Almond Growers Sue USDA
Almond growers sue USDA over pasteurization requirement
By ERICA WERNER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON



A group of California almond growers and sellers is suing the U.S. Agriculture Department over a year-old rule that requires them to pasteurize almonds.

They say it's ruining their business by driving organic- and raw-nut enthusiasts to unpasteurized foreign imports.

In a lawsuit announced Wednesday after it was filed in federal court in Washington, 15 growers and wholesale nut handlers seek reversal of the rule that was imposed in September 2007 following salmonella outbreaks that were traced to raw almonds.

The suit contends that handlers who paid a premium for raw almonds have been paying as much as 40 percent less for the pasteurized variety, or rejecting them altogether.

They argue that the rule was imposed without the proper rule-making process, didn't take key issues into account and should be thrown out.

"This ruling is a financial disaster and has closed a major customer group that we have built up over the years," said one plaintiff, Dan Hyman, an almond grower and owner of D&S Ranches in Selma, Calif.

Hyman contended his customers are being denied "a healthy whole natural raw food that they have eaten with confidence, enjoyment and benefit for decades."

USDA spokesman Keith Williams said the agency had not seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment.

California produces some 90 percent of the world's almonds and virtually all almonds grown in the U.S., according to the Almond Board of California, a marketing arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Last year that amounted to 1.3 billion pounds, worth more than $1.4 billion.

The Almond Board worked in favor of the rule after the 2001 and 2004 salmonella outbreaks, and spokeswoman Jenny Konschak had no comment on the lawsuit. She said organic almonds account for less than 1 percent of production, and she couldn't provide a figure for what percentage of output raw almonds accounted for before their production was curtailed by the Agriculture rule.

In pasteurization — a process also used for milk, juice and eggs — the shelled and hulled nuts typically are laid out on a conveyor belt that passes them through a moist burst of steam to heat the kernels' surface to about 200 degrees, killing any pathogens present. An alternative process sends the nuts into a chamber where they're sprayed with propylene oxide gas.

The Almond Board concluded that pasteurization didn't affect the quality of the almonds, but consumers interested in untreated food have been steering clear, and customer feedback has been extremely negative, the lawsuits' plaintiffs say.


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Very Informative Thanks!

The title made me laugh.

A nutty world out there, One Nation under Pasteurization
Thats the battleground the court room,
Goverment making a mockery of our Democrocys again.
Take the nuts to court!
Go Almond People Yeh!

<<raw-nut enthusiasts>>
??
raw nut-enthusiasts
lol!


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

yes I saw that too. RAW NUT ENTHUSIASTS..no, I think organic people don't like the integrity of organic label to be ruined and are boycotting

I hope the almond people win. It's a ridiculous law. I bought five pounds of raw, shelled, unsprayed almonds from one of my friends at a farmer's market when I went back to CA last month. I hope it lasts until the next time I'm out there.

Ahhhh, but yet another example of government running
amuck with all it's do-gooder rules... and consumer
habits driving almond producers to try to change
the rules for the sake of good business.

In this case, thanks to RAW NUT ENTHUSIASTS!!!

Steve
[www.meetup.com]
[www.rawgosia.com]

suvine Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> yes I saw that too. RAW NUT ENTHUSIASTS..no, I
> think organic people don't like the integrity of
> organic label to be ruined and are boycotting


The organic label is already tainted thanks to Organic Cola and other ridiculous products.

I don't eat the almonds just because of the "pasteurized" label.

Eating Pasteurizing almonds is like eating nothing, a rock..or a piece of garbage on the floor.

Hey, there might actually be more nutrients in garbage on
floor than what's in cooked almonds!

But seriously, the life in a food is cooked out of it when
you pasteurize foods. Raw Nut enthusiasts, fortunately,
are helping to put out the pasture the practice of cooking
nuts to death!

Steve
[www.meetup.com]
[www.rawgosia.com]

I wonder if animals will touch them. If I still lived near squirrels I'd buy a handful and see if they'd take them. lol

Next time I go to WholeFoods I'm going to buy one out of the bin and see if my gerbil will eat it.

DO NOT BUY PASTEURIZED ALMONDS THEY ARE DEAD FOOD> LIKE ROCKS!!!!

Poison!!

lol

Please spread the word folks. Friends.

Raw gosia were you at raw spirit?

hey, did you guys see this already?
[www.organicconsumers.org]


*********************************************************
Vegetables you should never eat

Here's another FDA fiasco in the making. You might be familiar with the recent contamination of some vegetables. Health authorities scrambled to find the source. It wasn't easy. And, rather than compelling factory farmed-food producers to clean up their act, the FDA wants to make it easier to distribute contaminated food.

Here's how the FDA is doing this. The government organization recently announced that it will allow the irradiation of vegetables, such as spinach and lettuce, to destroy disease-causing bacteria.

Please think about this decision. Most people eat vegetables because they are full of life and nutrients. Now, if someone treats them with something that kills life (bacteria), doesn't it make sense that it will also kill the nutrients of the vegetable as well? Radiation will generate free radicals and toxic molecules that we don't see in nature. This will be extremely dangerous to your immune system.

Now supermarkets may be required to label the veggies as irradiated. But restaurants, schools, hospitals, and nursing homes won't have this requirement. You could go for an evening out and come home with a belly full of nuked food. Something stinks here.

There is a short window of time to take action. Please click on this link: [www.organicconsumers.org].

It will take you to a web page that will allow you to send a comment to the FDA. If we don't take action now, we will eventually find that anything not marked "organic" will be suspect for GMO and/or irradiation. I am not 100% organic. It's hard to be, and I prefer eating locally grown food to organic produce grown hundreds of miles away. We shouldn't have to worry about GMO and irradiation on top of pesticides. But thanks to an industry driven government, that's exactly what's happening. Please speak up.

Yours for better health and medical freedom,
Robert Jay Rowen, MD


i've said it before and i'll say it again, i don't find a small pic in a signature line distracting but giant images of any kind totally detract from the thread. it is like screaming for attention "look at me, Look at me, me, Me, ME!!" i could do with a little less of that, i have two kids at home that act like that all day long. i come here to talk to grown ups, ya know? putting the boobies away would be considerate of everyone here. or at least making them smaller. the pictures of them i mean!

rawrnr,

If you find it necessary to judge others on this forum, I will find it necessary to eliminate your account. Understood?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2008 05:05PM by Bryan.

Bryan is so awesome ANYWAYS

GUESS WHAT I SAW TODAY

NOW I KNOW WE ARE ALL VEGAN< BUT ITS SOON THEY DO THIS TO OUR VEGGIES AND FRUITS< FOR SAFETY

Today I saw

PASTUERIZED EGGS ( irradiated probably) in the supermarket ( to kill salmonella!)

So its more and more accepted? How can we let this happen..

DO NOT BUY IRRADIATED FOODS DO NOT





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2008 07:13AM by suvine.

Wow, I hadn't heard about the irradiated eggs, Suvine. I'll have to be on the lookout for that. (My husband eats them; I don't.) Oops, sorry guys, I know the drill: this is a vegan forum. :-)

This is another instance of the corporate sector leading the government by the nose and not listening to the will of the people or even caring what we want. We need to assertively let them know that we won't put up with irradiated and GM food.

Sigh. It's always sumthin', isn't it!

You know, I keep thinking about the fact that when I was growing up, they were just beginning to pesticide-to-death the vegetables and fruits. No one really protested, and now pesticide-laden commercial produce is a fact of life. Now we are looking at our food being irradiated and/or genetically modified, perhaps with no labels to warn us.

People were so much healthier before these so-called 'modern advances' took place.

I hope people will take the time to let your Congressmen know you're not happy with these developments. Writing to the FDA doesn't do much good-- the people at the FDA are all industry shills and FDA generally does whatever it wants, no matter what kind of feedback they hear. But in Congress, massive letter-writing and calling campaigns often really do work.

I know the drill: raw foodists continually say, "Well, just buy organic and create your own garden. That's a great idea, and a lofty ideal, but not always doable. Where I live, there aren't that many organics, even at the co-op and Whole Foods, and cost is a concern for me. I have a community garden that I get food from, but in the end (after one summer of the garden) it's turned out to be such a puny amount of food that it's hardly worth the effort. (And it's planted by experienced gardeners who know what they're doing!)

So I'm following a slightly different line of reasoning: I'm trying to learn to practice calorie restriction and to continually detoxify my body and get to the place where I need VERY little food, aesthetically, physically, and emotionally. Then even if the food supply becomes significantly worse, I feel I could stay healthy and live long. (Remember Luigi Cornaro? Google him for an amazing story of health recovery through calorie restriction. Not that I'd ever follow his diet, of course.)

But I digress. I guess what I'm saying is I hope people won't just give up and become resigned. It's OUR food.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

ANyways anyone know anything about the almond case? Can we help?

i posted a whole article with a website to go to the send letters. hello? everyone go and do it!

Thanks Coco. Did it. Let's go, guys-- it's not over yet! Sometimes we are too quick to look at a possible future move by the fedeeral government and just kind of cave in and resign outselves to it, when it in fact hasn't even become policy yet. This is too important to retreat from.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

P.S.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- THomas Jefferson

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

I did too!

Thank you so much, god this brings me back to writing letters saying please dont do it, like before.