Posted on 04/28/2007 4:44:09 PM PDT by Flavius
Oh gag.....
“Holy Projectile Vomiting Batman!!!”
I won’t eat food from China....all that fish they sell over here, nope.
China is a big exporter of "Organic" food. It's not enough that food is labeled organic, it must be locally grown.
Well it was about 100 degrees here for it, only about 20 people showed up.
But we did get good news coverage.
I have seen myself on the news here, about 6 times asking for better pet food and human food regulations. Not long segments but at least getting the word out about the food inspections.
I did say on camera that, if my pet died and so did my son’s dog a week later, then there are only 14 other pets nationwide that have died, told them it was ridiculous.
Something is being hidden and has to be investigated.
I also said on camera that I wasn’t there just for my dog, as nothing can be done for him now, but I was there to speak out for my family and grandchildren and everyones family as this has hit the human food chain, big time.
(Hate when I look fatter on tv, lol.)
I did send off postcards of my dog to Senators in Washington, as did others with the March and hopefully it will make an impact on those no good bums there.
Someone at the March had a on line pet petition to sign, here is the url.
Check it out everyone.
It looks like few people are really getting involved right now, but,
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
There is a big article on the front page of our newspaper this morning called FOOD CRISIS WIDENS, but I cannot find the link.
The paper is the Las Vegas Review Journal, if anyone can find it and post it, that would be good.
“China is a big exporter of “Organic” food. It’s not enough that food is labeled organic, it must be locally grown.”
Food that can show the local linkage will get a huge boost is what I really mean’t to say....
The local angle should be more important than the organic factor.
Yes organic can be a scam in many cases....
I don't think regulation is the answer. We need very heavy penalties for those who do not test their ingredients/products purchased. Ignorance is no plea when it comes to our food supply. The fine needs to be so high the incentive is to police themselves if they want to sell their products in or to the U.S.
Industry here in the US is heavily weighed down by regulation by agencies like the FDA. It stifles US competitiveness and costs jobs. The way they shake down US companies and then give the Chinese a pass just boils me
I agree with you on the regulation but these companies can’t get away with expensing the American People for profit. They need to suffer including putting them out of business, for not overseeing their products if they are going to go for cheaper anything that causes us to suspect our food supply. Let these companies deal with China and whatever other country they go to just to get a cheaper deal.
I just didn’t want you or anyone to think that the organic label ensured safety.
I only found out about so called ‘organic’ food from China last week myself.
By David Barboza and Alexei Barrionuevo The New York Times
Sunday, April 29, 2007
American food safety regulators trying to figure out how an industrial chemical called melamine contaminated so much pet food in the United States might come to this heavily polluted city in Shandong Province in the northern part of the country.
Here at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group factory, huge boiler vats are turning coal into melamine, which is used to create plastics and fertilizer.
But the leftover melamine scrap, small acorn-sized chunks of white rock, is then being sold to local entrepreneurs, who say they secretly mix a powdered form of the scrap into animal feed to artificially enhance the protein level.
The melamine powder has been dubbed “fake protein” and is used to deceive those who raise animals into thinking they are buying feed that provides higher nutrition value.
“It just saves money,” says a manager at an animal feed factory here. “Melamine scrap is added to animal feed to boost the protein level.”
The practice is widespread in China. For years animal feed sellers have been able to cheat buyers by blending the powder into feed with little regulatory supervision, according to interviews with melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.
But now, melamine is at the center of a massive, multinational pet food recall after it was linked earlier this month to the deaths and injuries of thousands of cats and dogs in the United States and South Africa.
No one knows exactly how melamine - which had not been believed to be particularly toxic - became so fatal in pet food, but its presence in any form of American food is illegal.
U.S. regulators are now headed to China to figure out why pet food ingredients imported from here, including wheat gluten, were contaminated with high levels of the chemical.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned imports of wheat gluten from China and ordered the recall of over 60 million packages of pet food. And last week, the agency opened a criminal investigation in the case and searched the offices of at least one pet food supplier.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also stepped in Thursday, ordering more than 6,000 hogs to be quarantined or slaughtered after some of the pet food ingredients laced with melamine were accidentally sent to hog farms in eight states, including California.
Scientists are now trying to determine whether melamine could be harmful to human health.
The huge pet food recall is raising questions in the United States about regulatory controls at a time when food supplies are increasingly being sourced globally. Some experts complain that the FDA is understaffed and underfunded, making it incapable of safeguarding America’s food supply.
“They have fewer people inspecting product at the ports than ever before,” says Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. “Until China gets programs in place to verify the safety of their products, they need to be inspected by U.S. inspectors. This open-door policy on food ingredients is an open invitation for an attack on the food supply, either intentional or unintentional.”
The pet food case is also putting China’s agricultural exports under greater scrutiny because the country’s dubious food safety record and history of excessive antibiotic and pesticide use.
In recent years, for instance, China’s food safety scandals have involved everything from fake baby milk formulas and soy sauce made from human hair, to instances where cuttlefish were soaked in calligraphy ink to improve their color and eels were fed contraceptive pills to make them grow long and slim.
China’s government disputes any suggestion that melamine from the country could have killed pets. But Friday, regulators here banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins made for export or for use in domestic food supplies.
Yet it is clear from visiting this region of northern China is that for years melamine has been quietly mixed into Chinese animal feed and then sold to unsuspecting farmers as protein-rich pig, poultry and fish feed.
Many animal feed operators advertise on the Internet seeking to purchase melamine scrap. And melamine scrap producers and traders said in recent interviews that they often sell to animal feed makers.
“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” says Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company. “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.”
Most local feed companies do not admit that they use melamine. But last Friday here in Zhangqiu, a fast-growing industrial city southeast of Beijing, a pair of animal feed producers explained in great detail how they purchase low-grade wheat, corn, soybean or other proteins and then mix in small portions of nitrogen-rich melamine, whose chemical properties give a bag of animal feed an inflated protein level under standard tests.
Melamine is the new scam of choice, they say, because urea - another nitrogen-rich chemical that works similarly - is illegal for use in pig and poultry feed and can be easily tested for in China as well as the United States.
“If you add it in small quantities, it won’t hurt the animals,” said one animal feed entrepreneur whose name is being withheld to protect him from prosecution.
The man - who works in a small animal feed operation that consists of a handful of storage and mixing areas - said he has mixed melamine into animal feed for years.
He said he was not currently using melamine, which is actually made from urea. But he then pulled out a plastic bag containing what he said was melamine powder and said he could dye it any color.
Asked whether he could create an animal feed and melamine brew, he said yes, he has access to huge supplies of melamine. Using melamine-spiked pet food ingredient was not a problem, he said, even thought the product would be weak in protein.
“Pets are not like pigs or chickens,” he said casually, explaining that cheating them on protein won’t matter. “They don’t need to grow fast.”
The feed seller makes a heftier profit because the substitute melamine scrap is much cheaper than purchasing soy, wheat or corn protein.
“It’s true you can make a lot more profit by putting melamine in,” said a second animal feed seller here in Zhangqiu. “Melamine will cost you about $1.20 per ton for each protein count whereas real protein costs you about $6, so you can see the difference.”
Few people outside of agriculture know about melamine here. The Chinese media, which is strictly censored, has not reported much about melamine or the pet food recall overseas. And no one in agriculture here seems to believe that melamine is particularly harmful to animals or pets in small doses.
A man named Jing, who works in the sales department at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group, said Friday that melamine scrap prices had been rising but he was not aware of how the company’s product was being used.
“We have an auction for melamine scrap every three months,” he said. “I haven’t heard of it being added to animal feed. It’s not for animal feed.”
David Barboza reported from Zhangqiu and Alexei Barrionuevo reported from Chicago. Rujun Shen also contributed reporting.
I am now wondering about all of the vitamins and minerals I am taking from Andrew Lessman on HSN. Called his ProCaps Laboratories and they stated that the information on where he gets his ingredients is “proprietary”. This word is starting to worry me as I am hearing it from all of the tainted pet food companies.
Well, I’m glad you got some coverage out of it anyway.
thanks for posting, see the link is broken now..........one wonders why?
I saved it to Word and if you go to itchmo and scroll down the comments you will be able to find it with the help of some of the posters.
I agree with you, much organic is coming also from Mexico also and probably other places.
In my opinion, organic filled the desire to have quality food in our country.
I really don’t think most people really care about the organic piece of it.
What they really want is food that tastes good that they know is safe.
Organic food does not necessarily taste any better than certain types of non-organic food.
You can raise the very best food and use minimal amounts herbicides and pesticides.
Those minimal amounts are very helpful and have no impact on the environment.
Most consumers don’t realize that organic food can be very hard on the environment.
As in needing much soil cultivation (which can cause wind and water soil erosion) to keep the weed pressure down.
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