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GOURMET NEWS FEBRUARY 2016 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 7 KIND Continued from PAGE 1 which contain wholesome ingredients like fruits, nuts, seeds and whole grains." He added, "We will continue to work with the FDA to ensure our products are in compliance with the regulations." "Without commenting specifically on the KIND citizen petition," said Doug Balentine, Ph. D., Director of the Office of Nutrition and Food Labeling at the FDA, "The FDA recognizes that a great deal of scientific research has been con- ducted since the regulation defining the term 'healthy' was developed and we un- derstand the interest in potentially re- a "dietary guidance statement" from the FDA is in order so that food companies can better label their products with informa- tion that indicates the usefulness of a food "that is not subject to the requirements in FDA's nutrient content claim regulations unless it is an implied nutrient content claim." The FDA appears to disagree, and Balen- tine said that there is more to labeling re- strictions than how one company is affected by them. For now, companies need to continue following the standards laid out by the FDA so that the term means the same thing from product to product. Said Balentine, "That's the only way that con- sumers can trust what's on the label." GN defining the term." The agency's ultimate determination will be based on the reevaluation of food labeling terms as ad- ditional scientific research and other data becomes available based on public health impact. For the last 20 years, the definition of what's healthy has been changing as more recent research shows that nutritional content is not the only indicator in deter- mining what a healthy food is. Scientific evidence found in the U.S. Government's "2010 Dietary Guidelines" and the "Sci- entific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guide- lines Advisory Committee" – both of which KIND heavily refers to in its citi- zen petition – concludes that eating a healthy diet is constituted by the mainte- nance of caloric intake for a healthy weight and that a healthy eating pattern emphasizes nutrient-dense foods and vegetables like fruit, nuts and whole grains. According to KIND, the best way to rectify consumers' confusion over nutri- tional content and healthful qualities of a product would be to create a dietary guidelines statement on the packaging that informs on the "usefulness of a food, or a category of foods, in maintaining healthy dietary practices" without mak- ing an explicit nutrient content claim or a statement about a particular nutrient. Until a decision is made, KIND says that Lotus Foods is launching a campaign to create awareness around two of the world's most important global issues—the water crisis and women's empowerment, and their link to rice production. Almost 4 bil- lion people eat rice daily to survive. Grow- ing rice uses more fresh water than any other human activity, leading to water scarcity. Women bear the burden of the back-breaking labor required to cultivate the crop. However, there is a promising solution to these dual challenges. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is an innovative method for growing rice that is respectful of water and women while generating sur- plus rice for improved local and national food security. SRI is generating More Crop Per Drop™. "We have been partnering with farmers who use SRI practices since 2008 and we've been amazed by the transformation in their lives and the reduction in water used for rice growing," says Lotus Foods Co-founder and CEO Caryl Levine. "We want to give consumers the opportunity to support production strategies that are less wasteful of water and women's time and labor." Co-founder and President Ken Lee adds, "Rice is the most widely grown food crop and more women are engaged in rice pro- duction than any other single livelihood activity. So this is a huge environmental and social issue. I find it remarkable that public and private sector donors spend bil- lions of dollars on new seeds, using the most sophisticated technologies, and the women who are supposed to plant them have only their hands as tools. Even simple weeders like the ones women use in SRI can make a huge difference, allowing them to work in an upright posture rather than bent over for hours on end." In Odisha, India, for example, it takes women around 130-160 hours to weed an acre of rice, which they do in bent over posture. Weeding with a mechanical weeder takes only 16-25 hours per acre, and women can walk upright. Farmers normally weed 2-3 times. One of the goals of Lotus Foods' campaign is to raise funds to help communities purchase ergonomi- cally appropriate weeders for women to re- duce the pain and drudgery they experience in cultivating rice. More infor- mation will be available at lotusfoods.com in the coming months. Since 1995, Lotus Foods has been part- nering in fair trade with small family farm- ers around the world who are growing rice sustainably and preserving heirloom and specialty rices. Lotus Foods delivers con- sumers healthier, versatile rice and rice- based foods that respect their multiple concerns for the highest standards of taste together with social and environmental ethics. GN Lotus Foods Launches More Crop Per Drop

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