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TheStripey1
04-30-2007, 04:46 PM
We were all shocked by the pet food recall that recently occurred, right? And we were told time and time again that it was centralized to pet food only, right? That human foods were not affected, right? well.... the government also said the air was safe to breathe around ground zero just after 9/11... right?

Here are a couple of articles... one from a well known source and one from... well... a blog... they're eye openers... jaw droppers...



Filler in Animal Feed Is Open Secret in China

(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/business/worldbusiness/30food.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein.

For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.

“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.”

...snip



and here is what they didn't say in the above article... food for thought, eh wot?



Melamine-spiking “widespread” in China; human food broadly contaminated (http://www.horsesass.org/?p=2861)

Who knows what kind of shit is adulterating our imported and domestic food supply? But whatever it is, it’s about to hit the fan.

Months after dogs and cats started dropping dead of renal failure from melamine-tainted pet food, American consumers are beginning to learn how long and how wide this contaminant has also poisoned the human food supply. Last week, as California officials revealed that at least 45 people are known to have eaten tainted pork, the USDA announced that it would pay farmers millions of dollars to destroy and dispose of thousands of hogs fed “salvaged” pet food.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Through the salvaging practice, melamine-tainted pet food has likely contaminated America’s livestock for as long as it has been killing and sickening America’s pets — as far back as August of 2006, or even earlier. And while it may seem alarmist to suggest without absolute proof that Americans have been eating melamine-tainted pork, chicken and farm-raised fish for the better part of a year, the FDA and USDA seem to be preparing to brace Americans for the worst. In an unusual, Saturday afternoon joint press release, the regulators tasked with protecting the safety of our nation’s food supply go to convoluted lengths to reassure the public that eating melamine-tainted pork is perfectly safe.

...snip

“The practice is widespread in China,” the Times reports, and has been going on “for years.” And it is not just wheat, corn, rice and soybean proteins that should be suspect, but the animals who feed on it, including all imported Chinese pork, poultry, farm-raised fish, and their various by-products. Despite FDA and USDA efforts to allay concerns about consuming melamine-tainted meat, the health effects are unstudied, and the permissible level is zero. If China could impose a three-year (and counting) ban on the import of U.S. beef after a single incident of Mad Cow disease, then surely the U.S. would be justified in imposing a ban on Chinese vegetable protein and livestock products due to such a prevalent, industrywide contamination.

..snip

Had this accident never occurred — had cats, with their sensitive renal systems, not been the canary in the coal mine of melamine toxicity — we might never have known that our children and our pets were being slowly poisoned by Chinese capitalism.

...snip



so... what do you think? Should we ban all food imports from China until they can prove melamine isn't in their products?

CockySOB
04-30-2007, 06:28 PM
Actually Stripey, if most of the consumers KNEW what was in their processed foodstuffs, they'd probably never sleep well again - or eat a meal with the same nonchalance. The "modern" world has so much artificial crap in our food supply that everything is screwed up one way or another.

Then again, the media has been full of "the evils of trans-fats" and yet people still stuff their mouths with all manner of Twinkies and Ding-Dongs. Quality is sacrificed for immediacy and quantity.

But with regards to your question about importing Chinese foodstuffs, yeah, I'd recommend against importing.

shattered
04-30-2007, 06:29 PM
Actually Stripey, if most of the consumers KNEW what was in their processed foodstuffs, they'd probably never sleep well again - or eat a meal with the same nonchalance. The "modern" world has so much artificial crap in our food supply that everything is screwed up one way or another.

Then again, the media has been full of "the evils of trans-fats" and yet people still stuff their mouths with all manner of Twinkies and Ding-Dongs. Quality is sacrificed for immediacy and quantity.

But with regards to your question about importing Chinese foodstuffs, yeah, I'd recommend against importing.

Actually, if they knew, they'd stop eating it, and sleep MUCH better after about a week.. :D

jimnyc
04-30-2007, 07:27 PM
There's never been a doubt in my mind for a split second that our food supply is riddled with all kinds of crap. But I feast at McDonalds, BK, Wendy's and the local gas station candy section - so it can't be too bad!

Nuc
04-30-2007, 07:47 PM
There's never been a doubt in my mind for a split second that our food supply is riddled with all kinds of crap. But I feast at McDonalds, BK, Wendy's and the local gas station candy section - so it can't be too bad!

Watch out or you'll end up with diabetes or any number of other health problems.

The food supply in America sucks because we shouldn't be getting our food from corporations.

This is one of the main reasons I moved to Australia. Better food.

CockySOB
04-30-2007, 07:55 PM
Watch out or you'll end up with diabetes or any number of other health problems.

The food supply in America sucks because we shouldn't be getting our food from corporations.

This is one of the main reasons I moved to Australia. Better food.

I prefer rural living for this reason. Garden-fresh produce and small-farm, free-range game meats....

I'm no fan of McD, but sometimes that's all you have access to, especially on long road trips through rural America.

gabosaurus
04-30-2007, 08:44 PM
Your food is fairly safe. Unless you eat at a fast food place like McDonalds or Taco Bell. Then you take your life into your own hands.

Baron Von Esslingen
05-01-2007, 01:01 PM
I rarely eat anything that is processed or that comes from a box. Most of that stuff will kill ya.

I wouldn't put it past those Chinese communists to put anything in our food since big business has sold out to the slave labor/poverty wage machine that is China.

Trigg
05-01-2007, 01:44 PM
I stopped buying meat at the grocery years ago and get all our stuff from local farmers.

It tastes better without all the fillers the grocery adds. Chicken actuallly has some taste to it.

I grew up on a small farm with our own cow, goats and hogs so it was nice to go back to that.

-Cp
05-01-2007, 02:50 PM
I stopped buying meat at the grocery years ago and get all our stuff from local farmers.

It tastes better without all the fillers the grocery adds. Chicken actuallly has some taste to it.

I grew up on a small farm with our own cow, goats and hogs so it was nice to go back to that.


Same here - we've been getting our meats from local Butchers for about 4 years now... HUGE difference between the flavor between them and the crap you pay good money for in the grocery stores...

We too live in a more rural area, however, still get the bulk of our produce from the local stores - during the spring/summer months we have access to more locally grown veggies and fruits...

My wife also has a garden that we use as well..

Trigg
05-01-2007, 02:58 PM
Same here - we've been getting our meats from local Butchers for about 4 years now... HUGE difference between the flavor between them and the crap you pay good money for in the grocery stores...

We too live in a more rural area, however, still get the bulk of our produce from the local stores - during the spring/summer months we have access to more locally grown veggies and fruits...

My wife also has a garden that we use as well..


My mom used to spend a lot of time canning, dill pickles, tomato juice, veggies, huge pain in the rear.

I keep telling myself a garden would be okay, then I have a flash back to pulling weeds in the garden. It was a punishment my mother would give out for arguing, needless to say with 4 girls the garden looked wonderfull all summer.

I may put one in eventually, the veggies do taste much better.

Abbey Marie
05-01-2007, 03:01 PM
Can someone explain why it is we are importing any wheat products? Do we not have so much wheat that we actually export it?

Nuc
05-01-2007, 04:46 PM
Well we live in free market economy where the dollar rules and corporations are given carte blanche to sell anything that will make them a buck. Of course the food sucks. i was watching TV last night and every single food item that was advertised was poisonous.