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Ben & Jerry’s Is Switching to Non-GMO Ingredients

Ice cream maker wants to help increase demand for conventional non-GMO ingredients and foods

Ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s has committed to switching to all non-GMO ingredients in its ice cream products by the end of this year.

Several factors spurred Ben & Jerry’s to go non-GMO, says Rob Michalak, the company’s global director of social mission. First is a commitment to transparency and consumers’ right to know.

“We’ve had historical support for a consumer’s right to know,” Michalak says. “With GMO labeling legislation being considered in many states, our home state of Vermont included, we thought this was a time to speak out.”

Ben & Jerry’s has long been known for its support of environmental issues, sustainability, and social justice since its founding in 1978 by counter culture heroes Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

In 1993, the company led the fight for the right to label its products rBGH-free, and more recently has publicly opposed cloned and GMO animals, such as salmon.

Aim to support conventional non-GMO food production

Supporting non-GMO food production was another deciding factor. Michalak sees Ben & Jerry’s in a unique position—between organic and GMO production—where it can stimulate non-GMO demand.

“One of the roles we see our company playing is in the conventional agriculture marketplace,” he says. “We want to play a role in increasing demand for conventional non-GMO ingredients and non-GMO foods and to help create a robust non-GMO agriculture sector.”

Sourcing non-GMO ingredients has always been a goal of Ben & Jerry’s, says Michalak.

Then with growing consumer awareness of GMOs and the demand for labeling, particularly as a result of California’s Proposition 37, Ben & Jerry’s decided to make the complete conversion to non-GMO.

“The whole consumer right to know issue increased our momentum. We thought it was important to become non-GMO by origin and let people know that,” Michalak says.

Sourcing non-GMO ingredients

Eighty percent of the ingredients used in Ben & Jerry’s products are non-GMO, and 26 ice cream flavors are fully non-GMO. These are listed on the company’s website.

The company uses cane sugar instead of beet sugar and high fructose corn syrup, which are derived from GMOs. The St. Albans Cooperative Creamery in Vermont supplies the bulk of rBGH-free milk for the ice cream. All flavors are fair trade certified, which requires they are non-GMO and produced using sustainable methods.

“We have been working to convert the last percentages of the supply chain to non-GMO,” Michalak says.

Ben & Jerry’s already produces all non-GMO products at its facility in the Netherlands.

Sourcing all non-GMO ingredients is a challenge because Ben & Jerry’s products are composite products with many ingredients. Ice cream products contain “inclusions,” which are candies, nuts, and baked goods and these could contain corn syrup, beet sugar, or soy lecithin. All could come from GM sources.

“We have to work with suppliers to go back through the supply chain to make sure everything is non-GMO,” Michalak says.

Ben & Jerry’s is finalizing its non-GMO sourcing standards for suppliers, which will be phased in this year as the company completes its full conversion to non-GMO ingredients. It is expected that suppliers will be required to provide documentation that all raw materials are non-GMO by origin. Finished ingredients supplied to Ben & Jerry’s must have no detectable level of GMO presence as verified through PCR testing. Suppliers will be audited for non-GMO segregation compliance.

Ben & Jerry’s aims to convert the remaining 20% of its ingredients to non-GMO in products produced in North America by the end of 2013. The company will post updates on its non-GMO progress on its website and plans to change its packaging with non-GMO messaging by 2014.

Michalak says Ben & Jerry’s decided not to participate in the Non-GMO Project because of its requirement that animals be fed non-GMO feed.

“That is out of our scope for now. Feed is a major cost for family farmers and we don’t want to place an undue burden on them,” he says.

Still he sees Ben & Jerry’s non-GMO commitment eventually extending to feed as demand increases for non-GMO foods.

Support for GM food labeling

Natural/organic brands owned by large food manufacturers who opposed Proposition 37 were declared “traitor brands” by the Organic Consumers Association and Cornucopia Institute. Ben & Jerry’s was targeted because it is owned by Unilever, which donated $467,000 to defeat Prop 37.

“We did get some consumer backlash from the Cornucopia Institute call-out,” Michalak says. “However, once we explained our position to consumers, most ended up being supportive.”

Unlike the other corporate-owned brands, Ben & Jerry’s is publicly supporting mandatory GM food labeling, in addition to its non-GMO commitment. The company recently expressed support for a labeling bill that has been introduced in the Vermont legislature. The Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) praised the company’s stance.

“We’re used to seeing Ben and Jerry’s as a leader when it comes to consumer and environmental protection,” said Falko Schilling, VPIRG’s consumer protection advocate.  “But the company deserves extra credit in this case distinguishing their position from their parent company’s actions in favor of consumers’ right to know. This kind of bold, pro-consumer move will give a huge boost to our efforts to pass GMO Right to Know legislation in Vermont.”

Source: Organic Connections

Facebook finally admits to tracking non-users

In a series of interviews with USAToday, Facebook has finally revealed  how it tracks users and non-users across the web, gathering huge amount  of data as it does so. Says ABCNews/USAToday:

Facebook officials are now acknowledging that the social media giant has been able to create a running log of the web pages that each of its 800 million or so members has visited during the previous 90 days. Facebook also keeps close track of where millions more non-members of the social network go on the Web, after they visit a Facebook web page for any reason.

Allegations from Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner that Facebook was creating “shadow profiles” of non-users were initially refuted by Facebook’s spokesman Andrew Noyes, who said categorically that “The allegations are false.”

After months of equivocation, Facebook finally admits that it tracks both users and non-users across the web but fails to appease its critics. AFP

But Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt, engineering director Arturo Bejar, engineering manager Gregg Stefancik, corporate spokeswoman Jaime Schopflin, and Noyes have now revealed the extent of the company’s tracking. As previously thought, Facebook are using cookies to track anyone who visits a Facebook.com page.

From this point on, each time you visit a third-party webpage that has a Facebook Like button, or other Facebook plug-in, the plug-in works in conjunction with the cookie to alert Facebook of the date, time and web address of the webpage you’ve clicked to. The unique characteristics of your PC and browser, such as your IP address, screen resolution, operating system and browser version, are also recorded.

Facebook thus compiles a running log of all your webpage visits for 90 days, continually deleting entries for the oldest day and adding the newest to this log.

This means that Facebook could find out which web pages specific members visit after they have logged off, but Bejar says that Facebook don’t do this and “couldn’t do it without some form of consent and disclosure.”

The idea that we have to just trust Facebook not to act unethically with the data it gathers is risible, particularly given Facebook’s past laissez-faire attitude towards its users’ privacy. And it certainly hasn’t satisfied critics.

Facebook is already being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission regarding its use of cookies, amongst other things, but may face further questioning in the US Senate, ZDNet reports:

[US] Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said today he would hold a hearing to look into reports that Facebook is using cookies to track users even after they log out of the service. 

“No company should track customers without their knowledge or consent, especially a company with 800 million users and a trove of unique personal data on its users,” [he said].

Facebook’s intrusion is hard to escape. Even if you aren’t a Facebook member, it’s difficult to avoid ending up on the site once in a while, and it’s certainly impossible to avoid going to sites with Facebook plug-ins and buttons. The ‘Like’ button is now so widespread that attempts to avoid it would require giving up on the web altogether.

There are tools to help protect users from Facebook’s surveillance, such as Priv3, Ghostery and Adblock Plus, but I’d hazard a guess that most users either don’t know about them, use browsers that don’t support such plug-ins, or simply don’t believe it’s a problem.

This latest confession from Facebook does beg the question: What kind of unethical behaviour will it take for Facebook users to rebel? Facebook is operating on the basis that it can pretty much get away with anything and, unfortunately, this seems to be mostly true. Its users don’t seem to care, leaving it up to regulators and politicians to hold the company to account. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Source: First Post

Ten food label entries that should send you running

There are billions of consumers out there and only a few manufacturers of food. This means that to meet consumer demands, manufacturing companies need efficient processes in order to be in the competition. Enter food additives that serve to present and preserve packaged foods for consumer satisfaction. Thanks to federal laws, companies are now required to print all food ingredients on food packages. That means we are allowed to choose what we eat. Here are 10 of the food additives that we need to stay away from.

Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite

What: Food preservative; helps retain red coloring in processed meat products.

Effects: Its chemical component contains carcinogens, and when accumulated in the body, can lead to stomach, prostate, and breast cancers. It has also been found to cause fetal deaths, miscarriages, and birth defects among animals in the laboratory.

Option: Seek for nitrate or nitrite-free meat products.

Butylated hydrozyttoluene (BHT) and Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)

What: Common among processed foods and also in cereals, potato chips, vegetable oils, and chewing gums

Effects: Increases the risk of cancer development, liver enlargement, and hampers cell growth.

Propyl gallate

What: Found in stocked chicken soup, gum, and in a few processed meat products.

Effect: Still being suspected as a carcinogen, propyl gallate is found to cause gastrointestinal, kidney, and liver problems.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

What: An artificial flavor enhancer, MSG is found in canned soups, chips, crackers, salad dressings, and frozen foods. It is also disguised under label entries like "spices," "natural flavoring," and "seasonings."

Effects: Found to cause dizziness and nausea.

Hydrogenated vegetable oil

What: Known as a trans fat, this can be found in microwave popcorn, chips, pastries, cookies, pies, cakes, lard, margarine, cottonseed oil, coconut oil, and palm kernel oil.

Effects: Cardiovascular diseases like stroke, kidney failure, and other heart diseases.

Options: Virgin olive oil and other monounsaturated fats.

Aspartame

What: An ingredient in gelatin, frozen desserts, yogurt, puddings, diet sodas, low-calorie diets, and children's vitamins.

Effect: Can cause food poisoning and makes up the bulk of consumer complaints directed to the FDA.

Options: Xylitol and Stevia which are natural sweeteners.

Acesulfame-K

What: Food sweetener and has been recently approved by the FDA as a food additive in baked goods, diet soda, gelatin desserts, and chewing gums.

Option: Xylitol and Stevia as healthy sweeteners.

Food colorings 1, 2, 3, and 6

What: These are blue, red, green, and yellow. Used in beverages, baked goods, and candies, cherries, fruit cocktail, sausage, and gelatin.

Effects: Causes tumors in the different parts of the body like the kidneys and adrenal glands.

Olestra or olean

What: Artificial fat preventing healthy fat absorption in the digestive system and can be found in potato chips.

Effects: Found to cause diarrhea, intestinal problems, and other gastrointestinal problems.

Potassium bromate

What: Bleaching agent in white flour and can be found in pizza dough, breads, and rolls.

Effect: Found to cause cancer in both animals and humans.

Option: Un-bromated flour products.

As a supplement to the above, other additives that can be harmful are also high fructose corn syrup and sodium chloride.

Source: Natural News

More evidence suggests that desk jobs and excessive sitting are deadly

Sitting for long periods of time, as untold millions of people around the world do every single day, can greatly increase your risk of disease and death. New research published in the journal Diabetologica has once again confirmed that excess sitting can significantly increase a person's risk of developing cancer, blood clots in the brain, and heart disease, which further makes the case that exercising and even just standing up more can literally mean the difference between life and death.

Building upon previous research into the health effects of sitting, researchers from Leicester University in the U.K. evaluated the sitting habits of two groups of men and women, some of whom sat for as little as a few hours a day, and some of whom sat for as many as 16 hours a day. They then evaluated the long-term health conditions of these groups to look for variances based on their respective number of sitting hours.

Upon observation, it was determined that the longer a person sits each day, the more likely he or she is to develop markers of metabolic syndrome, which include high levels of both glucose and fatty acids in the bloodstream. As it turns out, an individual's metabolic rate, which represents the amount of energy expended while at rest, also plummets while sitting, which in the absence of proper exercise can lead to being overweight or obese.

"The longer the time you spend sitting, the higher the amount of sugars and fats that accumulate in your bloodstream regardless of the time you spend exercising," explains Dr. Joseph Henson, a diabetes researcher from Leicester. "There's a significant difference between people who sit a lot and those who don't. Those who spend the least time sitting have the lowest values of glucose and fats in their blood."

Oddly enough, moderate or rigorous exercise is not necessarily the only way to remedy the problem of excess sitting. Simply standing up more helps activate enzymes in the muscles responsible for breaking down the residual fats and sugars in the bloodstream that can lead to diabetes and other conditions. According to the data, standing up for an additional three hours a day can result in the shedding of nearly eight pounds of excess weight over the course of a year.

"The approach requires a paradigm shift, so that individuals at high risk of developing Type II diabetes think about the balance of sedentary behavior and physical activity throughout the days," adds Dr. Henson, as quoted by New Zealand's IOL.co.za. "Standing desks are a great initiative -- I've got one myself. I reckon I spend about 80 percent of my time at work standing up."

Source: Natural News

Microwaving Your Food Isn't Safe

If you have ever wondered whether or not microwaved food is safe, here's an experiment you can do at home. Plant seeds in two pots. Water one pot with water that has been microwaved, the other with regular tap. The seeds that received microwaved water won't sprout. If microwaved water can stop plants from growing, think of what microwaved food can do to your health!

In 1989, Swiss biologist and food scientist Dr. Hans Hertel studied the effects of microwaved food. Eight people participated in the study. For eight weeks, they lived in a controlled environment and intermittently ate raw foods, conventionally cooked foods and microwaved foods. Blood samples were tested after each meal. They discovered that eating microwaved food, over time, causes significant changes in blood chemistry:1 a decrease in hemoglobin and cholesterol values, in the HDL (good cholesterol) versus LDL (bad cholesterol) ratio and in white blood cells, weakening the immune system, and an increase in leukocyte levels, which tends to indicate poisoning and cell damage.

Overall, the study suggested that eating microwaved foods can cause degenerative diseases and/or cancer.2 "The measurable effects on man through the ingestion of microwaved food, unlike untreated food, are blood alterations, that can also be found at the beginning of a pathological condition, also indicative of a beginning cancerous process," wrote Dr. Bernard Blanc, who assisted in the study.3 Microwave ovens "cook" food by forcing the atoms, molecules and cells within the food to reverse polarity billions of times per second, causing friction-the more the friction, the more the heat. This oscillation tears and deforms the molecular structure of food. New compounds are formed, called radiolytic compounds, which are not found in nature. Interestingly, microwaves are actually used in gene-altering technology to deliberately break cells and neutralize their "life-force" so they can be manipulated. Microwaves destroy the life-force that gives food its vitality and nourishment. When this life-force dissipates, microorganisms start breaking food down and it begins to rot.

In early 1991, a lawsuit was filed against an Oklahoma hospital because a patient died form receiving a microwaved blood transfusion. Hospitals routinely heat blood for transfusion, but not in a microwave.

The effects of microwaving breast milk have also been researched. John Kerner, M.D. and Richard Quin, M.D. from Stanford University said that "Microwaving human milk, even at a low setting, can destroy some of its important disease-fighting capabilities."4 After more research, Kerner wrote in the April 1992 issue of Pediatrics that "Microwaving itself may in fact cause some injury to the milk above and beyond the heating." And a radio announcement at the University of Minnesota said that "Microwaves are not recommended for heating a baby's bottle. Heating the bottle in a microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant formulas there may be a loss of some vitamins. In expressed milk, some protective properties may be destroyed."5 Another study in Vienna warned that microwaving breast milk "can lead to structural, functional and immunological changes," and that microwaves transform the amino acid L-proline into D-proline, a proven toxin to the nervous system, liver and kidneys.6

In Russia, microwave ovens were banned in 1976 because of their negative health consequences and many studies were conducted on their use. Here are some of their findings on microwaving food:

1. Microwaved foods lose 60 ~ 90% of the vital-energy field and microwaving accelerates the structural disintegration of foods.

2. Microwaving creates cancer-causing agents within milk and cereals.

3. Microwaving alters elemental food-substances, causing digestive disorders.

4. Microwaving alters food chemistry which can lead to malfunctions in the lymphatic system and degeneration of the body's ability to protect itself against cancerous growths.

5. Microwaved foods lead to a higher percentage of cancerous cells in the bloodstream.

6. Microwaving altered the breakdown of elemental substances when raw, cooked, or frozen vegetables were exposed for even a very short time and free radicals were formed.

7. Microwaved foods caused stomach and intestinal cancerous growths, a general degeneration of peripheral cellular tissues, and a gradual breakdown of the digestive and excretive systems in a statistically high percentage of people.

8. Microwaved foods lowered the body's ability of the body to utilize B-complex vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics.

9. The microwave field next to a microwave oven caused a slew of health problems as well.

Aside form these studies, many people find that microwaving their food doesn't help them feel good. Stephanie Relfe, Kinesiologist, found herself feeling "grey and rather low" one day and discovered that she had inadvertently eaten microwaved food at a restaurant.8 In her practice, she found that all of her patients gave body signals of having allergic reactions to microwaved foods. Another Kinesiologist, David Bridgeman, said, "Of all the people I test for allergies, 99.9% so far show severe sensitivity to any microwaved food."

In conclusion then, the safest way to heat your food is to use your stove top and throw away your microwave!

Endnotes:
1 The Swiss Association of Dealers for Electroapparatuses for Households and Industry complained quite loudly about the findings, which caused a court order to ban Hans Hertel from talking about his findings about the dangers of microwaved food to the public. In 1998, the European Court of Human Rights held that there had been a violation of Hertel's rights in the 1993 decision, lifted the gag order and sentenced Switzerland to pay compensation of F 40,000. See "H.U.H. against Switzerland" at http://www.dhcommhr.coe.fr/eng/huhvch.shn.html

2 The World Foundation for Natural Science : "Are Microwave Ovens a Source of Danger?," Microwave Oven Critique" http://www.naturalscience.org/en/frames.html, and "The Hidden Hazards of Microwave Cooking," http://www.nexusmagazine.com/microwave.html, from Nexus Magazine

3 The World Foundation for Natural Science : "Are Microwave Ovens a Source of Danger?," " Microwave Oven Critique" http://www.naturalscience.org/en/frames.html

4 Science News, 4/25/1992 issue and "The Hidden Hazards of Microwave Cooking," http://www.nexusmagazine.com/microwave.html, from Nexus Magazine

5 Health, Wealth & Happiness, "MICROWAVED FOOD: It's Like Eating Nuclear Waste!." http://www.relfe.com/microwave.html

6 Lubec, G. et al. (1989): Aminoacid Isomerisation and Microwave Exposure. ? The Lancet, 2 (8676): 1392-93; and The World Foundation for Natural Science : "Are Microwave Ovens a Source of Danger?," Microwave Oven Critique" http://www.naturalscience.org/en/frames.html , and "The Hidden Hazards of Microwave Cooking," http://www.nexusmagazine.com/microwave.html, from Nexus Magazine; and "Healing with Whole Foods" by Paul Pitchford, pg. 20.

Written by Larry Cook (406-556-8089) Reprint from Natural Life News & Directory

Source: Xpeditions Magazine