In response to the e.coli outbreaks last year in bagged spinach, the USDA has proposed federal regulations on ALL leafy greens. Deadline to submit comments to the USDA is just a few days away - DEC 3rd.

Here's the link to the article, which contains a form letter that can be sent to the USDA opposing their mandates.

[cornucopia.org]

FYI the USDA has this on their website, their website will be down on Saturday, Dec 1st, so you won't be able to submit comments that day:

Outage Alert, Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Regulations.gov will undergo a scheduled maintenance outage and will be unavailable from Saturday, December 1, 2007, 12:00 a.m. (Midnight) to Saturday, December 1, 2007 8:00 p.m. (EST). Thank you for your patience and we regret any inconvenience this outage may cause.

I wrote my own letter to them, here's what I wrote:

Dear USDA,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment. I am writing to voice my objection to the proposed regulations for the handling of leafy greens for several reasons.

For one thing, didn't the e. coli that contaminated leafy greens come from cattle ranch runoff? So why punish the victims? There is scientific evidence to show that the deadly strain of e.coli can be completely eliminated in the first place, by just switching cattle to grass feed for even just one week prior to slaughter. The lethal strain of e. coli, O157:H7, never existed before the 1970's. It developed as a result of switching cattle to grain feed (cheaper) as opposed to grass feed (expensive).

Grain causes an acid environment in the intestines of cattle, which prompted the mutation of this acid-loving super e. coli. This is why people get so sick - normal e. coli is killed by stomach acid, but lethal strain O157:H7 loves acid, and therefore thrives and multiplies. When grass feed is re-introduced to cattle, the intestinal environment is no longer acid enough for e. coli O157:H7 to live, so it dies before it can ever get out into the public food supply.

I know cattle ranchers are vehemently opposed to being forced to take on the expense of feeding cattle the more expensive grass for a week before slaughter, but I would ask them, what is the life of a child worth to them? This deadly e.coli is killing children.

If there is any disagreement as to the strength of the scientific evidence, then I say let's have another research study - it would be a simple experiment to set up, just take a bunch of cattle stool samples of grass fed vs. grain fed cattle and test for e. coli O157:H7.

Dear USDA, I am confident we can wipe out deadly e. coli from the food supply once & for all. Please look into this. The spinach had nothing to do with e. coli, and neither do leafy greens.

Thank you,
Monica

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btw I'm glad I copied what I wrote first before hitting submit, because their website timed out on me & I would've had to do it all over again.

I knew it was coming. I sensed this was coming. And they are railroading it through. What can I say? It's so disturbing, I can hardly think how to respond. I don't have time at the moment to read the link, but I think in the case of produce, 'pasteurization' = irradiation.

Well, for the moment, let's all contact FDA and, more importantly-- since FDA doesn't listen or respond well at all to what the public wants-- contact our Senators and Representatives. Let them know this is totally unacceptable. Regulate the growers and make them use better practices, rather than regulate what the public gets to eat.

Sharrhan:


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Not that they care, or that they even bother reading what we submit, but I told them that I'm thinking of leaving the country if they keep messing with fresh, raw, live, organic foods. I'm serious, too. How can I live in a place where I can't find foods to eat? This is ridiculous. :-(

Thanks for posting about this, sunshine.

Love,

Gypsy

grow your own!! sprout those leafy greens right in your kitchen. all year long too. i'm gonna do it.

Thanks so much for brining this to our attention. I went to the website and submitted my comments.

It gets worse: the FDA uses the word pasteurization as a cover for irradiation. See the following link:

[snipurl.com]

I would strongly recommend contacting your members of the House and Senate, and maybe some of the leaders, as well, like Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy (who pushed the FDA 'Revitalization Act'-- what a sad joke), Kucinich and Paul in the House, etc. to voice your strong concern, because we've been informed by knowledgeble activists in the health freedom movement that the FDA doesn't, quite frankly, give a damn what we write or say. So after you write your commentary, consider spending 10 minutes calling a toll free # to reach the Congressional switchboard (google will take you to several) and let some leaders in Washington know you're displeased.

I remember back several years ago when the House or Senate was getting ready to dismantle DSHEA, which protects our alternative health freedoms and access to herbs and supplements. Thousands of people protested to their legislators, and it did the trick. They tabled the plan and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Sharrhan:


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If they pasturize the leafy greens won't they be wilty then? Everyone, not just rawfooders, will hate wilty leafy greens.

no they will probably irradiate them, which doesn't make them wilty

Where is the link that specifically states that the USDA plans to "pasteurize" ( i.e. irradiate) leafy greens. I read the above link and the only information that I could glean was that they would enforce pathogenic testing per each crop thus making it a burden for those with a diversity of crops. I am sure that a lot of other info. was left out including what they plan to do exactly to the foods. Once again, where is the outline of what the USDA plans to do?

Also, will ORGANIC farmers be exempt from this coercion?

You're right, LaV. I went back and actually read the whole thing, and it's apparently not about pasteurization (though I do expect them to add that at some point), but mandated practices that will hurt small farms and negatively impact organic standards.

Sheesh, I feel like an idiot. I read the original subject line on this thread and assumed the FDA wanted to pasteurize all leafy greens. When I read the actual content of the article, I actually approved of the regulations. Better practices on the part of the growers are the whole key here, and as far as I can see, that's what the FDA is advocating. Some so-called organic farms these days are faking it in order to make more money, and I believe it can only help the consumers if they are tightly regulated and have their fields tested. Just my opinion.

I sent this 'pasteurization' alert to about 15 of my friends. Hopefully they just deleted it, or in the future when I send them an announcement that's really critical, they'll ignore it, having already decided I'm an activist nutcase. ;-p

Oh my god, I'm so freaked!!! This is horrible: I just got a special action alert newsletter from Chi Diet (a raw food newsletter that probably goes out to a few thousand people), and it's all about pasteurization of greens, quoted word for word from an e-mail I sent to a few friends a couple days ago. (See below.) I immediately wrote to him to tell him it was a mistake based on my reading of the subject line of this post, and I apologized profusely. This is exactly the kind of thing that destroys our credibility so that when a really urgent action is needed, folks will say "Eh! Forget it!"

Maybe I'll go into hibernation again. It seems I can do nothing right. Yes, I will stay away from this group for awhile and stay offline. I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me!! I'm really trying to engage in constructive action (which I really thought I was doing when I hastily sent that e-mail out), but I screwed up royally.

December 2, 2007
First our Almonds, Now our Greens
Deadline for comments is tomorrow, Monday, December 3rd.

There is a proposal is for federal regulations to mandate the "pasteurization" of all greens. And as bad as that sounds, it gets worse: the FDA has started using the word "pasteurize" as a euphemism or cover for what they really are up to, which is irradiation. We've seen this coming (they've already mandated "pasteurizing" almonds -- burning them with carcinogenic, banned rocket fuel... yes, really!) -- but they've sprung it on us, revealing their plan only recently, and allowing only untill Monday, Dec. 3 for public comment. (In the past, the FDA had comment periods of several weeks or even months. This is obscene!

We need to take action. Almonds in September 2007; all greens (including organic) in the near future; what's next? If we don't act, we have only ourselves to blame as our food supply becomes ever more nutrient-deprived and/or toxic.

Follow the link to read more and take action at the FDA Comment Line. Also pass it on to your friends:
[cornucopia.org]

Even more important, get to know your Senators and Representatives and call them; their willingness to address issues depends on how many constituents call them to complain or voice their support. It only takes 5 minutes to call the toll-free Congressional switchboard numbers when an important issue like this comes up, and they are listening.

For example, I remember a number of years back when the FDA wanted to dismantle the the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act that is the underpinning that allows Americans the health freedom to pursue alternative medicine, herbs and supplements. Thousands of Americans called and wrote Congress to protest aggressively, and as a result the plan was tabled.

Sadly, the FDA hardly ever listens to the public and heeds their wishes at all these days. That's why I personally think it's even more important to voice your concern Monday to the Senators and Representatives who represent you. Let them know you want the agri-business corporations to take responsibility and use more hygienic handling practices and more prudent shipping methods, even if it costs them a little more, rather than passing the burden on to you in the form of toxic, devitalized food devoid of most of its nutritional value. Enough is enough!

[ For years I was complemented that I had subscribers to the newsletter with email addresses that said @monsanto.com, @pepsico.com, etc. I naively thought that we were changing Big Agra from within, one person at a time. The Raw Living Foods movement has been growing about 4x annually, and I really thought we were getting close to “mainstream."

I now realize that Big Agra has been monitoring the Movement all this time, and fears us greatly. This is their latest attempt to destroy the movement. When Big Agra and Big Pharma couldn’t discredit us or trivialize us, they decided that they’d just eliminate our Food Supply.

I don’t usually bother with petitions like this, having seen how the will of the people is constantly ignored by the governmental agencies (the almond hearing was 99.8% against fumigation, but the USDA order fumigation anyway).

But enough is enough! I spent ten minutes finding the comment form and filling it out. Even though we may be ignored, I think it’s important that we let our feelings be know, so that when we the people regain control of our government our comments will be on file for the next generation of bureaucrats. Tomorrow I'm calling my Senator and Congressman! – Jim Carey]


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1) To submit online:
Go to www.regulations.gov. In the middle of the screen, you will see “Search Documents.”
In Step 1, choose “Documents with an open comments period”
In Step 2, choose “Department of Agriculture”
In Step 3, choose “PROPOSED RULES”
In Step 4, choose “Docket ID” and then type in “AMS-FV-07-0090”
Hit “Submit.”
Next, you will see a column titled “Comments, add/due by.”
Click on the tiny tan dialogue icon, and you are now ready to submit your information and your comment.

Okay, an hour later, I'm calmed down now and realize I don't have to beat myself to a pulp over this. It was a mistake, but I've been told others made the same mistake. Imagine my embarassment and panic, though, when right after I wrote to this group about my incorrect e-mail to my 15 friends I suddenly got a newsletter from a major rawfoods group that quoted my e-mail. Cringe-worthy indeed!

sunshine79-- I just wanted to say that after I read through the article you linked us to, I actually felt the FDA proposal actually represented positive steps to protect the food supply at the source, rather than passing the burden on to we the consumers by mandating harsh sterilization procedures. I've been wanting them to make the growers use better practices for a long time. Also, there are a lot of new 'fakers' out there in organic land right now who need to have their practices and the quality of their soil tested to insure that they really are following organic standards as well as good hygienic and handling practices. So for me, the verdict is still out on whether this proposal is good or bad. I'll have to read up more on it.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

Kwan, I'd like to commend you for having the courage to openly and honestly inform us of your mistake.

Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone is able to admit it!

Nice job!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2007 01:12AM by suncloud.

Hey Suncloud,
Thanks, sweetie. :-) It all worked out okay. I discovered someone had posted an article on the main page of David Wolfe's website about it, as well, and so I posted an alert there about the mistake. I think I've pretty much nipped it in the bud and put it to rest. One thing's for sure: information spreads like wildfire in this raw food community!

well kwan

the thing is that considering what has been going on with McCodex and their
relentless incineration of almonds, its no wonder u thought that

in fact, that is the FIRST thing that came to my mind as well

who knows what will happen

time to grow greens in the soil