You know we laughed about the Chinese Mayor drinking

[cornermouse]

benezine tea, but the fact is you have to wonder if we're also going to be having some sort of version of "benezine" or some other pollutant added to our diet in the near future.

It occurred to me as I was making myself some tea that most of our food products say things like distributed by (insert Company name with U.S. address). It appears someone officially decided we didn't need to know the country of origin for what we eat or drink. As we've all seen, their laws about pollution and food safety are lax and our FDA has gone from protecting our interests to protecting the corporation's interests instead.

It is frightening how dependent we have allowed ourselves to become on China and other foreign countries.

[Fridays Child]

1. Some chewing gum in my daughter's Christmas stocking was made in China.

I threw it away. I don't want my family eating anything from there. There's no way to know where it comes from or the conditions under which it is manufactured, packaged, and shipped. The same thing goes for just about anything coming from places other than Canada or Europe. On the other hand, we also try to stay away from American foods with bovine growth hormone and antibiotics in them.

The bottom line is that our food supply is being corrupted by corporations who want to increase their revenues either by tainting it with drugs and genetic modification or buying it from countries who have no consumer protections in place. And, on top of this, we also have the problems of corn syrup and excito-toxins such as MSG being added to processed foods. These things actually alter our body chemistry and cause disease.

All of this should be the cause of a consumer revolution but I don't think people get it. They're too busy and distracted just trying to survive, in part, because those same corporations won't pay a living wage or provide decent benefits.

This has to stop somewhere. Are corporations so short-sighted they can't understand that killing the market is bad for business?

[UncleSepp]

2. Please tell me more about corn syrup

I don't know what exactly's wrong with it, but I try to avoid it anyway. It just doesn't taste good, and it seems gross to me somehow. Corn syrup doesn't belong in barbecue sauce, but just try to buy a premade barbecue sauce without it!

[Fridays Child]

3. What I know about corn syrup is that you can almost directly correlate...

...the replacement of sugar with corn syrup in processed foods, beginning in the 1970s, with the epidemic of Type II Diabetes in this country.

For other information on why it's bad go to http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html. And if you Google "corn syrup," "high fructose corn syrup," and HFCS, you'll find even more. You'll also find propaganda from manufacturers, so be aware of sources of the information.

[UncleSepp]

4. Yuck! That's digusting!

Thanks for sending me the link. We joked about the "cornspiracy"... we being me and a couple other friends who are also DUers, after noticing how the corn syrup seems to be in EVERYthing. But other than a gut-level ick, I never knew what exactly was wrong with the stuff.

[Fridays Child]

5. On a related note...

Have you watched the documentary, The Corporation? An eye-opening experience, to say the least.

[UncleSepp]

6. No, I haven't - what's it about?

[Fridays Child]

7. It's a dissection of the entity we call the corporation...

...with a look at the history of corporations and their legal standing today. It examines the effects on our world of the corporate mandate to be mindful of nothing except the bottom line. It is well worth watching. Blockbuster has it online and I'm sure you can get it elsewhere, as well. I got my copy on eBay. If you can't afford it, I can burn you a copy for the cost of a blank DVD and postage. PM me, if you want to do that.