Who knew the white distilled vinegar Grandma and Mom put in the apple pie crust might be made from petroleum?

Dear Folks,

Reading a magazine yesterday, I learned about Heinz touting their natural — not from petroleum — vinegar ad!!!!

Just goes to show you can be old and still learning things.

So of course I hopped on the world's encyclopedia — the Internet — and sure enough — white distilled vinegars and possibly other types can be legally formulated from petroleum and sold in the food aisle. See the link to the FDA page below. When you read that page you will note that the FDA abdicated all responsibility for letting consumers know their white distilled vinegar may be synthetic. If I read between the lines correctly, drug, flavoring, and drinking alcohols (ethyl alcohol), can be and are synthetically produced from petroleum, and labeling in most cases is not required to indicated the source.

For years I have used white distilled vinegar not only as a food ingredient but for cleaning, believing that I was avoiding industrial chemicals — don't you just love our governments efforts to keep us safe!

Many references to white distilled vinegar make statements such as, "not generally used as food..." — so why is it sold in the food aisle and not the cleaning aisle?

Many have supported the research and use of corn ethanol (and other plant-based alcohols) as a petroleum-gasoline alternative and now it appears the chemists have been working all-along on putting plants into cars and petroleum into us!!!

Please read my post of several days ago on HR875, which is trying to put more of our right to not only garden, but grow gardens in natural ways, into the laboratories and chemistry shops. The legislation also would make it difficult if not impossible to have local farmers market participants, or to produce organic foods.

We always have choices. "Better living by chemistry" should be OUR choice of ‘when and what' and not some chemistry companies directives to our government.

http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/cpg/cpgfod/cpg555-100.html

Please pass this on to friends and family members.

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady