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.
Soooo….this article makes absolutely no sense to me. Lets see if I’m getting this straight. We should boycott Eden foods because:
1. The owner is a right-winger (gasp)
2. Soy milk is actually birth control
3. Some completely uninformed people (trying to be nice here) fed there babies soy milk instead of formula.
Am I missing something here? Sarah,I usually respect your posts, even when I disagree with them, but this one just came across like a ridiculous and illogical rant.
By the way, I won’t touch soy milk with a ten foot pole, but I still see absolutely no reason to boycott all Eden products.
Some people say that soy is good for those in menopause.
God created soy, but He also created a lot of things we shouldn’t eat. We have to use our discretion.
I am unliking this page. These posts have become bogus. GOD still created soy. I don’t consume it but it is not.the sake thing as hormonal chemical birth control. Sarah I hope u go back to normal health posting.
its called Constitutional Rights, No one should be forced to provide for elective procedures or prescriptions that violate their religious beliefs.
Is it ok to violate his employees’ health by not providing health insurance to support his own individual moral beliefs? He’s not the one being affected by using/not using birth control, after all.
The employees HAVE health care coverage!! That isn’t an issue here! He is not removing health care coverage from the table at all. And if he did, the employees would quit and find a job somewhere else. So I assure you he is not doing that! They just have to pay for birth control out of their own salary. Why is this so hard for people to understand? It isn’t millions of dollars per month. They can afford a couple dollars to cover their own birth control!
I’m not aware of any healthcare insurance plan where you can specifically exclude certain drugs from the plan. You can generally either include them, or cover them wholly or partially, but not pick and choose which ones are in line with your (not your employees), moral beliefs.
The problem is that every other pharmaceutical drug isn’t morally offensive. While some may disagree with their use (like lots of whole foodies are opposed to statin), it isn’t a fundamental moral issue. For example, if I were a small business owner, I would try to educate my staff so they didn’t require statins. I wouldn’t care if they were covered by health insurance but I would try to discourage their use if at all possible. Statins are not morally reprehensible. But what if they were? Shouldn’t I be able to remove that from coverage for my employees of my small business?? The employees are free to leave but I would hope they respect my decision. It’s my company.
But birth control – It wasn’t a mandatory health care option (for completely free coverage) until the HHS mandate came into effect recently, so there wasn’t ever an issue. Now it is an issue. The opposition to birth control is not new; it has been the case since the inception of the Catholic church over 2000 ago. What is new is that the HHS mandate is forcing business owners to pay for it.
The employees are still welcome to buy birth control. But the government has no right to force employers to pay for it. The freedom to choose is being taken away from the employer.
The plans are out there. I’ve heard of them. I also know doctors (even OB/GYN) who won’t write prescriptions for birth control because they are morally opposed to it.
I don’t agree with him not not wanting to provide birth control and agree that soy products screw with hormones in large amts but I think you’re stretching it a bit to say soy milk=birth control.
he thinks birth control is evil? what a moron. he needs to get his head out of the dark ages
Exactly!
Yes, we’re so enlightened now. See how much better our bodies, our planet, our society is! I can’t imagine having to endure living in sync with nature and not having the luxury of being able to chemically or structurally alter things to my own liking. Raw milk kills, GMs will feed the world, pesticides keep food on the table, antibiotics keep people and cows healthy, wild game is unsafe, and pumping a woman’s body full of synthetic hormones is good for her, her future offspring, and our water supply! Ahhh…enlightenment.
I don’t think that’s what the above commenter was implying at all.
Unless the above commenter was implying something other than what was written, I think my reply was spot on. What do you think she was implying?
Read between the lines AmandaonMaui and recognize the hypocrisy! People no longer think through what they are espousing. Trudy’s assessment is accurate.
Anyone who follows here should be aware of concerns raised about soy. I avoid it because of the thyroid issues and concerns about breast cancer risks. Is he going to cover people’s thyroid meds?
I also have thyroid disease and avoid soy for that (and other reasons). But yes, the healthcare that he provides to his employees does cover thyroid meds.
Wow: that is so wrong. Hopefully people open their eye’s & know the truth: B4 they buy.
I am a Catholic who uses no birth control and most of my friends have large families. All of these families consume industrialized foods which are filled with soy. No practicing Catholic I know uses contraception and funny none of them run to the grocery store to purposely buy soy products to prevent any future offspring. While I agree that soy is terrible this article has missed the point. Contraception has one purpose, to prevent conception, which Eden Organics shouldn’t be forced to subsidize. Soy products are agreed awful, but their primary purpose is not the same as contraception. I will in the future (I don’t often buy processed foods, even organic) go out of my way to support Eden Organics. No one should be forced against their consciences. For those who want birth control they can pay for it. From what I understand pharmaceuticals necessary for diabetes are not mandatory under Obamacare, but $15/month birth control pills are??
As a separate issue I hope Eden Organics will do much research on soy and cease it’s soy product line.
Agreed!!! This article makes me want to go send a letter of support to Eden. I know more practicing Catholics who eat soy laden processed foods and have ZERO problems with infertility, than I know infertile couples. This article is both ridiculous and and senseless. I’m really disappointed as this used to be my favorite blog…