Why U.S. doesn't stop tainted food from China

san jose mercury ^ | 5/20/07 | by Rick Weiss

[Flavius]

WASHINGTON - 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 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.

For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught - many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.

[ken21]

>>>>Tony Corbo, a lobbyist for Food and Water Watch, a Washington advocacy group, said that finding - which is not subject to outside review - is unbelievable, given repeated findings of unsanitary conditions at China’s chicken slaughterhouses. Corbo said he has seen some of those audits. “Everyone who has seen them was grossed out,” he said.<<<<

must be pretty bad.

american slaughter houses are not a pretty sight.

[expatguy]

"Again, your point is well taken, but maybe expatguy can shed light on their motivations....but I suspect that it wasn't a chinese communist "kill the whitey capitalist" type motivation as much as it was likely a "(shrug) sure put it in if it makes it more profitable---if they complain we'll worry about it" or a "who knows if the USDA has banned this stuff, besides, there's more grease going into our product from the machinery than we're putting in melamine" type attitude.

The motives of the Chinese are really quite simple. Its all about making money and nothing else.

Why use a food grade chemical in any food processing when an industrial one will do just as well? Of course people might die, but in a country like China people are just as much a commodity and anything else.

Hate to say this, but when people die from Chinese products, the Chinese aren't so much concerned that someone actually died from their "cost cutting" measures. What the Chinese are concerned about is that people might not buy their products if they feel they are not safe and then buy a competitor's products and

There are many people including those in our own government who feel that this is really the one factor that will eventually leads to improvements in quality control.

Govermental measures penalizing Chinese imports now won't help a thing ~ the Chinese will simply find a way around any obstacles you put in their path.

But for American citizens and American companies to go on the offensive and start hammering the Chinese for their substandard products lack of quality control - that can get results.

So there you have it.

Like I said before, It is like the production in the West during the 1800's

[grey_whiskers]

While these are bad, they are not the same as deliberately adulterating the feedstock with industrial chemicals in order to inflate desirable values in the nutrient assay.

Indeed. But the point is that there are everyday dangers which will kill you every bit as much dead which come from any country of origin, including good ol' USA.

Your point above is well made, but would you mind if I adapted it a bit?

'..deliberately adulterating the feedstock with industrial chemicals in order to improve crunchiness, prolong "freshness", enhance color, ...'

I mean, is there really anything more artificial and unhealthy than Cheetos and a Coke?!?! ;-P

I agree completely with this. See my vanity on food here and a similar one on medicine here.

The problem is (by analogy to Toffler's Future Shock is that with the exponential growth in complexity of life, it is impossible to keep up on all of the changes as they affect you: something is going to be left out.

Which as you point out, leaves a choice of the private sector vs. the government as a watchdog.

And each of those choices has potential pitfalls: greed vs. incompetence.

Hobson's choice.

Thanks, btw, for mentioning subscription services to monitor food -- can you send me more details?

Cheers!

[gas0linealley]

I don't want most of the products of China. But I do like the fact that the industrial export stuff they build over there leaves all of the environmental damage in Red China, not in the American Rust Belt.

It's not a complete lose-lose proposition.

For you, lunch is 24/7.

[tiki]

Where and can you point me to where that happens in the current farm bill? I know that there is a long standing conservation program that pays for farmers to take environmentally sensitive land out of production but I know of no other clause that pays any farmer not to grow anything.

[Jonathan]

2 weeks ago in the NYT’s:

POISON cough syrup and other potions.

NO ONE is arrested. NOTHING changes.

NO ONE knows how many are dead. 100? 1000?

I propose that random members of congress and the Executive branch and their family members have to ingest EVERY food and drug product that they allow in from Red China.

TREASON!!!

[sam_paine]

Do you assume that the FDA and USDA regulations can be patched/amended/extended to fix the screwups and loopholes they already create?

Why not recognize that this is the kind of farce that more government control creates?

Maybe it’s not the short-term profit, but long-term regulation that has forced food processing off-shore.

[sam_paine]

Wow

[Major_Risktaker]

Raymond said permission for China to sell poultry to the United States is moving ahead because recent USDA audits found China's poultry slaughterhouses to be equivalent to those here.

Really! I won't eat Chinese chicken if it's labeled Imported from China.

America: Dog with a stick.

China: Dog-on-a-stick.

How do you know it's not true?

[steve86]

This whole administration has been nothing but frustration and disappointment.

Really is worse than that. I mean, you could go on a blind date that turned out to be nothing but frustration and disappointment. But the person who set you up with the date had good intentions -- the chemistry just didn't mix.

Now, this administration is actively aiding and abetting those who would poison us and/or circumvent our immigration laws -- and he's doing more at every stage to protect the other parties than to protect us. It certainly smacks of a systematic, well-thought out conspiracy to destroy our country's integrity and sovereignty and manufacturing capability, and enhance our adversary's.

We have been warned about this many times, but I'm not sure which conspiracy theory best explains this. But one of them, or maybe most of them collectively, did fairly accurately foretell the destruction of this country.

[sam_paine]

I’m not sure I did mention subscriptions...but there is an email list you can sign up for on the USDA food safety site.

I’ll bet it just sends spam about Spam, tho. =)

[AuntB]

I like Tammy Bruce! She cuts through the nonsense doesn’t she?

Some Duncan Hunter comments on China:

“We’re down to one-sies and two-sies on critical aspects of the defense industrial base. This is a security problem! I have two reasons for wanting to maintain a strong industrial base in this country. Number one, good high-paying jobs for our people and good profits for our businesses so they can continue to make capital investment and, secondly, national security. It could get to the point where it is primarily a national security problem.”

“Evidence of a transfer of ballistic missile technology to China during President Clinton’s Administration, by one of the President’s major campaign contributors, itself justifies inquiry into possible grounds for impeachment of the President”

AUTHORIZING EXTENSION OF NONDISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT (NORMAL TRADE RELATIONS TREATMENT) TO PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
(House of Representatives - May 24, 2000)

Mr. HUNTER: Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, in March of 1941 our former colleague, Carl Anderson, a Representative from Minnesota, warned us about the danger of arming potential adversaries. He said then that the chances of war with Japan were 50-50, and, that if our fleet had to meet the Japanese fleet, we would meet a fleet which was built with American steel and fueled with American petroleum.

A few months later at Pearl Harbor, 21 American ships were destroyed, 300 planes were destroyed, and 5,000 Americans were killed and wounded by a Japanese fleet that was built with American steel and fueled with American petroleum.

Well, whichever side of this debate one is on, everyone here has to concede American dollars are arming Communist China today. Let us look at what they have done with the $350 billion that they have amassed in trade surplus over the last 8 years. The Sovrenny class missile destroyers, straight from the Russians, designed for one purpose, to kill American aircraft carriers, were purchased with American trade dollars. The SU-27 fighter aircraft, high performance aircraft, capable of effective warfare against America’s top line fighters, were purchased with American trade dollars. On top of that, kilo class submarines, AWACS aircraft, air-to-air refueling capability, sophisticated communications equipment, all purchased with American trade dollars, and compounding the danger, China’s own sales to nations like Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria and North Korea of components for weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. Speaker, we have just left the bloodiest century in the history of the world. In a way it is a century of triumph for America. The story of the 20th century is the story of a great Democrat President, FDR, who stood with Winston Churchill against Germany’s Hitler. It is the story of a great Republican President, Ronald Reagan, who faced down the Soviet empire and disassembled Soviet Union.

But it is also a story of tragedy, because 617,000 Americans lie in cemeteries across this country and in the oceans of the world and the battlefields of the world as people who were killed in action saving the world for freedom in this last century.

Many of them fought in wars for which we were unprepared; that is a tragedy of the 20th century. But the greater tragedy, which could be the tragedy of the 21st century, could happen if this country, having fought and bled and sacrificed to dissolve the Soviet empire, through a massive infusion of cash produces, by our own hand, another military superpower, and if the cemeteries of this country one day hold the bodies of Americans in uniform killed with weapons purchased by American trade dollars. That will be the greatest tragedy of this new 21st century.

Mr. Speaker, let us avoid that tragedy. Vote no on PNTR.

http://www.house.gov/hunter/news_prior_2006/PNTR-flrspch.htm

[tiki]

I agree completely. Regulation is the bomb which will kill America. I’m not saying that we need to just throw out all safety regs but the regs have gotten ridiculous. They have forced processing, and manufacturing and numerous businesses offshore.

[frankenMonkey]

As an ex-small business owner, I cannot agree more... The wife even commented that the government (city, county, state, federal, plus ADA, ad naseum...) couldn’t do more to crush a business if they tried.

[reformedliberal]

They work as advertised. The compact flouerscent grow bulbs are about the energy consumption of 60W incandescents. I had one bad grow light and the company promptly sent me free replacements. Otherwise, the lights last 6 months and cost $25/pair. I had about a week-ten days with only one functioning bulb, so I would alternate it on either side every two days until the replacement arrived.

I started the cherry tomato kit in the Aerogarden on March 3.
I have three stocky, strong plants loaded with baby tomatoes at the moment.

The only problem, which is minor, IMO, is that the plants are so dense that the bottom leaves tend to dry up within a few weeks. So far, I have simply pinched those off. I mist them after the grow lights go off at night, as well.

My outside garden will get planted this week (we just had a light frost two night ago). The aeroponic tomatoes will be done about the time the garden tomatoes begin to ripen. At that time, I am planning on starting a salad greens kit in the Aerogarden that now has tomatoes. Future plans are to get a second one and have tomatoes and lettuce both this winter.

They are a little pricey to begin with and the kits are $20 each, but there isn’t much choice up here in Wisconsin where the growing season for lettuce can end with a hot spell and the tomato season ends in September or October.

I am considering a small greenhouse to extend the season for some other veggie crops,like peppers, but I live in a valley (a frost pocket/less light) and am unsure if the cost of light and heat will outweigh the value of the mini greenhouse.

[NRA2BFree]

Good grief! We can thank the globalists in our government for this. They really don't care if Americans die. Just as long as their global trade keeps flowing. We are making these other countries rich while making Americans poor, and those traitors in DC don't give a hoot. They are determined to destroy the middle class in America. Now, it looks like they are determined to kill a bunch of us in the race to the bottom.

IMO, George W. Bush will go down in History as the worst President America ever had.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Question: "Why U.S. doesn't stop tainted food from China"

Answer: Greed.

[apocalypto]

People have also gotten sick on food items from Mexico. This is a good way for bio terrorism. It already happened once in the US, carried out here by immigrants, some illegal, in a West Coast community (Oregon?).

[VictoryGal]

I did— happy to get the word out on good, local food.