Mar 14, 2009 10:05 am US/Eastern
Judge Rules Against Organic Almond Farmers
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) ―
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A judge has halted a lawsuit by organic almond farmers against the government over a pasteurization program for almonds. (File)
AP
It's a fight between the government's plan to make food safe, and California farmers' desire to keep almonds natural and organic.
On Friday, the farmers lost after a judge stopped their lawsuit against the government over a pasteurization program for almonds, CBS station KPIX-TV reported.
According to the government, the public's health is at stake. California's organic almond farmers say their livelihood is also at stake.
Harmon Beckner started off growing almonds the conventional way. In 1990, he decided there was a better, healthier product he could sell.
"I felt like growing organic was a good way to go," Beckner said. "People enjoyed things growing naturally and I just felt good about it, so that's the reason that I changed over."
His organic almonds sold well until two years ago, when the USDA decided to require all almonds to be pasteurized, either with chemicals or steam. Since then, Beckner said, sales have dropped dramatically. Beckner said customers prefer the almonds in their unaltered form.
"I have 24 bins in cold storage right now that is worth money and yet they are not worth a nickel," he said.
The USDA insists the pasteurized almonds can still be called organic, and that the new rules protect consumers from possible salmonella outbreaks.
But organic advocates such as the Cornucopia Institute's Mark Castell say the rules hurt farmers and consumers.
"Maybe the most egregious part of this new rule making is the fact that even though they will have been treated in this manner, it will still say raw on the label," Castell said. "There will be no delineation over which technology they will use and they will still say raw. So for consumers of raw almonds, consumers of organic almonds it's making it virtually impossible to find true raw almonds from California."
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