The Healthy Food Penalty
by Cliff Walsh
While there are a lot of positive characteristics to a healthy, organic diet, it is definitely more costly. The wide range of prices from organic to pesticide-laden produce to the chemical experiments called processed foods, stem from a handful of issues. Because organic farmers don't use pesticides, they need to use significantly more natural fertilizers as well as a lot more hands-on work and logistics planning, like crop rotation. The cost to certify a farm or food manufacturer is also substantial.
All of these reasons carry merit, but I find the most disturbing is the indirect tax that is placed on organic food producers by having to go through inspections and certifications in order to carry the USDA organic label. A company bringing a new chemical formulation to the food supply does not have any such approval process. This penalizes healthy food producers and consumers. The FDA's certification process is so porous that a company can approve its own food additive by labeling it "generally recognized as safe" or GRAS, basing it off of its own private research.
Herein lies the problem. A company can use public or private research to determine the safety of a chemical and whether or not it qualifies as GRAS. If it does pass, the FDA doesn't even have to be notified. It's a voluntary program. So basically the company who will profit from the sale of the chemical or food item is the one who stamps it as safe and they don't even have to report it. As you can see, it is very cheap and easy to bring new additives to market. Unfortunately, this has led to the rise in use of artificial sweeteners, flavors, and dyes as well as untested preservatives and other chemicals.
As you can see, there is a major disconnect when comparing the approval processes of organic products and chemically-created food additives. Organic food products must go through costly scrutiny while chemical companies have almost zero impediments in bring new formulations to market. This should not exist and we are paying for it with our long-term health while the food industry has nothing but upside.
I've had a lot of people tell me the best thing to focus on is to close the loophole and create more oversight on the chemical companies. New laws could be helpful, but fighting the food lobby is not an easy task. Not only do they spend millions of dollars each year influencing politicians, they also have rotating door policies where employees go to work for the government and then come back. They are working together. The singular option we can control are our dollars and what we use them for.
The best option we have to rectify this situation is to eat healthier, which will give organic farms the ability to leverage their fixed costs and expand their operations. This will lower overall costs and reduce retail prices. If we purchase less refined and processed foods, the opposite will happen. Profitability will decline for these products. For most companies, this is the only message they will understand. The power is in our hands to force change. We just need to utilize it.
Please see more information at my website <a href="http://theyputthatinmyfood.com">why artificial sweeteners are bad</a> or this article <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?Wake-Up,-America!-Your-Breakfast-(And-Every-Other-Meal)-Is-Full-Of-Chemicals!&id=8665331">FDA food label guidelines</a>
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New Unique Article!
Title: The Healthy Food Penalty
Author: Cliff Walsh
Email: TPTIMF@yahoo.com
Keywords: health, nutrition, organic food, processed foods, food supply, FDA USDA food oversight
Word Count: 529
Category: Nutrition
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