>>"How many other of our natural foods are contaminated?"<<

Unless you know the farmer, you do not know the food.

>>"If we cannot trust the FDA to protect us, who can we trust?"<<

Yourself...

>>"Who's to blame for this atrocity?"<<

No one person or entity is to blame... man's inclination to give into greed is... and his want for security which has nearly everyone in a "job" of any import, lying to keep it. So, everyone from farmer to consumer is to "blame"... the consumer for wanting and paying for "cheap" nutritionally worthless processed "food" and drink.

>>"it seems more like I, personally, need to take responsibility for everything I eat, and not rely on any external source that I do not personally know and inspect."<<

Exactly... you have learned.

>>"That is why the world needs to go back to having small local villages where everything is produced locally, so we can all inspect each other's work personally, and know what we are consuming, at least for commodities like food, clothes, and water."<<

It actually seems to be moving that way... I think EVERYONE should only plant edible landscaping... period... if we all did this, AND coordinated with our neighbors, we could most likely, and quite easily, even on a 1/3 of an acre each, produce and barter 50 - 75% of our food within walking distance.

Not to mention offering GMO, and chemical free plants for the suffering bees, birds and other wildlife... the government won't do it, and neither will business... it is up to us.

>>"how are we to avoid such hidden toxins and live free and healthy?"<<

As best we can...

>>"How long have we all been unknowingly consuming genetically contaminated abominable bull-crap?"<<

Likely from the times of industrialization and before - 1813 was about the time that they stared feeding grain mash from distilleries to livestock... 1860's Germany Coal Tar derived fertilizers... mid-1990's or so for GMO's... etc.

>>"Perhaps the best local solution at present, within our power, is to catch a wild rat and see if it refuses any of the foods that we purchase at the grocery store, since animals are well-known for instinctualy avoiding genetically altered toxic substances, while willfully consuming foods that are healthy."<<

Develop your sense of taste and smell and you will be able to discern this as well.

>>"August 7, 2007

Italian extra-virgin olive oil has become so lucrative that adulterated olive oil has become the biggest source of agricultural fraud problems in the European Union.

Some oil labeled "extra-virgin" is diluted with cheaper olive oils or other vegetable oils. In some cases, lampante, or "lamp oil," which is made from spoiled olives fallen from trees, is used, even though it can't legally be sold as food. One fraud ring is accused of coloring low-grade soy oil and canola oil with industrial chlorophyll, and flavoring it with beta-carotene.

The FDA doesn't routinely test imported olive oil for adulteration, and some products are difficult to test. " (Taken from NPR link)

"He said the refrigerator test is a good one, but it give it 3 days to thicken or coagulate. 24 hours is not enough. " (Maggie, mags.bubble)

"To see if the olive oil you purchased is the real deal, just pop the bottle in the fridge until it's chilled. If it get cloudy and coagulates, you got what you paid for. If it remains clear, it's not genuine extra-virgin olive oil." (Moss)

Brands that have coagulated, according to the people in the forum: Colavita, Pompeian, Filippo Berio, Trader Joe's brand ORGANIC Extra-Virgin Olive-Oil , Spectrum organic extra virgin olive oil

NPR Source article: Olive-Oil Fraud Rampant as Demand Skyrockets

Discussion forum where people talk about testing various brands...

Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods from Jeffrey Smith"<<

Food laundering is becoming a huge problem - it has always occurred though. It used to be confined to simple substitutions like selling pork for veal and such, however, now it has has escalated quite a bit... some of the worst cases have been in the sweetener business, such as selling cooked "sugar water" (could be Genetically-Modified-Organisms sugar) as honey, organic or otherwise, and cheap refined oils for better oils... greed, pure and simple.

Chemical food industries have developed chemically derived flavors and colors that can easily be used to pass off crap for good stuff.

You would need a lab to prove otherwise... which brings me to labels... they are not accurate either... so why buy processed food at all when even so called "pure" foods are being misrepresented in commercial circles.

The industry should be doing a better job of policing itself or some real problems are going to rear their ugly heads.

Bronner's has been bringing the "organic" cosmetic industries sins to fore... we need more companies like that.

If you do not know where it came from, the best bet... do not purchase it.

If the government used its resources wisely and left its citizens alone it could police the whole system much better than it does.

grz-

Excellent post. I checked the links you provided and after reading them almost got sick to my stomach thinking I could have been ingesting canola oil or worse (can't think of anything worse than canola except cottonseed or crisco) for the past xx years. I have been buying Santini Extra-Virgin Olive-Oil from TJ's for the past 10-15 years. TJ's just took over the labeling and after reading about Extra-Virgin Olive-Oil online I am highly suspect of what the oil truly is.

Where the hell have I been for the last few years?? This is the first I am reading about this. Again, thank you for the enlightening info.

I have a bottle of Trader Joe's Spanish Olive Oil. All is says is 100% Virgin Olive-Oil Product of Spain. Hmmmmm will have to test....

Hello lightstream,
I read your post,your post is so excilent need for all people.
Virgin Olive-Oil is so good for health and it is biggest source of agricultural fraud problems in some country.
Thank you for sharing the post.