Friday, March 13, 2009

Lundberg Organic Rice

A good thing about Certified Organic products (like rice, potatoes, and corn, etc.) is that they do not use Cryolite, an insecticide which has fluoride, when being raised in the field, but it is also good if it is grown without fluoridated water. Lundberg rice, I believe, is a good Organic rice and fluoride free.

From an email from Lundberg Ag Division: (USDA Organic Certified Rice)

"All of our Organic rice is produced in compliance within the USDA National Organic Program standards, which prohibits the use of any synthetic substances. We are very fortunate here in California to have relatively few insect pests that would require use of a “pesticide.” The only appropriate items that we have available would be a Bt material.

We irrigate our rice systems from 2 sources…deep wells and gravity-delivered water from local irrigation districts, neither of which involve any processing or adulteration prior to delivery to our fields. The primary water source that re-charges both of these systems is the pristine snowpack that annually falls upon the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Northern California. As the snow melts in the springtime, the water is either captured by reservoirs or percolates into the underground aquifers. We do not utilize any “fluoridated” potable water sources for our production activities.

If you have any further questions concerning our production techniques or protocols, please do not hesitate to contact me at any time. Thanks for your time and consideration in this matter.

Kindest personal regards, Lance Benson

Lance Benson

Lundberg Family Farms – Ag Division"

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

BLUE SKY SODAS

Note: Blue Sky sodas are USDA ORGANIC and sold at a nearby health food store. I recommend their products. (Reverse Osmosis or distilling are the only two ways to remove fluoride that I know of so far.) This is from an email sent by them:


"Thanks for visiting the Blue Sky website.

We do not use fluoride water in our sodas. Also, the facilities that we use to manufacture our products use an R/O (Reverse Osmosis) System that removes fluoride from the water. If any fluoride were present in the water it would be removed through this process.

This is true for all Blue Sky Soda products.

Thank you,

Lori @ Blue Sky"
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note: from my original inquiry:


"Hi, I am trying to avoid fluoride. I noticed your Organic Blue Sky Soda says "filtered carbonated water". I was wanting to know if your water contains any fluoride or do you reverse Osmosis or what? I appreciate anything you can tell me. Thank you."

USDA Information

Note:This is an email response from the USDA concerning the use of Cryolite & water used to irrigate:


"Thank you for your email, below. No synthetics are allowed in organic production and all non-synthetics are allowed, except as noted in the National Organic Program (NOP) regulation's National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. You may access the NOP regulation on the NOP website at www.ams.usda.gov/nop. Please see the following sections:

§ 205.206 Crop pest, weed, and disease management practice standard.
§ 205.601 Synthetic substances allowed for use in organic crop production.
§ 205.602 Nonsynthetic substances prohibited for use in organic crop production.

Regarding irrigation water: Irrigation water is regulated by states. Generally, the NOP places no further restrictions on reclaimed water used for irrigation beyond those imposed by State Departments of Natural Resources. However, to fully answer this question, we would need to know how and from what source the water is being reclaimed.

Sincerely,

Demaris Wilson
Associate Deputy Administrator
Transportation and Marketing Programs
Agricultural Marketing Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture"
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Note: From original email to USDA:

"...can you direct me to a list of
approved pesticides for use with organic farming? or the ones not
approved. I looked on your site but couldn't find it.

I am concerned about cryolite (sodium aluminum fluoride), Sulfuryl
fluoride, or any other "fluoride" containing pesticide; plus I would
like to know what is allowed to be used.

Do you have any regulations pertaining to the water used to irrigate with?"
--------------------------------------

Organic Root Beer

Santa Cruz Organic makes root beer and other carbonated drinks that are certified organic, "USDA ORGANIC". On the can it says "sparkling filtered water". We contacted this company by phone and were told the water was well water (their well) and contained no fluoride.