Chinese wheat, Prescott Bush Jr., & the Menu Foods recall

[highplainsdem]

Does anyone know if Prescott Bush, Jr., *'s uncle, is still involved with COFCO, which controls exports as well as imports of wheat and wheat products in China?

I know he used to be:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FE21Ad01.html

Information about the source of the wheat used by Menu Foods came out slowly, and -- as far as I can tell from checking old news stories and timelines -- not until just after the IPO for COFCO spinoff China Agri-Industries, which raised billions for them on March 21:

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=2&art_id=40708&sid=12772647&con_type=1&d_str=20070322

China Agri-Industries "trades and processes biofuels, biochemicals, malt, wheat, oilseed and rice," according to that article.

I don't imagine a lot of bad publicity about Chinese wheat would have helped that IPO.

By the way, if melamine spiking of wheat is widespread in China, as recent news stories suggest, shouldn't COFCO have been aware of that? This story from China Daily

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-06/06/content_168131.htm

says COFCO "monopolizes" wheat exports from China.

[SpiralHawk]

1. The BFEE - republicon family values in action: lie, steal, cheat, lie again

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. ..

:applause:

[EC]

9. Wasn't Dorothy's father also

Prescott sr.'s business partner (Walker)? Should add on that side of the family too, since he and Prescott were the ones financing the Nazi's.

[Moochy]

12. it's all true too

lol love the pic of Jeb Jr.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0916052bush1.html

[rumpel]

2. don't know

is COFCO related to this?
http://www.admworld.com/asen/about/dalian.asp
or any of these related companies - I could not find the name there but if COFCO is monopolizing China exports there must be some deal here...
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=ADM

:shrug:

on edit: somehow I felt there is some connection here when the pet food stuff started seeing that they also operate in Australia operate both import/export activities between all countries, and now the Catfish from China thing...
I wonder....

"ADM Dalian was established in 1995 to provide a complete solution for animal nutrition feeds for the Chinese and Asian livestock, poultry, dairy and aquaculture industries."

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Probably not

Prescott Bush, Jr. is 84.

[highplainsdem]

4. Would that limit his influence very much? He's less than 2 years older than Poppy.

That Asia Times article said he was still visiting China 2-4 times a year at that time, just a few years ago.

I'm not sure he had anything to do with the information about contaminated Chinese wheat not getting out until after that IPO, but the timing was interesting.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. The Wikipedia entry

Did not say he has stopped working in China, but when one is 84 one does not do as much aas one once did.

His kid brother, President Bush (the only President Bush to win an election), doesn't do very much business nowadays, either.

The Bush family could have had something to do with the delay, but I would guess that it would have benefitted the Frat Boy and his cousins more than the Frat Boy's uncle.

[kaygore]

13. My dad was 83 and a full-time dentist

He would still be practicing at 84 if he had not died of pancreatic cancer. Sumner Redstone is another example. That he is 84 does not rule out anything.

[highplainsdem]

7. kick

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Either this wheat thing was the cause of capitalist greed, or

we are experiencing the beginnings of economic/agricultural warfare.

[Lasher]

10. It's not warfare, it's capitulation

China is selling us gluten, a refined wheat product. We don't sell them any of our wheat because they have trade barriers to prevent it. We're not trying to do anything about it. China is coming here next week to attend a trade summit. Before they get here they will buy $12 billion of US goods so we won't ask them to do anything meaningful to be fair, like revaluing their yuan. We won't, and it'll be back to business as usual in China. Our trade deficit with China was $46 billion for the first 3 months this year - twice as much as a year ago.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IE04Cb01.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. And when you owe a country $46 billion dollars, they can turn around

and poison your people and say, "You will take this poison and like it!"

[bobthedrummer]

14. kick