http://web2.iadfw.net/marystod/fdabooks.htm
FDA
Officials Order Books Destroyed
[On Stevia
- Natural Herbal Alternative to Aspartame]
By CHARLES LEVENDOSKY
Attention: Assignments Editors &
Producers
Contact: Mary Stoddard 214-352-4268 or email:marystod@airmail.net
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Charles Levendosky, editorial page editor of the Casper
(Wyo.) Star-Tribune, has a national reputation for First Amendment commentary.
His e-mail address is levendos@trib.com.)
c. 1998 Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune
Last month, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials ordered the
destruction of three books about an herb and its use. Never mind the First
Amendment. Never mind upholding the U.S. Constitution.
The herb at the center of this controversy is
Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, better known as stevia or "honey
leaf." Under the law, stevia can be marketed as a dietary supplement like
a vitamin but not as a food additive.
The herb is said to benefit the health of
those who take it. The FDA considers stevia safe to simply swallow as a
supplement (powder or liquid), but unsafe when added to food or drink.
The FDA goes ballistic when it thinks a
company is selling stevia as a natural sweetener --- a property for which the
herb is well-known in Paraguay and Brazil where it grows.
On May 19, Compliance Officer James Lahar of
the Dallas, Texas district office of the FDA, faxed a letter to Oscar Rodes,
president of the Stevita Company in Arlington which sells the herb. The letter
states, in part: "... a current inventory must be taken by an investigator
of this office, who will also be available to witness the destruction of the
cookbooks, literature, and other publications for the purpose of verifying
compliance." Click here
to read the letter
The books in question address stevia's
sweetening property --- a big no-no, in the eyes of the FDA. Stevia could be a
major economic threat to established companies that manufacture artificial
sweeteners. It's calorie free.
So the federal agency targeted the books:
James Kirkland's "Cooking with Stevia: The Naturally Sweet &
Calorie-Free Herb," David Richard's "Stevia Rebaudiana: Nature's
Sweet Secret," and Linda Bonvie, et al.'s "The Stevia Story: A tale
of incredible sweetness & intrigue."
In an interview Friday, Rodes said that when
he received the FDA fax, he called his attorney in Washington, D.C. The local
FDA officers arrived a few hours later. According to Rodes, he said that he
would not destroy the books unless his attorney advised him to do so. However,
Rodes told them, if the FDA officers wanted to destroy them, he would merely
use his video camera to record the event. The FDA officers left.
Rodes also claims that the FDA officials told
him that they wanted Rodes to recall all the copies of the books he had already
sold. According to Rodes, that amounts to more than 4,000 copies.
Lahar now claims he never ordered the books
destroyed. In an interview, he said, "The sentence reads to the effect
that if books are going to be destroyed, we'd like to observe it."
When asked then where the idea for destroying
books came from, Lahar said he wouldn't answer.
He responded, "I've have been asked to
refer calls to our press office in Washington. ... We all have a boss."
Asked who made the decision to silence him,
Lahar referred to FDA Associate Chief Counsel for Enforcement Annamarie Kempic
in D.C. Kempic did not return calls.
When the D.C. press office was called, press
officer Judith Foulke said she couldn't answer any questions about this case
because the matter was still under investigation --- a convenient Catch 22. She
couldn't even comment on the destroy-the-books letter.
Another wrinkle popped up. Julian Whitaker, a
physician, asked Rodes if he could purchase the three stevia books in question
for research purposes. Rodes, thinking he might violate FDA orders by selling
the books to the doctor, refused --- and explained why.
The doctor called renown First Amendment
attorney in Jonathan W. Emord in Washington, D.C., to see what he could do.
Emord called the FDA to advise the agency that he planned to initiate legal
action to free the hostage books.
Kempic then faxed a letter, dated June 5, to
Emord in which she says that Rodes can sell the books to Emord's client and
states: "... we have contacted Mr. Rhodes (sic) and advised him not to
destroy the books at this time." The "at this time" tells it
all.
But pressure on the FDA had begun to mount.
In a letter faxed to Emord three days later, Kempic changed her tune. She
writes: "The FDA Dallas District Office informs me that it was Mr. Rodes
who chose the option of destroying the books."
Not so, says Rodes, emphatically. Why, after
all, would he want to destroy thousands of dollars worth of inventory?
Rodes changed the labels on his stevia
products so that they conform to the strictest FDA regulations. They no longer
suggest any other use for stevia. A label that said "tabletop ready"
was replaced because this implies that stevia in these packages could be used
as a flavoring ingredient.
Apparently, however, the presence of the
books remains a critical issue for FDA officials.
Rodes' company is one of the nation's major
distributors of stevia. The FDA confiscated two shipments of the herb that
belong to Rodes. Those shipments have yet to be released. This action is
costing Rodes business and money.
The FDA oversees the sale and distribution of
food and drug products for the safety and health of the nation. The agency
sometimes acts overly cautious. Although stevia has been used as a food
additive without ill effects in Japan for more than 25 years, the herb has not,
according to the FDA, undergone sufficient testing in this country to assure
that it isn't harmful if used as an additive.
According to FDA officials, the herb stevia
can be "adulterated" merely by being in the presence of information
that reveals its sweetening property.
Dallas FDA agents even went so far as to mark
up copies of the offending books so that they couldn't be sold. Clearly these
agents violated the law. The FDA has no legal authority to destroy books. None
whatsoever --- no matter whose economic interests are at stake.
For more information about Stevia CLICK HERE
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