in a package it begins to become absurd. These regulations are burdensome on the producers and end up costing money to regulate which increases the tax burden and they cost money for the producers to comply. For example in this situation the egg producers and shopkeepers will have to design and obtain all new packaging, will have to design new methods to weigh and calculate instead of just put 12 medium sized eggs in the medium carton and the costs for all of this will be transfered to the consumer. Read more here: EU to ban selling of eggs by the dozen

Back here at home we have the FDA telling us that we do not have the right to obtain our own food or to make informed decisions about what types of food we will purchase and cosume. Read more: “FDA says ‘No right to eat what you want’”. This was in response to the law suit filed by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) claiming that the federal regulations against the purchase and consumption of raw milk are unconstitutional.

With this news it should come as no surprise that the FDA is also moving to severely limit the amount of “sodium” in processed foods, also sounds good on the face of it but is it really? Real salts have minerals that are good for the human body and are required for many foods to be preserved, and also for them to taste good. What do you suppose will take the place so producers can make sure their products don’t spoil and they taste good? Probably dangerous toxins like MSG. That would likely suit the FDA just fine as they’ve shown a serious conflict of interest with the large corporations that make food additives, GMOs and other products including the monster Monsanto. The FDA has a revolving door with Monsanto where Monsanto executives end up running the FDA, then head back to Monsanto and big bucks and who knows what else. When will this corruption end? Read more: Labeling Issues, Revolving Doors, rBGH, Bribery and Monsanto

This Independence Day I’d like to ask you all to think about what freedom means to you. To think about what our country fought for when they decided to declare their independence. Did that include the most fundamental rights to choose what we eat and how we live? I think so. How about you?