Posted on 04/29/2007 3:38:00 AM PDT by dawn53
What's a pet owner to do? You check the recall list and the product you feed your pet isn't there.
So you keep using the same pet food.
But then, as it has several times already, including late this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announces an expansion of the recall list. With almost 5, 600 products listed, you search again. And your brand has been added.
(Excerpt) Read more at sptimes.com ...
Yes! Food will be safe again when we stop dealing with countries that have no quality control and are still using pesticides we banned years ago!
I have the good fortune of dealing with them every day. The contrast is startling.
Scary !!!
My vet is doing some research and says that he sees cancer rates in cats and dogs hovering around 50% and that’s just too high to be natural. He believes it’s directly related to the rise of manufactured pet foods.
The difference is that people actually ate real food back then, not the processed stuff we eat today.
Thanks for posting. BTTT.
But... China is our Friend!!
harharhar
I cook chicken and rice for my pets.
They love it.
My point exactly.
Do your pets get the chicken bones too?
What do you do about the bones?
Any tips thanks
Yep. I’d buy it.
One of the main TV shows did a story on India and China’s Rx drugs. They estimated that 1/3 were fakes. Many made from plaster board.
Years and years ago, a story was done on metal rivets from China. And what poor quality they were and how disastrous those could be on things like airplanes.
Now lots of our apple juice is imported from China. So now I will drink Martinelli’s apple juice.
Arizona is going to be part of the CANAMEX Corridor to bring you millions and millions of containers of Chinese products to be shipped to the new (to be built) Port Colonet on Baja.
Isn’t that Special? More dog food, more drugs, more apple juice, more rivets and all those products in the box stores like Wal-mart, etc.
We have only just begun......
We consume a lot of it but how trustworthy is organic produce from the People’s Republic?
PAMELA CUTHBERT | April 16, 2007 |
A frozen pea weighs less than a gram and suggests a flavour so mild it might easily go unnoticed. But with the arrival of phosphorescent frozen seed pods certified organic and grown in China, the modest little legume is heating up the “local versus organic” debate that rages throughout the food world. The People’s Republic of China, known for counterfeits, DDT production, deplorable labour practices and state-controlled media, is facing an image problem as a source of pure, organic foods. Yet freezers at grocery chains are packed with the stuff. (China supplies one-third of Canada’s import market for all garden peas — fresh and frozen, conventional and organic.)
Continued Below
Ontario-based dairy co-operative Organic Meadow champions sustainable agriculture. “At least our peas aren’t coming from China,” says CEO Steve Cavell, explaining that the company’s small sideline of frozen peas and assorted vegetables sold at Whole Foods is “temporarily” supplied through farms in Oregon due to the loss of a local processor. “You know, we’re not 100 per cent clear on what the Chinese organic standard is about.”
As peas join the lengthening conveyor belt of organic goods circumnavigating the globe, enforcement of standards is emerging as a concern for consumers who pay a premium for foods that are supposed to be free of synthetic pesticides, irradiation and genetically modified organisms. A 2006 UN report on organic farming in China and India confirms suspicions: “A large proportion of organic products are sold informally without certification controls.” Shirley Li Xiaoxue of the Beijing-based Organic Farm, agrees integrity is an issue. “Sometimes we are carrying out lectures on how to deal with these problems of credibility in agriculture — technicians are teaching how to grow in a natural way.”
What’s more, argues Wayne Roberts of the Toronto Food Policy Council, these green orbs are, ecologically speaking, as black as coal. “The environmental toll of bringing in peas from China,” he says, “is incredible — keeping them frozen from there to here.” Shanghai to Toronto clicks in at about 11,500 km.
The concept of a “food mile,” a measurement that compares travel calories with a product’s inherent calories, or nutrients, prompted Marc Xuereb of Waterloo Public Health to study peas and 57 other foods that could be grown or raised within the Waterloo area. He found imports travel on average 4,497 km to the region, and account for 51,709 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
But organic agriculture worldwide, worth more than $46 billion in 2006, continues to grow at an annual rate of more than 20 per cent. Powerful pushers of discount foods such as Wal-Mart are leading the search for competitively priced organic goods. China stands out as a one-stop shop: it is the third-largest producer of organic foods with 2.3 million hectares of the planet’s nearly 31 million hectares of certified organic land.
Green Organic Vegetable Inc. supplies retailers across Canada and processors including General Mills with a variety of frozen vegetables grown in China. President Gary Lloyd stresses the company’s endorsements — a veritable alphabet soup of third-party-supplied certification stamps from the U.S. (USDA) to the international label OCIA. After starting as an importer of foods from China and getting inconsistent results, Lloyd decided to work from the ground up. Green Organics grows and processes vegetables on its own 5,000 acres of land. “We have to be able to track it to the acre, to the farmer.” If anything, he thinks more thorough paper trails would help his business. “Food safety is such a huge issue now.”
For chef Craig Flinn of Chives Canadian Bistro in Halifax, the provenance of peas is key. He finds the frozen counterparts pale in comparison to the grassy-scented offerings that arrive and disappear locally with spring. His menu features a sweet pea and basil soup with butter-poached lobster and, naturally, hodgepodge, the ritual vegetable stew of Nova Scotia that celebrates the season’s still-miniature vegetables. Although Flinn sees the regional speciality on menus year-round, he says, “That’s not the real stuff.”
The option — limited as it is — to stop in at a farmers’ market in late spring and buy the radiant green pods direct from the grower avoids a number of issues, although conventional goods might contain pesticide residues, which the organic label should protect against. The taste — potent enough to send the women of Louis XIV’s court into a fury of overindulgence — promises to be a world apart.
Boil them for soup stock?
Dogs evolved with us - feed them human leftovers...
Dogs evolved with us - feed them human table scraps...
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