Well, I guess the FDA is finally doing something w/Chinese

[rasputin1952]

imports:

Tainted Chinese Imports Common
In Four Months, FDA Refused 298 Shipments

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 20, 2007; A01

Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.

Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics.

Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.

Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051901273_pf.html


But not nearly enough. It seems that we are sending our safe agricultural products to China, but we have accepted an immense portion of tainted Chinese products. Once again, it's all about the saving of a dollar over the safety of the American public.

I try very hard to avoid buying anything Chinese, not just because of the trade deficit, but because they are killing us. Wal-Mart has dedicated industry in China to specifically produce their products. I mention Wal-Mart because of the immensity of it's power to sell stuff from China, and thereby help to kill us off. This is really appalling...x(

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. All part of a plan...

To cull the herd.

[MonkeyFunk]

2. Seriously?

you believe that?

Wow.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

15. Yup.

I have tried not to, because I am not usually comfortable with "conspiracy-think", but when one looks at the situation as a whole, with all of the seemingly disparate elements laid out on the table, it is hard, next to impossible, to not conclude that the loss of a chunk of the population to their policies is not an aim. Sure, there is greed involved, but that ain't all.

[Berry Cool]

3. Sheesh. Does everything have to be a conspiracy?

It's no conspiracy. It's just a disregard for the personal safety of others where a buck can be made.

Never attribute to planned evil what can be more simply attributed to sheer ignorant greed.

[Double T]

4. So wal-mart is a covert agent for the chinese government...........

I guess when we are finally forced to hand over the keys to america when we default, the land will be ready to occupy and free of Americans that have been killed of by the tainted chinese food.

[rasputin1952]

6. When Sam Walton strated his empire, it was difficult to find

anything that wasn't made in the USA. Today, one can't find much made in the USA in Wal-Mart. The "name brand" items sold in Wal-Mart, that may be made here, are displayed next to Wal-Mart knock-offs nest to them on the shelves, at a substantial savings...:(

When Wal-Mart started to build factories in China, the handwriting was on the wall for US industry....:(

[ncrainbowgrrl]

13. A fun Wal- Mart Game:

Go in with a map of the world and a pen. Color in the countries on the map as you find items from that country in the store.

It's an awesome teaching device, actually...

[rasputin1952]

16. What a great idea!...

:D

[crikkett]

5. our agricultural products aren't all that 'safe' either, I've read over the years

about Mad Cow Beef,
Melamine-tainted chicken and pork, (not a chinese problem IMO: the problem is that crap in general is being fed to these animals)
chicken high in ARSENIC (a home-grown problem again related to feed).
e-coli lettuce
e-coli spinach
e-coli hamburger
"star" (GM) corn
e-coli orange juice
etcetera. Google will help you learn details.

You can't find canola or yellow corn that isn't contaminated with GM strains, because of pollen drift. Our crops are stopped routinely at EU ports for that reason. For that reason too the S. Korean trade agreement has a stipulation that the S Koreans may NOT test food that US tests have deemed 'safe'. We have to export OUR crap somewhere, too. Banning the US public from knowing what's in their food is just not enough.


I'm series!!1! THIS IS HUGH!!!111

[rasputin1952]

7. While I fear for our food supply as well, the problems that

China is visiting upon us, (and probably other countries as well are sending us crap), outweigh what we've done to our own food supply.

We are FAR to dependent on chemicals and pesticides for our agricultural processes. But at least we are trying to do something to stop the destruction. Whether we'll succeed is far from certain, but we are trying. China just plain doesn't give a damn, and Chinese citizens must be suffering as well, we just don't hear about it...:(

[fortyfeetunder]

8. The cure: buy local, buy organic.

Can't deal with mystery food anymore :puke:

A thought: there should be a post on every state/country forum dedicated to identifying local and organic farms...

[Gormy Cuss]

12. and when you can't do either, buy food with source labeling and don't eat in restaurants

The stuff at most chain restaurants is probably full of this crap -- that goes for the pricier chains, not just the fast food joints. Locally owned restaurants with a commitment to using local products are a better choice but the spices, cooking fats, and some ingredients may still have been sourced from China.

www.localharvest.org is the best one stop shop for learning about local farms and ranches.

[KoKo]

19. Oh Yeah! Tell me about "Whole Foods" selling frozen Brocolli/Spinach that's from China

but "labeled Organic?" And...how the hell do we know that our "local producers" aren't cheating. If one lives in a RED STATE you know that it's all a DONE DEAL. ANYONE can fake an "organic label" UNTIL THEY ARE CAUGHT!

We bought a stake in an Organic Farm in NC last year...and the stuff we got from them was CRAP! Then this year they went out of business yet they were on ALL THE SITES that DU'ers POST as the PRIMO SITE to buy in your state...organic produce from!

I don't even trust the "Organic Label" under the Bushies because LOOK AT what they've done to our Prescription Drugs and Vitamin Imports.

We DON'T KNOW FOR SURE...where the hell ANYTHING comes from these days! :grr:

[Gormy Cuss]

21. You either have to grow everything that you eat or trust somebody.

Sure, local producers could cheat but I doubt that many do, some organic farms aren't run well but others are, and the organic labeling standard has been watered down but there are still producers who pledge to live up to higher standards. I grow a lot of the vegetables and fruit that I eat but not everyone can do that. The rest of my food comes from vendors at certified farmer's markets (their certification lists what they produce and they aren't allowed to sell anything else) or sources where the chance of buy adulterated crap is a bit lower, and yes that includes Whole Foods.

[KoKo]

9. Thinking about this I wondered about all those Fast Food Chinese Places

that have sprung up on every road stop and city all over the US. I notice more in the Southeast than I did in New England and NJ when I lived there.

These Chinese "Buffets" and shopping mall places with similar names might be the places that alot of the imports from China are going. I can't imagine any of the big grocery chains (not counting Walmart) but the others...not buying from big American Agribusiness like Tyson, Perdue, Smithfield and a few others. BUT...those Chinese "chop shops" would be the first place where illegal food from China might be going.

NYT's did an article about how the workers in all those Chinese places are shipped from place to place all over America. They are basically slave labor, or indentured servants. They live together and work for a few months in little towns then are shipped to another town or city to prepare the food and to serve it. It's an underground economy going on under the noses of all our State Officials who seem to ignore it and the implications.

What's worrysome is that "Whole Foods" is bringing in veggies and selling them under their "365" label that are from China but marked "Organic." I wonder if some of our Organic Grocery Stores are involved in some odd corporate schemes. We who want to buy organic think of Earth Fare and Whole Foods first and yet they are doing this. Where do they get their fresh produce if the fozen is from China?

Also noticed that you can't always trust that companies like "Birds Eye" and "Green Giant" (long trusted major brands) aren't importing from other places...yet a store brand like "Pictsweet" tends to have most of their frozen products stamped "made in USA."

I don't think I will ever eat in a Chinese restaurant again...but then...where can one eat and be totally sure today?

[Junkdrawer]

10. My big worry is the bulk raw foodstuffs that feed our food factories...

We eat so many processed foods. From the same article:

...

It is not just that food from China is cheap, said William Hubbard, a former associate director of the FDA. For a growing number of important food products, China has become virtually the only source in the world.

China now controls 80 percent of the world's production of ascorbic acid, for example, a valuable preservative that is ubiquitous in processed and other foods. Only one producer still makes it in the United States, Hubbard said.

...


And there was a cite on an earlier thread that Chinese ascorbic acid was contaminated with lead. And would that show up on a label as "Made in China"? Doubt it.

[KoKo]

11. Yes...that's scary. What is this doing to us and our kids? When did this all start?

It's such a huge issue...yet people aren't in the streets picketing their grocery stores. Where are the buyers out there marching with signs "No CHINESE IMPORTS"..."TRUTH IN LABELLING."

We don't seem to have a coalition who will address this for us and help us organize. And, as far as I can see even the Pet Food Scandal doesn't seem to have concerned people. There was never a sign in any of the grocery stores that "contaminated products have been removed." I still see store brands sitting right next to name brands. I never saw empty spaces where removal of products would be noticeable.

In these times...one might expect that the tainted products were "removed to the back room" and when the news died down...replaced on the shelves. What if that's the case? And, if it isn't why hasn't the media reported on WHERE all those tainted products have gone? Where were they dumped?

The media eats the same food we do and yet there's little reporting of it. Just yesterday a Ferret Food Manufacturer recalled many products including ones they sold for cats and dogs. I never heard a thing about it and the Sunday Pundits and the nightly shows barely mention it. Lou Dobbs occasionally puts in a little two minute segment but it isn't as important as his "BROKEN BORDERS."

So...who will stand up for us Passive Americans who seem to just watch it all go buy and keep buying and trusting in their country to "do the correct thing."

It's just amazing what's going on to some of us...but the rest still seem asleep.

[Nikia]

14. Several processed products have multiple countries of origin

The main ingredients may be grown or made in the U.S. but they may import certain chemical ingredients or spices from other countries. In the case of one the posts above where there may be only one American supplier or only a few very small American suppliers of an ingredient, it may be difficult for a company to get that ingredient from an American source. One of the ingredients that the company I work for uses is Chinese because the American supplier, previously used, went out of business a couple yeras ago. When a large enough American producer of the ingredient, which is a common ingredient for many processed food products, was contacted, the supplier replied that all of their projected production has already been contracted for the next few years. Perhaps these issues with Chinese food ingredients will result in a higher demand for American products which in time will be accomodated. It will not happen overnight though because companies need time to expand their workforce and infastructure and new companies need to open.

[rasputin1952]

17. I was in the store on Friday to pick up a small can of

mushrooms and an onion so I would have something cool to put on the cheeseburgers. All of the brands were either from Indonesia or China, except Green Giant, they came from WI, it cost almost 50 cents more, but I got them and sauteed what I wanted. Normally, i would have grabbed some fresh 'shrooms, but the ones the store had came from Mexico. White button mushrooms are not produced in the USA anymore?
I would have done better to get portabellas, but they were really expensive.

I look at every label now, and I avoid Chinese imports like the plague. I only buy a Chinese product if there are no alternatives; and the way things are going, alternatives are running out.

[KoKo]

18. Pennsylvania used to be the Biggest Mushroom Producer but lately, I've noticed

that some company called "TO JO" has been appearing on the "shroom boxes." Their mushrooms SAY "PA" on the box but most of them have very "yellow spots" and when one cuts them their stems seem grime and rancid into the core of the mushroom.

As a "Mushroom lover" (of the food kind..:D) I've noticed the change in the mushrooms I buy for "stir fry" and salads. In my visits to three different markets here where I live ...it seems "TO/JO Reigns in Mushrooms...but the quality is "questionable."

I need to GOOGLE the TO/JO Company...but with all the Chinese stuff I'm sick enough with worry and figure this would throw me over the edge to find out WHO BOUGHT THE PA MUSHROOM producers!

We HAVE TO READ EVERY LABEL AND CONFRONT OUR PRODUCE PEOPLE AT OUR "place of purchase." Not easy when one works and has to do meals at instant notice..:-(

[rasputin1952]

20. Shrooms have about zero in nutritional value, but they sure

do add taste when taste is what is desired!

I'm pretty picky about the shrooms I buy, unless it is a really quick meal and half cooked before I realize I need some. There are baby portabellas outthere that have extraordinary taste, and I haven't seen any problems w/them. But here, they come in bulk, not packages so point of origin is tough to discern.

[KoKo]

22. I bought a bag of Shitake Mushrooms from Whole Foods...Loved them

very fragrent and what they do to pork chops (from Murphy Farms and Grain Raised Beef) is out of this world. It wasn't until I noticed they were imported from China and tnrew out my last bag that I realized how careful we have to be. Who knows where the portabellos come from. I've cooked a few as substitute for hamburgers and they were delicious...but didn't know then to ask the grocer where they were from.

I've not bought the "losse shitakes" in my grocery store for the same reason. They aren't marked organic and the organic ones I bought were from China...but I didn't know at the time to look on the right hand side of the bag for the "STAMP: Country of Origin."

A DU'er posted that Musrooms from China have been coated with pesticides....but I didn't know that months ago when I bought bags of them from Whole Foods to put in my freezer.

They sure did taste good....but who knows what they did to me..or maybe they didn't get the "pesticide spray" but why should I take another chance. :shrug:

[rasputin1952]

23. Ooops...sent a reply, and now forgot most of it...damn old brain

but I do remember that I stated I doubted that they would harm you....:D