I was speaking with Kevin at Klippers Organic Farm today and learned some very interesting things I didn't know before about how they process their certified organic produce.
For example did you know popping corn is made by simply leaving the husks to dry on the stalks out in the field till October? Or that when apples are put together with carrots in the fridge crisper, the scent the apples give off makes the carrots go bitter? I didn't. And that some people are allergic to the natural chemical apples give off but only in the spring when there's pollen in the air. Go figure!
I asked Kevin all about what they do and do not put on their soil and the plants pre and post harvest. The good news is that Klippers Organic Farm never uses any of the chemicals that have sometimes been allowed on certified organic produce (of course there's a lot of changes in the works now that the National Organic Standards are law in Canada at the end of this month). You can count on Klippers Organics as a source of clean unadulterated food.
I also got some insight into what's been ending up on so much of our fresh fruits and vegetables lately. For one thing, growing regions have experienced a wet season in the past few months... and since the application of sulfur has been allowed pre-harvest to control mildew, it helps explain all the sulfur that's been on our food supply. Lime sulfur has also been allowed post-harvest on produce like peaches, nectarines and cherries (if it's strong enough to kill the slugs, it's not doing us any good either, is it!).
The following article was written prior to the article above:
Victory! After weeks of investigation as a consumer, I believe I've finally uncovered where at least a part of the sulfur toxicity in our food supply (and consequently our supplements) has been coming from. It's sulfuryl fluoride - a highly reactive toxic gas composed primarily of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and hydrofluoric acid (HF). Sulfur may not have been mixed with nitrogen fumigants directly and added to food unwittingly (as originally anticipated)... worse, it'd been psychologically hidden behind a name similar to ECOFUME which belies it's composition: PROFUME (sounds like perfume).
Touted as the new industry standard for scouring physical premises, it's been registered for use in food handling establishments (e.g. flour mills, food processing plants, pet food facilities, bakeries, all fumigation chambers and distribution warehouses, railway cars, etc.). Subsequently sulfuryl fluoride has been spread around much more freely penetrating our food supply on a wide scale (the Organic Standards will not become legal text in Canada till June 30th this year).
Sulfuryl fluoride came to be considered more environmentally friendly than it's predecessors, however it's just as deadly a poison when consumed by living organisms. Characteristics include:
Respiratory irritation initially.
Central nervous system depression and manic excitation.
Slowed movement, reduced awareness, slower speech and cognition.
Prolonged exposure can produce lung irritation, pulmonary edema,
Abdominal pain, and significant lung and kidney damage .
In theory it didn't have an odor (except that I first caught a whiff of Sulfur contaminating our food supply through my conscious sense of taste and smell).
One bite of food with a little sulfuryl fluoride won't hurt us, but a little sulfuric on every bite of food we take, most certainly will. Food products can become contaminated if they come into contact with any surface treated with sulfuryl fluoride during transport, handling, storage or processing. Without clean unadulterated food we can't think, not real-ly (we are bio-electric bio-chemical beings); without thought, we're on a collision course with extinction. Let's clean up our food environments now.
The following article was written prior to the article above when I first noted that our food supply had become contaminated with a Sulfur-like odor:
We were having a glass of French wine over dinner one night, when a light bulb went on in my head. That was it! The unusual taste and smell fruits and vegetables had taken on in recent months - it was Sulfur. Could it be why almost everyone we know has had a respiratory infection two or three times since January, not to mention the more recent Mexican flu pandemic? We check everything we buy, eat mostly certified organic, and do pHx™ daily, so I haven't been sick. Still, I'm getting really tired of meals tainted with a Sulfur-like odor. While cruciferous vegetables contain Sulfur naturally (and usually taste and smell normal), upsetting our natural Sulfur balance with the synthetic chemical not only impacts viral resistance, it pre-disposes us to DNA damage.
I first noticed the odd odor in Jan/Feb in a sealed bag of certified organic Romaine lettuce from a U.S. grower. When I returned it to the retailer, they said the strange smell was due to wet weather in growing regions - extra fumigation or flushing was being done to extend shelf life. I contacted the U.S. grower who wrote back saying they do fumigate their Romaine lettuce post-harvest, but only with nitrogen gas. That was odd... because nitrogen gas doesn't have a smell, it's odorless. Fumigation with nitrogen gas is legal during storage of both organic and non-organic produce. Although it's an inert (non-reactive) gas, nitrogen displaces oxygen, so inhaling nitrogen gas fumigants can be lethal - which explains why nitrogen storage handlers haven't detected the Sulfur.
The smelly bag of fresh Romaine from a trusted grower was my first clue. In the following weeks fresh produce, both local and imported, started taking on the same sulfur-like smell and taste. At first I thought the retailer was doing extra fumigation, and adding sulfur dioxide. Or perhaps distributors under contract from growers had produce building up in their warehouses (conventional food handlers who didn't traditionally have the same commitment to certified organic, now carry it). It just didn't add up, however... limiting our supply of clean unadulterated food is a violation of human rights (a fast track to enslavement that weakens will power). Organic growers and retailers have a vested interest in adhering to the Organic Certification Standards, which ensure our food remains clean of chemicals from farm to palate (in Canada the code will become legal text June 30th, 2009).
No... it's happening on much too wide a scale for all these separate businesses to be breaking the Organic Standards, deliberately. The contamination has to be linked to a single source, post-harvest... somehow Sulfur compounds are getting into food-grade nitrogen fumigants before being sold by the manufacturer, and the produce handlers are not aware of it. In other words, they think they're being sold a nitrogen fumigant as per the label, when in fact it's a mix of nitrogen gas and Sulfur. (Canadian Organic Standards do not allow Sulphur application of any sort post-harvest processing, handling or sanitation.) This may be happening on purpose (without telling anyone), or it may be a manufacturing accident, there's no way to be certain at this point. At any rate current Sulfur levels in our food supply have the potential to poison not only our bodies but the reputation of the organic industry.
Why is fresh produce, the very root of immune health, being tampered with to the point you can taste and smell the chemicals? Why, all of a sudden, the weak link in the certified organic food chain? Why so widespread? Lately I've detected sulfuric acidity in fresh produce, both organic and non-organic, as well as grains, beans, and flour, any natural plant-base product - it's ending up in our spices, herbs, and vitamin supplements, even water bottles can be fumigated. Whatever that odor is, to be good to eat food, like water, should taste and smell like nothing except itself. I've noticed the sulfur penetrates deeper into produce with longer storage, and smells stronger as temperature of food rises. The smell is especially bad around restaurants lately when food is being cooked (whereas it's usually mouth-watering). Fumigation with Sulfur was outlawed on restaurant salad bars quite a few years ago after the tragic death of 12 people.
With the recession, although fumigation and flushing with nitrogen gas is no doubt at an all time high, the Sulfur odor is not really noticeable to most people (you get used to it and don't smell it after a while). Plus, chemical companies also have devised compounds to mask the Sulfur, somewhat. To find out what is in the nitrogen fumigants we will need to setaside the skepticism that rendeers us naively unresponsive, and test fresh produce for contamination. Current stocks of post-harvest nitrogen fumigants throughout North America require testing to determine levels of contamination. And whoever is responsible (knowingly or unknowingly) for mixing sulfur with food-grade nitrogen or using it post-harvest, although they may consider themselves employers looking for cost-effective solutions, needs to become transparent...
