(NaturalNews) Many Natural News readers know of government requirements for irradiating raw almonds and herbs, destroying their nutritional value, under the guise of food safety. This and pasteurizing milk are but two examples of how federal agencies are destroying our food's nutrition.

Not so many health conscious consumers know of crops being sprayed with the essence of MSG, glutamic acid or free glutamates. Emerald BioAgriculture got EPA approval to allow use of their growth enhancer AuxiGro on crops in all states. They are trying to get approval for using AuxiGro on organic crops as well (http://www.naturalnews.com/026157_MSG_food_organic.html).

The USDA's certified organic seal only qualifies the method of agriculture used. The certification doesn't cover crops after they are harvested, and USDA certification offers no guarantee of the absence of GMO contamination or MSG.

Other ways they're messing with our food for our safety

Realityblogger journalist Clint Richardson has come up with an extensively detailed report, "Dude, That Isn't Wax On Your Apple!" (Source below). It covers the most current hidden methods of preserving fresh fruits and vegetables, which are based on the concept of modified atmospheric packaging or MAP.

Atmospheric air's normal balance is nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), carbon dioxide (.03-.05%) with the rest being noble gases that include helium, argon, and four other gases. This balance is slightly altered to retard spoilage during travel time and extend the shelf life of fresh produce, especially the cut, cleaned, and packaged variety.

MAP slightly alters this normal balance of the immediate atmosphere with fruits or vegetables prior to or as a part of its packaging. This is not about the bags or baggies, or even shrink wrapping, although most of all cut packaged fruits and vegetables are MAP processed..

The fact that an edible organism is cut and sold as fresh seems to make MAP procedures necessary, at least according to marketing needs.

The myriad methods of MAP

Clint Richardson's report is detailed to the max with chemical names and FDA quotes (Sources below). This is merely a summary of what he covered. Prior to MAP, controlled atmosphere storage (CAS) was more common. Film coating produce is not done with CAS.

But with MAP, all sorts of ingenious methods have been created. There's passive MAP, which remains the same at all times, and active MAP, which actually senses temperature changes and adjusts its atmosphere within the invisible, edible coating.

Edible does not mean nutritious (http://www.naturalnews.com/033767_cellulose_food.html).

Plasticizers are used in addition to gelatins (processed from animals) for dipping or spraying those veggies. Vegans beware! Some procedures coat produce with smart films, which are supposed to warn food handlers in the distribution chain of early spoilage. This may appear benign, but read on.

Richardson cited the FDA's own commentary on the possibility that MAP coatings could offer breeding environments for pathogens as a downside. Thus the lack of spoilage can mask some nasty pathogenic life growing within. The FDA neither approves nor disapproves of all this, however.

Richardson observed that many past episodes of vegetables causing various food borne diseases were of the packaged cut and MAP coated variety. Despite this, none of the MAP possibilities were mentioned in the mainstream media. Guess that's Big Ag's dirty little secret, protected by the FDA.

Better to stick with trusted organic, bulk whole veggies and fruits. Here's a short video of a woman pealing film off a lettuce leaf purchased from a grocery chain store (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Vv-upmzkiHk).

Sources for this article include:

"Hey Dude, That Isn't Wax On Your Apple!" by Clint Richardson http://realitybloger.wordpress.com

FDA link to MAP data offered by Clint Richardson http://www.fda.gov

http://www.naturalnews.com/z034845_MSG_glutamic_acid_crops.html