I was watching the episode of Dirty Jobs the other day where Mike Rowe goes to the honey farm and helps extract the honey. He’s working the family’s farmers market table and tells a customer “It’s organic!” but the family quickly corrects him. I didn’t recall if they explained why honey is not organic. It didn’t make sense at first. I mean it comes from bees and flowers right? I eat it with my peanut butter sandwiches. I assumed whatever honey I bought had one ingredient in it and it was all just a question of ounces and packaging.

The reason why honey at least in the United States shouldn’t and can’t be labeled organic is that we are too industrialized. And the bees who are buzzing from field to field before aren’t carrying passports before they get to the hive. That means all the farmland they’ve been buzzing over, it is assumed was cultivated with pesticides. Not too appealing unfortunately.  I’m not giving up on honey just yet, but it’s nice to learn a little about it. This honey article from the San Francisco Chronicle is where I learned a little bit more. Check it out if you want a sweet taste of honey politics, regulations and label lies.

Could writing about snacks be more challenging? You look for tasty things, snacks you can share, even ones that have more wholesome ingredients, and then you find out that you can be undermined by a small detail like Acrylamide. Such is the case for several brands of potato chips that I have enjoyed in the past. Apparently, a carcinogen Acrylamide forms naturally when starchy foods are baked or fried. Which resulted in some lawsuit, settlements and eventually, some labeling requirements.

The company, Jay’s, makers of Krunchers was not named in the lawsuit but since they still are making kettled fried chips, who really knows if their chips are any safer. I figure, if you are eating chips anyway, these aren’t going to kill you any faster. Look for the Krunchers Chips in the white bag. They are 40% Less Fat, plus less salt, and the ingredients are only, potatoes, salt and oil. I thought they tasted great and seemed to have a lot going for them. I can’t say whether they are more or less a risky food, when it comes to Acrylamide. All I know is, I have no reason to eat the black bag of Krunchers, when the white bag is a little more pure, from what I can see.

Most people probably don’t know what Aspartame is. It’s a sweetener found in a lot of processed food and drink, candies and gum. There is a controversy around aspartame which is whether its chemicals, or byproducts are carcinogens, cancer-causing agents, from ingestion of the chemicals or the reaction and change in them that occurs during digestion. Read the Wikipedia entry on the Aspartame controversy, and please check the label on any goods that are sweetened without sugar. It’s probably Aspartame, or Splenda. Probably avoid both of them. Diet Coke would be the most popular product using it.

You don’t have to listen to me though. Research for yourself. I think you’ll find that interestingly products containing Aspartame aren’t anything remotely important in your nutrition anyway, so it’s very logical and easy to avoid them. Diet Soda? I mean come on. You want diet soda? It’s called water, or even tea. Add a little lemon if you like.

Thanks for protecting us USDA. You and the FDA already have tainted reputations. It’s already difficult enough to wade through the mass confusion of ingredients trying to find what is legitimately healthy. As if government organizations weren’t already a little too susceptible to corporate lobbying, then we hear about this.

An article from the Common Dreams center:

Another Sneak Attack on Organic Standards: USDA to Allow More Conventional Ingredients in Organics

WASHINGTON - MAY 17 -The USDA has announced a controversial proposal, with absolutely no input from consumers, to allow 38 new non-organic ingredients in products bearing the “USDA Organic” seal. Most of the ingredients are food colorings derived from plants that are supposedly not “commercially available” in organic form. But at least three of the proposed ingredients, apparently backed by beer companies, including Anheuser-Busch, and pork and food processors, represent a serious threat to organic standards, and have raised the concerns of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), as well as a number of smaller organic companies and organic certifiers.

And the best part? The general public has only been allocated 7 days to comment. Again, thanks USDA. And I mean that in a harsh totally sarcastic, disappointed, steaming citizen kind of way. What is it with this “well if no one says anything, we’ll get away with it.” style of lawmaking?

So what’s the point, why do they want to sneak these in? No doubt for companies to be able to lie through food labels, to encourage more sales, and to get some tax breaks or large food service contracts. What if Nabisco could lobby and bribe the USDA to “make” every ingredient and chemical in Oreos (there are a lot) become suddenly organic on paper? Do you think the public would be served by this?

Well, I can do my part and spread the word. Hurry and sign the petition if you feel you want to take my side of this debate.