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.
Since when is ABORTION considered birth control????!??!!!! Oh, since brainless zombies told us it was ok to murder the children growing inside our wombs. Abortion is ANTI everything we as natural mamas stand for !! There is nothing ” natural” about women killing their offspring!
I didn’t read one thing about abortion in this post. Reading comprehension is a good thing.
Yes. I agree with Angela. I’m done . Unlike!
Oh, who cares what anyone’s personal convictions are–the irony is lost on you all. It’s not about personal conviction, it’s about the soya!
I have read so many stupid and ignorant anti-liberal comments from readers on this blog in the past, and suddenly they are all offended by the “political” comments in this article because the comments doesn’t jive with their own political leanings?!? GIVE ME A BREAK. You all dish it, but you can’t take it when the shoe is on the other foot, regardless of the article. Talk about a hypocritically thin skin! I don’t disagree with the comments already posted here, but please don’t pretend to detest political tones and references when you all make them, yourselves, on a regular basis for other posts. It’s so juvenile to be offended by the same behavior you exhibit, yourself, simply because it has a different slant than what you agree with.
Thank you Deborah for stating the OBVIOUS. I’ve been thinking the exact same thing reading through these comments. I’ve read plenty of conservative you know what here many times, and keep my mouth shut because this isn’t a political website. I am not surprised in the least to see them all whining now.
I am a natural family planning teacher. While soy affects fertility, to call a phytoestrogen a liquid birth control, wow! That is an amazing stretch if I’ve ever heard one.
Sarah, I love most of your articles, but can’t support your argument here. Parents are (or should be) responsible for what their babies consume. Why does a company producing soy milk have any obligation to put a warning about babies on their cartons. Soy milk is not a baby food. They are not advertising it as a baby food or as a baby formula.
As for soy being bad for us…you are right. But the discovery that it is unhealthy is relatively new to society in general. A few years ago it was still being touted as a healthy food, an answer to dairy intolerance, and many other wonderful attributes. And, ignorant people are still buying it!
Sales keep this stuff on the shelves. When sales are down, maybe Eden Foods will move into a more profitable product line. I do not believe they are TRYing to harm consumers.
I will certainly NOT boycott Eden Foods for the moral conviction of the CEO. I am somewhat sorry to see you suggesting this course of action to penalize a company for their ethical stance. Someone on FB said: “(Leilani) ….no one is being forced to buy EdenSoy’s products…” and yet Eden Foods is being forced to provide a benefit they feel to be immoral. I hope you re-consider the promotion of a boycott.
On the other hand, I might applaud you for boycotting them because they continue to produce a line of unhealthy soy products. That would be a much better reason, in my opinion.
Thanks for all you do to keep us informed.
That is a very logical comment. I agree.
I am concern about the health affects of Soy milk. I think it is being sold as something great when it might have bad health effects. While I support some parts of the affordable health care act, I am concern with the mandated contraceptive because their is a clause that allows a religious test which could be a slippery slope here and I felt that some things needed to be cleaned up or clarified so people would know what was real and what was fake. I don’t find it unreasonable to ask to clarify a law to make sure people know what is in the law. If their is a religious test or any illegal test like literacy tests or a poll tax I find them to be a red flag and I do believe we all have to do our part to not impose any tests that is illegal by the rule of law and the constitution. Those tests and taxes are illegal because it opens the door to abuse. I do love “The Healthy Home Economist” I always look forward to reading articles that you have. 🙂 As a parent of two children, I want them to be healthy. Thank You.
I don’t understand the fierce opposition to soymilk. I’ve been drinking it for years….have 3 healthy robust children and I’m cancer free!
Ditto EVERYONE’S comments. No company should ever be forced to go against their moral convictions, as I won’t be forced to go against mine (vaccines).
I don’t think this post was as “political” as it was being made out to be. I think her point was that if this guy cares so much about fertility why is he in the business of selling a product that (allegedly?) contributes to infertility.
I agree!