There is a new arsenic controversy in the news. Instead of apple juice, this time it is organic brown rice syrup.

Researchers from Dartmouth College announced in Environmental Health Perspectives that they discovered very high levels of inorganic (not naturally occurring) arsenic in organic baby products, whose top ingredient was brown rice syrup.

While the EPA regulates the amount of arsenic in water, no more than 10 parts per billion is allowed, there are no such standards for arsenic in food, except for fruit juice.

So, when the researchers did their testing, they found that the arsenic levels in the organic baby food were 6 times higher than the allowable limits for water.

Even though other products, such as energy shots and cereal bars failed this arsenic test as well, the organic baby formula raised more of a red flag because this is the primary source of nutrition for babies. Read more »

Let me say right up front that I support the USDA’s national organic certification program. Why?

Because it is the only nationally-recognized and accepted system we have in place for organic standards.

I firmly believe that the more people we have participating and engaged in the system, the stronger it will become. Conversely, the more people who opt out of the system, the weaker it will become.

That being said, it is by no means perfect. And just as is in every other area of our society, big companies in the organic sector use lobbyists in Washington D.C. to enact policies that will benefit them financially.

Even though organic has social ideals that many other industries do not, we can’t forget that organic is big, big business – $27 billion a year.

As I wrote about recently, the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) agreed to allow illegal, synthetically-derived additives – commonly marketed as DHA and ARA — into certified organic products. Read more »

Yesterday, I was on the media conference call for Just Label It, the nationwide campaign to get genetically-modified foods (GMOs) labeled.

On the call we saw a preview of the fantastic new Just Label It video (WATCH BELOW) and we also heard from:

* Gary Hirshberg, Chairman of Stonyfield, who recently resigned as CEO to dedicate more time to this very important cause.

* Robyn O’Brien, leading food safety advocate and author of the acclaimed book The Unhealthy Truth: One Mother’s Shocking Investigation into the Dangers of America’s Food Supply — and What Every Family Can Do to Protect Itself.

* Robert Kenner, writer, director and producer of the documentary Food, Inc. and the Just Label It video below.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS DISCUSSED

– The general benchmark for labeling, of any sorts, is materiality. Is something about the food materially different that would warrant a label? Read more »

Stories about the toxicity of our food supply just keep rolling in.

As I wrote about recently, numerous samples of conventional apple juice were found to have unsafe and illegal levels of arsenic. And now orange juice is having its own set of problems.

Coca-Cola, which makes Minute Maid and Simply Orange, reported to the FDA on December 28th that some Brazilian growers of oranges that are used in the company’s juices and those of its competitors had sprayed their trees with carbendazim, a toxic fungicide.

As a result, the FDA has temporarily halted (PDF) all shipments of imported orange juice while it conducts field tests. Products already on supermarket shelves that have “low levels” of carbendazim (80 parts per billion) may still be sold. Read more »

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED AS OF 1/3/2014

Does our government have any interest in putting the health of its citizens ahead of corporate profits of the chemical industry?

Based on recent news, it doesn’t appear that this is the case.

The USDA is poised to approve Dow Chemical’s genetically-modified corn that is resistant to 2,4-D, a primary ingredient in Agent Orange.

In case you’re not familiar with Agent Orange, it was the code name for one of the chemicals used in Vietnam as part of a broad herbicidal warfare program.

Vietnam estimates 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children were born with birth defects as a result of this lethal strategy.

But it wasn’t just the Vietnamese who suffered greatly. U.S. soldiers came back from the war and realized that exposure to Agent Orange had greatly impacted them as well. Read more »

I see these five products, issues and technologies making some real noise in the organic food industry this year.

AFRICAN SUPERFOODS

In the U.S., we are very familiar and comfortable with superfoods from Latin America, such as maca, chia seeds, and acai.

Yet, Africa has its own group of superfoods as well, and they are only going to grow in popularity.

These extremely nutritious, protein-rich and antioxidant-heavy foods, such as moringa (above) and baobab, will become much more ubiquitous and prominent in 2012.

I have read that moringa has 10x the Vitamin A of carrots, 17x the calcium of milk, 15x the potassium of bananas, 25x the iron of spinach, and 4x the chlorophyll of wheatgrass. Read more »

As I have been predicting, the class action lawsuits would continue against major food companies for using genetically-modified ingredients (GMOs) and/or synthetic substances in their “all-natural” products.

The trend started first started with Con Agra then moved to Kashi and Naked Juice. Now it is against PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay.

In a class action lawsuit filed (PDF) by law firm Milberg LLP against Frito-Lay, the claim states that the company markets its Tostitos and Sun Chips products as “made with all natural ingredients” when in fact they are not “all natural”.

The lawsuit contends that the ingredients are not “all natural” because the corn and vegetable oils (soybean, corn and canola) that they are using are all genetically-modified. Therefore, they are not “all natural” and are counter to what Frito-Lay is marketing them as. Read more »