Its been nearly a half-dozen years since I last visited Europe, and I wondered this time if the continents vaunted decline might also include its food.
The economic problems of Greece, Spain, and Portugal are well known, as are the continents demographic challenges, and the troubling incidents of anti-Semitism that rear their ugly heads. In addition, there have been smaller concerns reports of trains not being as precisely on schedule and streets not being as carefully tended to, Even in the food area, Ive read that fast food and factory food (like mass-produced French baguettes) have made further inroads, and general complaints that country French restaurants arent as special as they once were.
Of course, one cant necessarily draw hard conclusions from ten days of touring Switzerland, France, and Italy. But part of my time was spent being with Europeans, in their homes and at formal conference-type events in France and Switzerland. Id say that while these European countries do shows signs of fraying around the edges, in the big battle raging between living food of the type Europeans are known for and the dead food that has taken over America and Canada, the living food is going strong in Europe.
My evidence? Coming from the U.S, European food just tastes better. This goes for even common snack-like items like pretzels, fries, and pizza. Even at a simple informal reception in Switzerland, dominated by chips and raw veggies, there was a table with fresh French-style bread and wonderful brie. Indeed, as American foodies grow ever more nervous about ingesting bread, Europeans savor their bread, and well they shouldit is always fresh and delectable, impossible to resist using it to dunk in olive oil or to mop up meat gravy. And I suspect part of the reason food tastes better in general is that much of the dairy, including the pasteurized stuff, comes from grass-fed cows, and the fruits and vegetables from soil that is less depleted than in the U.S. Junk food isnt drawn from the GMO corn and soy that dominates Americas food factories.
I saw none of the agonizing that goes on in the U.S. over raw-versus-pasteurized cheeses. I was taken to a fondue restaurant in Switzerland near the French border, popular with locals from both Switzerland and France. Nowhere on the menu or in conversation with wait staff was there mention that the cheese, made from the milk of cows grazing on pasture (with their cow bells providing a sort of background music) adjoining the restaurant, was not only raw but in some cases aged less than the FDA-required 60 days. It was just cheese, not raw-milk-cheese. And it was deliciously rich and smooth, the best cheese fondue I have ever had the good fortune to taste.
Good food is a part of the culture. In Switzerland, where I participated in several Holocaust-related commemorations, a visit to a forest where Jewish children had been helped to escape by Swiss heroes began with a picnic. Families brought their own sandwiches or, in a number of cases, grilled marinated chicken and beautiful hot dogs. A number served their creations on real dishes with real silverware.
But to me, the biggest food-related giveaway that I was in Europe and not the U.S. came with the eggs. Everywhere I have come across eggs, whether in private homes or restaurants, the yolks have been bright orange, coming out of eggs with hard shells unlike the U.S., where the shells are nearly always soft and the yolks a pale yellow.
Having grown up with European parents (Holocaust survivors), soft-boiled eggs were a staple in my home, and still are in my own home. They are nearly impossible to find in American restaurants and hotels, presumably because of the American aversion for runny yolks and whites, and presumably because of food-safety fears promoted by Americas anti-raw-food fear mongers. (Ive stopped asking for them at hotels, since more often than not, wait staff doesnt even know what a soft boiled egg is.) To my joy, a Geneva hotel that is part of an American chain had soft-boiled eggs available to guests as part of its breakfast buffet. (I wont name the chain, for fear the American corporation that controls the hotel will force the Geneva outlet to get rid of the egg offering, to avoid offending American food-safety busy bodies.)
Then, in Italy, the egg situation became even more fun. At the modest hotel I have stayed at in northern Italy, the breakfast buffet is dominated by a basketful of raw eggs (kept at room temperature), placed next to a contraption filled with boiling water and maybe ten egg holders where the eggs can be soft boiled to ones own personal specifications (pictured above). Of course, they could just have been consumed raw, as well. Just to emphasize the point that soft-boiled eggs are the norm, the hotel has a sign posted that scrambled or fried eggs cost an extra $10.
Getting used to the boiling contraption took some effort, since the eggs are different sizes, and thus come out at different variations of soft boiled. But they are always delicious, with their orange yolks. At long last, I am in my element. Its good to know there still is a strong and thriving living-food continent out there.
As a child in California, we had Orange Julius, which consisted of fresh squeezed OJ and a raw egg, I can’t recall what else. On Sundays, mom would sometimes splurge and make Croque-Madame with runny yolks and whites. She was taught how to make it during the Battle for Normandy, during WWII. (She spoke French, German, and Russian).
It is saddening to hear that they are going the way the US has been for years with poor quality foods.
Mark, the failure of American regulators and industry officials (who are essentially colleagues of yours) to respond is meant to send a message. The message is is twofold: arrogance and lack of respect. The Canadians may remain arrogant, but their willingness to respond shows respect. While nothing substantive may be happening from their side, the fact that they remain open to questions and discussion offers at least a sliver of hope for the future. For the Americans, the message is that only a show of huge strength will change their view. Once the Americans start returning your calls, you will know that they have begun to shift, based on the fact that they have no other choice.
I like you tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and I will hear them out. However, amongst Canadian landowners and farmers anyways, there is a growing cynicism with respect to regulators and industry officials and they would probable state and I am inclined to agree, that it would be a mistake to interpret their cordial behavior as a sign of respect. More likely, their behavior is a sign of condescension and perhaps disdain. In Canada regulators and industry officials confidently think and believe that they are on the winning side, so it is in their best interest to be cordial.
Montana Jones. Michael Schmitt and Gord Watsons experience in Ontario and BC are an indication that Canadian regulators and industry officials can be just as underhanded and spurious as your people south of the border. In my book, this spells disrespect.
Ken
A543 Permits sale of raw milk under certain conditions and establishes raw milk permit program.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp?BillNumber=A543
Do most people really comprehend what a BILLION really is? Probably not.
Thank you for your post….it should be mandatory to watch your link and perhaps sober up this nation. I am amazed…literally amazed.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/bayer-and-death-1918-and-aspirin/
On the non-food front, Italy at least has a ways to go. I’ve seen at least two pretty disgusting episodes of employer-employee sexual harassment in restaurants, the kind you just don’t see any more in the U.S. And in a couple of city train stations, no elevators or escalators of the kind now required in U.S. So little old ladies struggling up and down stairs with luggage.
The effect that toxic drugs such as aspirin and Tylenol have on the upper and lower respiratory tract, digestive system, various other organs, and overall body chemistry can lead to serious complications. A fever is a natural defensive process that is best left alone and rarely needs to be managed.
Prior to our obsession with all things pharmaceutically produced, doctors routinely recommended against treating children when they developed a fever because they knew that, it would prolong illness and increase the likelihood of secondary infection.
A fever results in a complex chemical process within our body that stimulates and nurtures the immune system. Using toxic drugs interferes with that process and alters in a negative way current and future health.
Ken
(cynicism on)”combat the rise of antibiotic” … isn’t that a double negative? “engineered to resist the powerful herbicide 2,4-D” isn’t that a license to use more cides? Don’t worry it’s all good and your children will adapt or die. (cynicism off)
http://civileats.com/2014/09/19/all-the-news-thats-fit-to-eat-obama-acts-on-antibiotics-cargill-sues-syngenta-and-a-winery-shutters/
What was the water temperature in those egg boilers? We love the soft boiled, and would recommend everyone have chickens if they can vs all american outdo your neighbor lawns, that’s the difference between yellow and orange egg yokes and good nutrition vs artificial manicured food, you don’t have to go to europe.
Ora, the water temperature on the egg boilers appeared to be just about boiling, something like a simmering boil. Now, there’s an art to soft-boiling eggs, and everyone has their preferred way of doing it. I am accustomed to putting eggs into room-temp water and, when it reaches full boil, leaving the eggs in for another 2:45 to 3:15, depending on the size of the egg. I found that the six-minute advisory for boiling eggs in Italy took some getting used to. I think part of the challenge is that the eggs there start at room temp, while in the U.S., where we are accustomed to refrigerating our eggs, we are starting with a colder egg. Complicated stuff.
I agree with you on the desirability of having your own chickens. For those of us who can’t, and want good eggs, then it’s a regular challenge to find them in this country. It seemed luxurious in Europe to be able to find good eggs pretty much everywhere–in other words, they seem to be the norm. And that was more my point with the post. I appreciate that Americans tend to prefer their eggs well cooked, as they do most foods. That’s why soft-boiled eggs aren’t popular, are actually considered yucky by most people. The raw food movement is challenging some of those notions, and perhaps beginning to change tastes to some degree.
While it certainly seems as if we’ve gone overboard on the regulation front, it was a jolt to see the blatant sexual harassment, and realize the women who were being harassed on the job had to accept it as a part of every-day life, at least in Italy. I don’t think this is the norm everywhere in Europe, but is likely a regional thing–more endemic in the poorer Mediterranean region than in the more prosperous north.
I don’t trust that restaurants or stores handle their foods in a safe manner, plus the processing of the foods leaves a lot to be desired, so I can see why people want their foods well done here. If the carrots I have didn’t come from my garden, then I peel them, otherwise I just wash it and do whatever I planned.
The cantaloup poisoning a few years ago is still fresh. I had never heard of washing melons (other than if there was dirt showing on it) I guess that’s all the poisons the farmers use and the poisons in the processing of the foods. Makes you wonder just how much if any, really washes off?
http://www.thelocal.se/20100812/28326
The tax situation in this country is dreadful and yet they want more. But they keep shutting down individual businesses as if that were going to be the answer to the problem. I guess I just don’t understand what it is our gubmint really wants from us. We don’t really own our own homes or our land, but we pay taxes on all of that, too; they take stuff by crude means like the Eminent Domain laws which they’ve totally turned upside down to fit their own gubernmental needs (maybe just mental). We are charged money to get married, to drive a car or to perform certain business functions which require yearly licensing fees (those fees are simply a tax).
Sadly, those illustrations are only the tip of the iceberg in regard to the money stolen from the american people daily, in the name of the law, politics, federal and other gubmint shenanigans. Most people never seem to be able to put it together until they see something like that video where it actually shows them the reality and enormity of it all. Even then, people get mad but do nothing (and I’m not talking about sueing, because all that does is feed the monster). People need to group together and form coalitions to stop the rising tide of taxes and spending in America. We send most of the money to foreign countries in order to buy their loyalty (is that working out now (?) because it’s never worked in the past) instead of using it here, so the band-aid from the gubmint is to raise taxes on everything – again. Do you see an end in sight?
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art60725.asp
Now THAT’S amazing, Mark. But a drop in the bucket to our gubmint when they’re busy giving it away to foreign pursuits. As if we don’t need it here at home . . . =8-0
see Dr Henry Makows website, today. Theres an awful lot of hard evidence, substantiating some conspiracy theories. The suppression of raw milk, is ; these same group of race traitors, taking the food out of the mouths of our children under color of law, as part of their calculated plan for depopulation, targeting white Christians first and last, as they did in Russia, the 3rd Reich, and today, Red China … not forgetting the CFR puppet in the White House and his accomplice Steven Harper PM of Canada, perpetrating more of the same, this very hour
I’ve been banned from = what? 3 raw milk websites, so far = because they’re committed to a policy of “soft words break the bones of princes” … yet, the role of the prophetic type is to tell the nation what they NEED to hear, in the face of outright antagonism. If that makes you UN-comfortable = good = I am doing my job
so I’m going to keep on “playing the race card” cause it’s the pivotal factor in the Campaign for REAL MILK. Maybe in about a decade, enough people will figure out what Mr Orwell said “we have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men”. Not for nothing did the Founders of the Republic warn against “enemies both foreign and domestic” .
Anyone who prefers to ignore the evidence of the demographics in this political movement = that, first and last, it’s carried on BY white people, FOR white people = is placing his head up inside that place where the sun don’t shine – expect results accordingly
It was a pleasure to meet you when I was in Canada. Your efforts in the BC Herdshare movement appeared to me to be deeply humanitarian. Here at OPDC, we love all, serve all and nourish all. Three things I try to never speak about are: religion, politics, and anything close to gay rights. As raw milk farmers….our consumers span the great arch of all humanity with everyerson special. The more we nourish all….the more that guts and brains function better and peace grows. We are the nourishes of the future. Just a thought…and an actionable wish. Bashing others is sward fighting against a mirror. It grows nothing good and the reflection is something to ponder and regret at the end of life.
I remind you-all that I started this particular thread with my experience at the Pro-Life conference, down in San Antonio in 1992. To my query as to how people could walk-by blithely ignoring the information we offered, my friend said “it’s not that they won’t come around. It’s that they’re slow to come around”
In those days, fools would argue that ‘the fetus ( being aborted) is just a lump of unorganized tissue”… yeah, well you don’t hear that, today, do ya?! Not with real-time 3D ultrasound. That stupidity is exposed as the monstrous lie it always was.
Same with your non-sense that ‘white is just an emptiness of color’… If Caucasians are the ones with various eye-colors / colors of hair etc. then who are the real people of color?!
When someone of the Jewish persuasion, dares to voice a criticism of Juda-ism, or Zion-ism, he’s immediately labelled “a self-hating Jew”. Like-wise : Examine you-self, and figure out ” Whence cometh your hatred of the white race?”
I seem to recall previous posts in which Mark McAffee agreed that this is a “war” = direct quote. I guess my problem is, I take war seriously, when I see my own kinsmen literally dying from mal-nutrition, as an agenda of genocide is carried out. Roll your eyes all you like : there is an awful lot of hard evidence to substantiate some ‘conspiracy theories”. The way the milk supply has been poisoned, polluted / perverted to be ‘the image of milk’ rather than REAL MILK, is no accident. Identifying the enemies of the nation is never popular, but it is necessary, in season and out.
Here’s your homework, Mark McAfee : “Why doth Treason prosper?”
A543 Permits sale of raw milk under certain conditions and establishes raw milk permit program.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp?BillNumber=A543
The Assembly committee vote today was unanimous in favor A543
In my testimony I said it was not a matter of if but when raw milk distribution becomes legal in New Jersey. Eventually New Jersey will join with many other states and other countries to allow legal distribution of raw milk. Every year that New Jersey prohibits sale of raw milk represents a loss of about $90 million dollars to out-of-state raw milk dairy farms.
I hope that farmers take advantage of the service RAWMI provides, to learn how to consistently get these test results.
” c. Wherever raw milk is advertised, sold, or dispensed, the permit holder shall affix on the container from which raw milk is dispensed, and on each container of raw milk or raw milk product sold, a label that reads: Raw Milk Is Not Pasteurized and May Contain Organisms that Cause Human Disease.
Nothing saying that one can’t also post a prominent sign and affix labels saying that pasteurized milk also may contain organisms that cause human disease and say how many people have died from pasteurized milk. 😉
Basically the same when I google: “how many people have died from pasteurized milk”
We know boiled milk has killed within the last 5-10 years and that is swept under the rug. I do like you label idea.
http://infectiousdiseases.about.com/od/g/a/milkborne.htm <~~ This one admits to: a few pathogens that escape the heat. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140408161947.htm
http://extension.psu.edu/animals/dairy/nutrition/calves/feeding/das-07-121
But you bring up a good point – why DON’T the pasteurized products have to list their bad side and the deaths caused from heating the hell out of something which starts off as a healthy, healthful product?
Sylvia, I am back in the U.S., getting over my jet lag. Spent the last 5 days in Italy, after 5 days in Switzerland. Never got to have Kirschtorte, unfortunately. Italy was mostly fresh fish and pasta, with hazelnut/chocolate gelato for dessert. I did find an Italian bakery that offered what it called sachertorte, a German-Austrian chocolate nut cake, with raspberry filling and chocolate frosting. It was very well done, considering it was in Italy. Now back to reality and away from rich desserts, unfortunately.
Did anyone watch the History Channel special called Rumrunners, Moonshiners and Bootleggers recently? If you look you can find it on youtube and Vimeo. If you were to substitute the moonshine with raw milk, you’d just about have what’s going on today, except for a few instances. It’s an hour and a half well-spent and I was simply spellbound through the whole thing. It’s eerie because the way the drug and alcohol agents used to use airplanes was so similar to what’s happening now with drones, and it was also interesting to note that NASCAR got it’s beginning through bootlegging AND moonshining.
Congrats to Dr. Joe Heckman and progress made in New Jersey. Now that is progress. The standards mirror RAWMI end point Common Standards.
There is a cow share that is trying to become LISTED at RAWMI. They had never tested themselves and were blindly going about milking their 10 cows. When they looked into their raw milk biological measures….this is what they found:
Massive “to numerous to count” coliform levels. SPC counts near 100,000. Staph Aureas rampant with high cultured counts. Massive problems. Their problem was, they bought conventional cows from auctions and they have dirty equipment. Many new raw milk operations learn that cleaning equipment is not as easy as they thought.
All the while this good hearted cow share thought they were doing everything well.
First problem….never buy a cow from auction. Only cull cows are taken to auction. Buy beef cows at auction. Then….No testing or quarantine of cows when brought back to the farm.
Where do I start?…what a mess. All of their cows may need to be taken back to auction and sold for beef. Healthy cows are the basis of any raw milk herd. If not..testing will reflect the cracks. In this foundation. This is the problem with unregulated raw milk….voluntary or otherwise.
RAWMI as a community of concerned and educated raw milk producers is badly needed. I always wonder why states legislatures do not provide educational requirements when they change raw milk laws.
Your recommendation is wise for weekly livestock auctions where every Tom, Dick and Harry sends a cull cow to be sold. Contrary to your belief however, that only beef cows should be purchased; I certainly wouldnt buy a replacement beef cow at such an auction.
Good healthy animals can be purchased at herd dispersal sales where a complete herd is being auctioned off, lock stock and barrel for an owner who has recently passed away or is retiring due to old age or injury etc.
At such sales herd and individual cow records are usually made available in various ways to potential buyers well in advance of the sale date and cull animals are normally sold off beforehand. If one uses common sense and expertise, excellent healthy breeding stock can be purchased at these auction sales.
Ken
And there’s your sign . . .
“Straus was convinced that his prosecution was part of a long-standing campaign by political enemies …”
Curiously, this version of how Straus came to be so-concerned about milk quality, differs from the usual myth = ie. he got involved after his own child had died from consuming bad milk.
One has to wonder if commercial milk is being watered, these days. How could you tell, once its homo-genized?
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This Day in Jewish History / A philanthropist is found guilty of feeding diluted milk to children
Nathan Straus, owner of Macys, was first to realize that pasteurization could save lives, and is credited with slashing the mortality rate among children
By David B. Green | Sep. 22, 2014 |
On September 22, 1897, Nathan Straus, co-owner of Macys and a philanthropist, was found guilty in a municipal court of distributing watered-down milk at one of the stations he had set up to provide safe, pasteurized milk to children.
Straus, who with his family also operated the Brooklyn emporium Abraham & Straus, was fanatical in his commitment to make milk safe, and was frequently in conflict not only with dairy owners but also with municipal officials about his beliefs. Straus was convinced that his prosecution was part of a long-standing campaign by political enemies, and his immediate reaction to the trial was to announce his plan to shut down his milk stations.
Nathan, born January 31, 1848, was the second son (and third child) in the legendary family of Lazarus Straus, who brought his wife and children from Otterberg, Bavaria to the United States in 1854. After time in rural Georgia, and then Philadelphia, the family settled in New York, where Lazarus ran a china and glassware-import business.
Nathan and his older brother Isidor (who, together with his wife Ida, went down on the Titanic in 1912)
Nathan and his older brother Isidor (who, together with his wife Ida, went down on the Titanic in 1912) together took over their fathers business, and went from supplying goods to R.H. Macy & Company to owning the store, and turning it into one of Americas great retail emporiums.
The civic-minded Nathan also served as New York Citys parks commissioner between 1889 and 1893, and even considered running for mayor in 1894. At the same time, Straus invested a lot of his time and money in charitable efforts, principally for the citys poor.
During the economic depression that began in 1893, for example, he began distributing coal for a nominal price, and for free to those who couldnt afford to pay anything. He also opened up lodging houses that provided a bed and breakfast for a small fee to some 64,000 people.
Saving the children
Milk became a special interest to him after a healthy-seeming cow on Straus upstate farm died, and an autopsy revealed it suffered from tuberculosis. He became convinced that children could become sick if they drank milk from infected cows, and that the newly developed technology devised by Louis Pasteur in the 1860s, which required the heating of milk followed by rapid cooling, would kill all necessary dangerous microorganisms and make the milk safe.
All told, Straus set up 297 safe-milk stations to distribute pasteurized milk, in 36 American cities, and is regarded as partly responsible for the fact that the mortality rate among infants fell from 125.1 per thousand in 1891, to only 15.8 per thousand in 1925.
Health authorities, however, seemed more concerned with the adulteration of milk by merchants. Also, not all were convinced that pasteurized milk, in which 99 percent of microorganisms had been killed, was sufficiently safe for children.
In the 1897 case at the Manhattan Court of Special Sessions, Straus and an employee were accused of distributing watered-down milk at the Hebrew Institute Roof Garden on East Broadway. No one suggested that the milk had been unsafe, but the three judges said they were unfortunately obligated to find Straus guilty. At the same time, they were glad that they could suspend sentence on him, as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported later that day.
The Eagle then quoted the manager of Strauss milk depot as saying the philanthropist had decided to discontinue distribution of sterilized and raw milk until the law under which he had been prosecuted was changed. By the next day, the New York Times was reporting that the obviously emotional Straus had changed his mind, and would continue distributing milk.
In 1912, Straus and his wife, Lina Gutherz Straus, paid a visit to Palestine, after which they began providing assistance for health care and education there. This included a pasteurization plant and child-welfare stations. In 1927, the city of Netanya was named in his honor (Nathan in Hebrew is Natan), and when Straus died on January 11, 1931, he left the bulk of his estate to causes in Mandatory Palestine
http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/how-did-almonds-surpass-peanuts-as-americas-top-nut-the-dark-side-of-almonds/
I love almonds and almond milk, but since they are “required” to be pasteurized now (think sterilized if that gives you a better picture) how healthy can they be anyway? Anyone?? And are they destroying the bee population? I dunno. Read the article for some enlightening facts.
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/05/government-requires-pasteurization-of-all-almonds-even-organic-raw-2963540.html
http://foodidentitytheft.com/trying-to-avoid-almonds-that-are-gassed-heres-a-little-guide/
the problem with ordinary people encountering corruption of a ‘public good’, is ; not being able to wrap their minds around the fact that there are “tares” growing up among the wheat …
That source says “Two exemptions to these processing requirements [steam heat or propylene oxide gas] were included in the legislation. First, almond growers can receive exemption from these requirements if they can show that their ordinary manufacturing process achieves the same minimum 4-log reduction in Salmonella content. For example, their ordinary manufacturing process might include enough dry roasting or blanching to accomplish this same goal. Second, almond growers can also receive exemption if they will only be selling their almonds directly to customers at local markets, with a limit of 100 pounds per person per day in direct farmer’s market sales.” http://www.cornucopia.org/almond/Almond_Fact_Sheet.pdf gives more of the history behind the ruling.
Selling almonds directly to customers at local markets means the farmer can sell at both farmer’s markets and also roadside stands. If you search on unpasteurized almonds, you can find some farmer’s who are willing to ship their unpasteurized almonds. I hope the drought doesn’t do them in, nor that some authority stops them from shipping. I’ve read that Organic Pastures received a notice some years ago that they could no longer ship their unpasteurized almonds, although they could still legally sell them from a roadside or famer’s markets.
Unless the seller says their U.S.A. almonds are unpasteurized, even though the almonds are labeled raw, the almonds have been pasteurized.
D, it is possible to buy almonds that are truly raw, so long as they come in to the U.S. from other countries. It is California almonds that are required to be pasteurized (and CA is America’s only producer of almonds). I go to a co-op in Vermont that advertises it has truly raw almonds, from Spain. They’re pretty expensive, from what I recall, but they sell like hot cakes. Lots of people understand the deception that goes on.
My bigger point was, however, the public is never sure for the very reason you stated in the last sentence of your post above.
So then, Cali almonds sold at FM’s don’t have to be pasteurized but if they’re sold elsewhere or shipped, they do have to be pasteurized? What a confusing mess, and who keeps track of this for recordkeeping purposes (for our gubmint and food inspection outfits)??
1.They are sold at a farmers market directly to a consumer or they are sold from an on farm store, and the sale per day is less than 100 pounds per person. Those sales can be truly raw.
2. If the almonds are exported out of the USA. All of those can be truly raw.
This all came about because huge almond producers were catching salmonella in their finished products. All of these almonds were from conventional orchards that had no vegetation or sunlight hitting the floors. Coyotes, ferel cats and all sorts of critters were crapping on the orchard floors and that crap was ending up in the processing room and on the finished product.
Do not think that organic or small farmers do the harvesting any differently….they all knock their nuts to the floor and sweep them up with rare exception. It is the environment on the orchard floor that is different. Sunshine, vegetation, etc ( life )….matter.
I agree with you that almonds, much like any other food crop (not the genetically edited crap) will only be as good as the conditions under which it was produced.
I guess we were all lucky growing up, we had an almond tree along with peaches, apricots, kiwi vines, cherries and the garden that we shared with all the critters and birds and we didn’t get sick.
The FDA is not involved with this mandatory almondpasteurization policy. This was a USDA act of brilliance that was actually brought on and invited by the CA Almond Board and industry.
USDA, FDA whoever – – someone makes these rulings about exportation. Neither of those two organizations is particularly “brilliant”, IME.
I buy Spanish almonds, 5 pounds at a time and unshelled from Truly Organic Foods in St Catherines. Their description of the product states, Unlike most almonds for sale, these Spanish almonds have not been pasteurized.
This is the only location I have been able to find that emphasizes this fact.
Ken
Does/will this place where you buy them ship them to the US? If so I would like to buy some myself because the holidays are coming and I use them for lots of things. Could you ask the next time you buy yours? Find out if they have a web site ordering procedure or whatever. I’d be truly grateful.
http://www.trulyorganicfoods.com/shipping-policy.php
Ken