Eden Foods bills itself as the “oldest natural and organic food company in America” and is best known for its EdenSoy line of organic soy milk.
Most of Eden’s products are organic and nearly all are vegan.
It’s a very familiar brand in health food stores and marketing studies have shown it to be a favorite of female and liberal customers.
These customers, to put it mildly, are not pleased with the news that Eden hired the Thomas More Law Center to file a lawsuit against Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and other government parties, associated with the Obama administration’s rule on contraception.
The lawsuit claims the contraception rule violates Eden Foods owner Michael Potter’s religious freedom under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by requiring him to provide his employees with medical coverage for contraception.
Potter believes contraception “almost always involves immoral and unnatural practices.”
Irin Carmon at Salon.com launched the story yesterday (April 11, 2013). Predictably enough, it has gone viral, with a massive outcry on Facebook and other social media.
In brief, protesters are not pleased by Eden’s pursuit of a right-wing ideological agenda and its espousal of Catholic church teachings on the evils of contraception. Thousands of people have already voiced their intent to stop buying Eden products, including Facebook commenter Cheryl DeMarco who summed up the issues particularly well. “Now that you’ve sued to avoid providing birth control coverage to your employees based on bogus science, I don’t trust you to provide me with clean food based on good science. I won’t be buying your products.”
As yet, the debaters have not pointed out the supreme irony of Eden Foods — one of the top manufacturers of soy milk — coming out against birth control. All soy milks — including organic soy milks — include high levels of the plant estrogens known as isoflavones. Over the past seven decades, scientists have linked isoflavones to reproductive problems in all animal tested, including the human animal. For women, soy contributes to anovulatory cycles and other symptoms indicative of infertility; for men, it causes adverse effects on the quality and quantity of sperm.
The illustration posted by Salon.com — and posted here — was surely not intended to be literal. But yes, this product can make birth control unnecessary!
Indeed, in the 1970s the World Health Organization funded a $5 million study through the University of Chicago and sent researchers out in the field in search of all-natural contraceptives. The idea was to find a safe and effective alternative to the high-dose birth control pills of that era. Researchers visited dozens of native cultures to discover which herbs and plants were being used to prevent pregnancy, examined hundreds of plants and analyzed their phytochemicals. Although they found many contraceptive plants — soy, prominently among them — they ultimately abandoned the project. Not because “natural” methods didn’t work, but because the side effects were similar to — and just as serious — as those of the birth control pill.
The obvious conclusion here is that customers who consume EdenSoy “soy milks” are unwittingly —and almost certainly unwillingly — swallowing liquid birth control. Lest any readers at this point think soy milk might a good “all natural” form of contraception, however, my advice is don’t count on it! Soy isoflavone content varies from carton to carton, and any contraceptive effects would depend as well on the amount and duration of consumption.
Eden Foods furthermore has a shabby track record in terms of supporting the health of babies. In 1990 the FDA investigated after a two-month old girl in California was hospitalized with severe malnutrition. Her parents had fed her EdenSoy brand soy milk instead of infant formula. Because of this and a similar incident in Arkansas involving the SoyMoo brand of soy milk, the FDA issued a warning on June 13, 1990, stating soy milk was “grossly lacking in the nutrients needed for infants.” The FDA asked — but unfortunately has never required — all manufacturers to put warning labels on soy milk so that they would not be used as formula substitutes.
Since these tragic incidents, most brands of soy milk — but not EdenSoy — include warning labels in tiny print on their packaging.
Sadly, babies continue to be hospitalized and die because of EdenSoy and other brands of soy milk. At least four couples have been found guilty of the deaths of their babies fed soy milk in lieu of soy infant formula. Many of these parents were health conscious, well-meaning vegans who truly thought they were doing a good thing for their babies by choosing organic soy milk instead of commercial soy formula. The myth that soy is a health food and Eden’s irresponsibility led to these tragic deaths.
How many more unnecessary and tragic cases of malnutrition and deaths will occur before Eden takes the right action? For me, the “right action” is clear: Boycott Eden Foods.
Sources
For more information about Eden’s lawsuit:
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/organic_eden_foods_quiet_right_wing_agenda/
For more information about soy formula and the effect soy milk and other products containing soy vegetable protein on reproduction, The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food.
I agree with melissa…your views lately are going to make you loose lots of fans, including myself…
I admire the fact that he has principles, even though he doesn’t know it all. And none of us do. He stands up for his principles – good. You educate people about the evils of soy – good. Trying to shame people and make them look foolish instead of teaching with love is an evil in the world.
The point is, if you run a company that is required to provide healthcare coverage, do you get to pick and chose what you cover? Is iit a church or a food company?
Exactly, Dee Ellen!
I agree, there are all kinds of things that are covered by health care that I might find obnoxious or unnecessary, but those are discussions and decisions to be made between a patient and their doctor. Birth Control pills are used for other kinds of hormonal problems, and should be covered like any other medically sanctioned medication or procedure. If someone has a personal belief that taking birth control is wrong, they should not use birth control.
“Do you get to pick and chose what you cover?” Yeah, you should, if one of those things forces you to ignore your conscience and violate your Constitutionally protected religious freedom. Should he be forced to pay for abortions if it goes against his conscience? How about euthanasia? Maybe he should pay for my boob job! Let’s not even get into the issue of why he should be required to provide ANY healthcare coverage. What gives the federal government the right to force somebody to buy anything? Not to mention the fact that, as I’m sure many readers of this blog are keenly aware, modern”healthcare” isn’t really doing much to care for our health: quite the opposite.
What kind of messed up way of thinking must someone have to think that the perfectly healthy state of fertility needs to be chemically suppressed and that doing so is caring for their health? Oh yeah, and somebody else should have to pay for it for them.
Ok, none of my employees get chemo or radiation if they face cancer. I am philosophically opposed to chemotherapy and radiation and Big Pharma’s lies about them, so anyone who works for me and gets cancer will just have to go on a raw food diet or something, or they can quit and try to find work elsewhere.
Abortion and euthanasia are not healthcare, except when a mother’s life is threatened by her fetus, for example in an ectopic pregnancy. That’s why they are not covered. Boob jobs, ditto. In contrast, birth control however has many medical uses besides actual birth control.
Maybe I should ban my employees from buying condoms or alcohol with their salary? Since I get to tell people what they can do with the benefits they earned by working for me, why can’t I dictate how they can use the salary they earned by working for me too?
>Maybe I should ban my employees from buying condoms or alcohol with their salary?
He’s not “banning” his employees from buying anything, He’s just not willing to pay for their contraception. They are perfectly free to buy it themselves. Let’s not confuse the issue here; no one is banning anyone from buying anything.
Also, some forms of “birth control” are actually abortifacient since they don’t prevent fertilization of the ovum but do prevent the zygote from attaching to the uterine wall, So people who oppose abortion would not want to pay for abortifacient drugs.
The problem is, contraception ISN’T “healthcare”. It is an elective choice made by someone who doesn’t want to have a baby. A baby isn’t a disease, and contraception certainly doesn’t “cure” anything. It is in fact, VERY unhealthy. Unless you consider carcinogens to be healthy. “The pill” has long been known to sometimes CAUSE the abortion of a human being by preventing implantation of the fertilized egg. To those who think that someone who opposes artificial contraception and abortion is “out of touch” or “old fashoined”, I’d point out that Science has confirmed that the moment of conception is when a completely new, unique, and UNREPEATABLE human being is formed when the DNA from the father and the DNA from the mother combines to form a new DNA. You, and I, and every person in this debate was “formed” at the moment of our conception. That’s when we became who we are. Everything about us is written in our DNA. I’d say THAT is the point. God bless you.
Hear, hear!
Jason, for some medical conditions contraception IS healthcare. It is used in the treatment of some medical conditions, and not just to prevent pregnancy. This is a fact.
True, and even Catholic companies will cover this if it is for a healthcare purpose… something that people are lying about everyday.
YES!
This is s stretch! I think you maybe losing your edge. You have great information and a great opportunity to reach a vast audience. I am not understanding your motivation here and it seems you are losing perspective lately.
Yes, I think its great what he is doing. I dont think these 2 things you are comparing have any correlation and I am not interested in political crap, just give me info on health thanks! Keep your political views out of it, not everyone who follows your page believes the same as you on this.
This site has always posted political articles. At least once a week, in fact…
Yes, I think its great what he is doing. I dont think these 2 things you are comparing have any correlation and I am not interested in political crap, just give me info on health thanks! Keep your political views out of it, not everyone who follows your page believes the same as you on this.
Probably a large group of your readers are not liberals. Kudos to Eden foods for your position on birth control. One of the main reasons I care about nutrition is because I value LIFE. I would argue that to support this administration and claim to value health would be more inconsistent than Eden foods.
Exactly!
I think you would be surprised at how many liberals 100% support real food, raw milk and quality nutrition. And yes, that means we read this website.
Interesting.
I’m going to intentionally purchase more Eden products. Thanks for the tip! 😉
Seriously?! This is ridiculous. The company should have the liberty to sell what they want (no one forces people to buy soy) and also be able to act as their morals and beliefs dictate.