American family farmers are dreamers. They’re do-ers, too, of course. Nobody works harder than farmers. But in the world of modern agriculture, it is getting harder and harder for Mom and Pop farms — the backbone America was built on — to get ahead.
Enter Heartland Food Products Group, the makers of Splenda brand sweeteners and many other products that help make it easier to reduce sugar intake.
What does Splenda have to do with farming? Sweeteners like monk fruit and stevia are plant-based — so they are just not sugar, but are comprised of those other plants also grown on farms.
Historically, stevia has not been an American crop. It is almost produced in other countries, primarily China. If you notice the American flag motif in some versions of the Splenda logo, you probably understand Heartland is an America-first company. Heartland Chairman & CEO Ted Gelov put his money where his mouth is to establish the nation’s first stevia farm in central Florida.
Even better, the Florida location is just a mother farm — that’s where Heartland will grow the millions of stevia plants needed to fulfill the ultimate vision: Partnering with small American family farms to grow that crop.
There are about 48 million cases of foodborne illnesses in the United States annually – that’s roughly one in six Americans.
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Sometimes food safety can be less about what’s in or out of what you’re eating and more about what you’re used to eating, as Dr. Francisco Diez from the University of Georgia Food Safety Center explains.
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You’ve probably heard that if you drop food it’s still clean and edible as long as you pick it up within 5 seconds. Sorry, not true!
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Mary Days is a contributor and good friend of “Where the Food Comes From,” and enjoys joining us on shoots in Florida. This is her behind-the-scenes take on what a day looks like filming with the crew.
January 25, 2024 10:00 AM
Would you believe it’s possible to have a dairy barn where all you smell is clean fresh country air? Leon McLellan of M&B Products in Temple Terrace, FL shows us how!
January 24, 2024 03:00 PM
