The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us in "How to Eat to Live" that there was little
pure food on the market. He taught us what to eat and what to stay away from. Following in his
footsteps the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has warned us not to trust the "merchants of
death" who sell us death in the form of processed food.

In the past the ratio of processed to fresh food in the grocery stores was 70% processed to 30%
fresh. Now the ratio of fresh food has gone down below 20% leaving the average consumer to choose
between brands of processed food which they believe is safe because the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) is supposedly looking after their health. However, the FDA is under the same type of corporate
influence that distorts findings and pays scientists to look the other way or even fabricate results
to protect their "bottom line".

Over the last few years the "Farmer Newsletter" at www.MuhammadFarms.com
and the Final Call Newspaper have been on the look out for poisons within America’s food system.
In particular we exposed the health hazards of both MSG (monosodium glutamate) and HFCS
(high-fructose corn syrup). Evidently the truth has teeth because the processed food industry is
spending a lot of money on ads to allay the people’s fears of these two substances. Evidently our
and others efforts to warn the public have resulted in reduced consumption of those items containing
these substances to the point that the industry has to launch a media blitz to confront the enemy
(the consumers) at the pass.

Back in September of this year the Corn Refiners Association started a $30 million dollar
national advertisement blitz to calm the consumers fears over the relationship between high fructose
corn syrup, obesity and diabetes. Their ad goes like this: A mother pours a child a flavored drink,
a younger woman offers her boyfriend a Popsicle — then both are confronted about the health
effects of high-fructose corn syrup.

Their response: The sweetener is made from corn, has no artificial ingredients and is fine in
moderation.

Maybe it is "fine in moderation" but if you read the labels on every soda brand, except
one or two small insignificant brands, you will find high fructose corn syrup. More than 10 percent
of Americans’ daily calories come from fructose, including high-fructose corn syrup, with
sweetened beverages the largest source of the syrup, according to an Emory University study
published this year.

None of the advertisements cast the manufactured sweetener as "natural," though they
could, following a letter written in July by a supervisor with the Food and Drug Administration’s
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. The supervisor, Geraldine June, wrote that
high-fructose corn syrup could be called "natural" because it’s corn-based and contains
nothing artificial or synthetic.

The letter was in response to the Sugar Association petitioning the FDA in 2006 to clarify the
definition of "natural," complaining that its use in describing high-fructose corn syrup
was misleading because corn’s original chemical state is altered significantly during processing
into syrup. Using enzymes, the cornstarch molecules are broken down into the simple sugars, glucose
and fructose. A team of researchers in 2007 at the USDA, led by Dr. Meira Field, found that
laboratory rats were not negatively affected when fed glucose, but when fed fructose they had
anemia, high cholesterol and their hearts enlarged until they exploded.

MSG is another food additive taking it on the chin lately. Even the Food channel and the Weather
Channel are carrying the ads of the soup war between Progresso (owned by General Mills) and
Campbell. The Campbell Soup Company struck the first blow September, with ads in The Inquirer, the
New York Times, and a slew of papers around the country.

"Bring your dictionary," one ad declared, and the ingredient list for a can of
Progresso’s "Italian-Style Wedding" soup, which was shown alongside the ingredient list,
about half as long, for Campbell’s new Select Harvest version of the same soup. The headline over
Campbell’s version said, "Bring your appetite."

The ad highlighted such Progresso ingredients as sodium stearoyl lactylate and hydrolyzed corn
protein. "No artificial flavors. No MSG," Campbell’s ad said of its Select Harvest soups.
"Real ingredients. Real taste."

Progresso fired back in October, buying its own full-page comparative ads in The Inquirer, Times,
and other papers where Campbell’s ads had been published. The ads announced Progresso’s plan to
remove MSG – monosodium glutamate – from its entire line of about 80 soups.

"Campbell’s has 95 soups made with MSG," the headline said. "Progresso has 26
delicious soups with no MSG. (And more to come.)" Tom Forsythe, a spokesman for General Mills,
which is based in Minnesota, said Campbell was responding to Progresso’s success.

"We have been focused on taste and weight management and [on] bringing innovation to the
market," Forsythe said. "More than three million households have moved to Progresso soup
in the last two years alone. So we do think we have Campbell’s attention."

Campbell, which still claims nearly two-thirds of the ready-to-serve soup market, says
Progresso’s focus on MSG misses the broader point of Campbell’s new product line: recipes that rely
only on recognizable ingredients.

While both companies are competing to get rid of MSG in all of their soups they still try to
claim that MSG is just another taste enhancer. However, what the proponents of both MSG and HFCS
fail to accept is that enhancing empty calories and making people addicted to junk food are causing
people to eat themselves to death. We at Muhammad Farms have seen at first hand how people respond
to naturally grown and naturally ripened vegetables and fruits. The taste of what is truly natural
is easily discernable over the products of this artificial world and if given the choice the people
would choose natural. However, because of the preponderance of the artificial stuff on the market
and the increased dependence on processed food due to laziness of the people, many young people have
never had truly natural unprocessed food.

Until all of our people are awakened, we will continue to grow the best food, promote the
establishment of food buying clubs across the nation and do the research to help the people take
"a bite out of crime" with the teeth of truth and cut off the blood stream of the
"merchants of death". Please continue to support the Three Year Economic Savings Program
so that Muhammad Farms can increase your health and make the "merchants of death" sweat.