Guess what the Food and Drug Administration is mulling over now? It’s all about ice cream and the regulations surrounding the manufacture of it. In addition to rules concerning pasteurization temperatures, artificial flavor levels and the amount of berry juice in sherbets; they are also contemplating the rules that would apply to utilizing milk from other animals in your ice cream.
What kind of animals, you ask? These would include animals such as: water buffalo, reindeer, yaks, sheep, goats and other exotic beasts that you and I would never relate to our bowl of hot fudge sundae. And who, pray tell, has come up with these new ideas? Well, that would be the International Ice Cream Association, which is composed of companies such as Dreyers, Dean Foods, Kroger, Kraft Foods, Hershey, Nestle and whole lot more of the big honkin’ Corporations.
“This is about making the process a lot more streamlined and efficient,” said Marci Cleary, a spokeswoman for the ice cream group. Her line of reasoning has some merit in regard to the way the rules are set up presently. As it stands now, you require a set of rules for goat ice cream, a separate set for yaks, a different set for sheep and so on and so forth. The rules that are being suggested would simply state, “exotic animal ice cream”.
What the censors and critics are concerned about is that the new rules may unbolt the door for ice cream manufacturers to begin using milk from other animals and concealing the fact in fine print on the package or maybe not telling you at all. In addition, there is the distinct possibility that it gives the ice cream makers the option of using cheap milk from overseas. India’s dairy industry, for instance, is over 90 percent water buffalo—just in case you were wondering. Water buffalo milk is going for about 12 cents a liter (45 cents a gallon) versus two to three dollars for cow’s milk (retail).
“This ice cream situation is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen,” said Pete Hardin, editor of The Milkweed, a trade publication for dairy farmers. “Imports from things like water buffalo in India raise sanitation issues and moral issues, like should we be taking food away from impoverished areas,” Hardin pointed out.
The ice cream manufacturers maintain that these worries are out of line and that any such use of exotic animal milk would have to be labeled. “We are not trying to change the quality of the ice cream,” said Marci Cleary.
The word is that the FDA has been engaging in this discussion for the last two years and they are probably not finished yet. In the interim, you have until December 27th to generate a comment or argument with the feds—if you are so inclined. As for me, I will ask Santa to keep a large stash of the real deal for me.
Merry Christmas to all of you from Jash Botanicals. Just a short blog to remind you that helping others generates benefits for everyone. During a survey of more than 12,000 people conducted by England’s University of Essex, they discovered that citizens of communities with soaring levels of volunteerism had better physical and mental health than those who didn’t.
“Healthy people are more likely to volunteer, and volunteering, in turn, promotes better health, says Peggy Thoits, Ph.D., a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In our research, we found that it’s one of the best things you can do for your overall well-being.”
A study done in Ontario, Canada revealed that volunteering not only enhances self-esteem and combats social isolation, but also reduces the impact of stress on the body, lowering blood pressure and even reinforcing the immune system.
In addition, according to another study, volunteering appears to give new meaning to life for seniors, diminishing anxiety and depression and amplifies life satisfaction. It also helps a person cope with the foreseeable losses that occur with age. This would include retirement, the death of friends or relatives, loss of social contacts and geographic separation from children and grandchildren.
Let’s face it people—it feels good and the explanation may lie in the sense of calmness that occurs from helping others, also known as the “helper’s high”. It is a win-win situation where society benefits and the person volunteering may personally benefit. According to Harvard cardiologist Herbert Benson, who is known for his work on the relaxation response (the body’s ability to shift into a deep state of rest), the health profits of doing good things for others are akin to those experienced by anyone who practices yoga, spirituality and meditation, namely a deceleration of heart rate and a decrease in blood pressure.
So, the bottom line is, get out there and do it folks! If you don’t know where to start, go to www.volunteermatch.org and type in your zip code and interest area. They will send you a list of local charities that would love to have you.
When DuPont fell short of letting the public in on the fact that there was widespread exposures to an impending toxic chemical used to make nonstick pans, stain-resistant carpet, hamburger wrappers and the lining of microwaveable popcorn bags—it cost them $16.5 million in fines and compensatory payouts.
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that the settlement generated the biggest administrative, non-court civil penalty in agency history, and would act as a warning to industries that ignore federal toxic substance control laws.
“This settlement sends a strong message that companies are responsible for promptly informing EPA about risk information associated with their chemicals,” said Granta Y. Nakayama, assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.
While the settlement was instigated by the exposure of problems at DuPont’s Teflon plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the terms entail the spending of $5 million studying how a broader variety of related chemicals and consumer products perform and break down in the environment.
A number of the chemicals included in the research deal are controlled at DuPont’s Chamber Works plant in Deepwater, New Jersey, which is located at the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. One chemical, in particular, is called C-8, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA—the chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon.
The EWG (Environmental Working Group) thought the penalty emphasized the federal government’s weak hand in dealing with industrial polluters. “What’s the appropriate fine for a $25 billion company that for decades hid vital health information about a toxic chemical that now contaminates every man, woman and child in the United States?” Group President Ken Cook said in a statement. “We’re pretty sure it’s not $16 million, even if that is a record amount under a federal law that everyone acknowledges is extremely weak.”
Well, I don’t know about you, but I agree with Ken Cook. A $16.5 million fine for a company that is worth $25 billion equals a company that was not taught a big enough lesson!
