US Almond Growers Achieve Court Victory in Fight Against Mandatory Fumigation
This is a story that I completely missed and had really heard nothing about until this article but I am not surprised by the content. For the past 3 years almond growers in the U.S. have not been able to sell raw almonds in the marketplace due to previous outbreaks of Salmonella in 2001 and 2004. The USDA ruled that almonds were too dangerous to sell in their raw form so farmers were forced to fumigate them with a chemical that is a known carcinogen or pasteurize them, both processes will damage the almonds and prevent them from being sold as raw. The USDA also stated that the farmers could not fight the ruling! Talk about heavy handed. But that has now changed.
The Cornucopia Institute, an organization known for its research and defense of family farmers involved in organics, artisan and local food production obtained a ruling from a federal district court that the farmers can now challenge the USDA’s ruling.
Due to the Salmonella outbreaks in 2001 and 2004 the USDA deemed ALL raw almonds produced in the US to be a health hazard so they put onerous and dangerous restrictions on the farmers before they could sell their almonds. They were able to track back one of the outbreaks to a factory farm that sells both almonds and pistachios but officials are still unsure how the salmonella infected the almonds. Why did the USDA punish all farmers for something that they couldn’t explain? Plus no such restrictions were placed on imported raw almonds, so American farmers lost millions of dollars and complete market share due to the draconian USDA restrictions.
“I am very happy with this first step in overturning this destructive regulation,” said Nick Koretoff, an almond farmer and plaintiff in the lawsuit. “The treatment mandate has been a financial catastrophe for me. My consumers want raw, untreated healthy almonds and I have been denied the opportunity to sell them what they want.” Tens of thousands of people have complained to the USDA about its ruling. That something like this could happen and the fact that USDA said that farmers could not challenge their ruling and that lower courts backed this up is incredibly troubling.
It is our RIGHT to purchase the foods that we want and the government has no business telling us what we can and cannot do. Their only role is to ensure that products are safe for consumption not to place draconian regulations on farmers and driving them out of business.
Patrick Hayes is the owner of Kelatox Products. He has been an outspoken advocate of proper nutrition, detoxification and exercise for a long time.For more information about Kelatox and chelation therapy, visit us at www.ChelationHealthProducts.com
