Why The Stink Over China's Organic Food

CBS4 Miami ^ | May 6, 2008 | By Liv Davalos

[gogov]

If organic means free of harmful other stuff, someone point out a region in China where they can farm without using polluted water. I suppose their must be one.

[STONEWALLS]

thanks Tom....our local farmer’s market is underway for the season at present...last year the county voted funds to enlarge it so as to accomodate more vendors....this year’s yield of Sourwood Honey will soon be here and that’s all the excuse I need to fire up the pancake griddle....
PS...the last moonshiner in the county quit last year...he got too old...he made apple brandy once a year at Christmas....used his own apples, pure mountain spring water and a straight copper still from around 1900....talk about organic!!

[FormerACLUmember]

Post 19: Excellent, detailed analysis. You are officially far more competent that the entire staff of the federal FDA.

I don’t know a lot, but I do know that vast amounts of poisoned, unregulated, uninspected Chinese toxic waste is entering the food and pharmaceutical chain. Fruit juices, condiments, and (amazingly) much of what goes into vitamen pills (!) is illicit chinese produced.

[Ikemeister]

It’s amazing. I just read a story in the Chambersburg, PA “Public Opinion” about a Mennonite farmer who got fined $4000 and had his equipment taken away for selling raw milk products “without a permit”. Thousands have consumed these products without any problem, but yet, we allow millions of dollars of tainted Chinese products to come in here.

[Dick Bachert]

(And before someone asks, I will post this until the idiots in government alter this insane and now dangerous UNILATERAL trade policy with China and the fools in the multinationals STOP exporting the production of EVERYTHING to China and bring those jobs home.

As you think about that, recall that in ancient times, the Romans and others would catapult disease-riddled corpses over the walls of cities they besieged to sicken and kill the enemy. The Chinese know that history even if we obviously have forgotten it. Get my drift there?

On a recent visit to China, a friend spotted this ad in a Beijing newspaper. He sent me the photo with a translation of the ad copy.

BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR AND JOIN CHINA’S NEW MONIED ELITE!

Yes, you can now join the millions of happy and prosperous Chinese citizens taking advantage of the growing numbers of American and Western multinational corporations “outsourcing” their production to the hard-working and industrious people of China. This outsourcing has now spread to their food supplies and ingestible items. Since these firms pay us for gross weight – and this new weight will be pretty gross – and the stupid American government only spot-checks imported items in these categories (they just got lucky on the anti-freeze thing), it has opened an entirely new opportunity which our beloved Chairman is offering to any Chinese citizen willing to do a little of what the foolish Americans call “grunt work.”

Installing one of these state-of-the-art food additive production facilities behind YOUR hovel is as simple as clipping the coupon below and sending it to the address shown. Your production plant will be shipped to you in 4 to 6 weeks. Supplies are limited so don’t fart around. ACT NOW!!

These silly Americans have an expression we have “borrowed” and modified to describe this new and exciting venture: “Don’t give me any s**t.”

Our motto will be “We won’t GIVE you any s**t. But we’ll SELL it to you fools at a really great price.”

Better yet, we convince them to COME HERE to pick it up and save us the shipping costs.

AND LOOK FOR A NEW DROP-DEAD MONEY-MAKER COMING SOON. SOYLENT YELLOW PROMISES TO BE BIG!!

AND YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED TO KNOW THAT THE “CHERY” PERSONAL VEHICLE TO BE IMPORTED BY CHRYSLER IS SIMPLY A HORIZONTALLY MODIFIED VARIATION OF THE VERTICAL UNIT SHOWN ABOVE. WE SIMPLY SLAP AN ENGINE AND SOME WHEELS ON THAT PUPPY AND OFF SHE GOES! AMERICA’S VAST ILLEGAL POPULATION OUGHT TO SNAP THEM UP LIKE TACOS.

[Dustbunny]

We NEVER buy any food product that is from China.

Problem is, much China grown food is not marked. Such as food marked 'Distributed by' or ingredients that are never marked on the outside of prepared foods.

[Pilated]

It’s time to bring back the “Victory Garden” mentality to those who do have yards and pots to grow in. I remember food gardens were standard in every yard no matter how small.
Get those seeds going!

[Menehune56]

The basic difference between regular and organic foods. Regular food is grown in chemicals, organic food is grown in poop and tends to be more expensive. Which one do you want?

[browardchad]

“California-based grocery store chain Trader Joe’s stopped offering some single-ingredient Chinese-grown food products like frozen organic spinach and garlic. While Trader Joe’s says it believes food from China is safe, it decided to take that unusual step due to concern from customers.”

The key words of course are "single-ingredient," since those veggies have to be labeled with country of origin, while mixed ingredient foods don't. Translation: we're not selling foods that are labeled "grown in China," but we're still selling food that is grown in China. 

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

What I don’t understand is,,,, why buy FROZEN organic food? I buy only fresh vegetables at my grocery market. And I won’t pay for “organic” products. I can’t remember the last time I used frozen veggies. Frozen garlic? Why?

[fella]

The RAT head of the house Ag committee has linked the Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) with the National Animal Identification System (NAIS, I prefer NASI) so that you can't have one without the other. NAIS is in truth the mark of the beast.

[FormerACLUmember]

“California-based grocery store chain Trader Joe’s stopped offering some single-ingredient Chinese-grown food products like frozen organic spinach and garlic. While Trader Joe’s says it believes food from China is safe, it decided to take that unusual step due to concern from customers.”

The key words of course are "single-ingredient," since those veggies have to be labeled with country of origin, while mixed ingredient foods don't. Translation: we're not selling foods that are labeled "grown in China," but we're still selling food that is grown in China.

Exactly!

Pure crooked shyster lawyer weasel words from Trader Joes.

[null and void]

I don't know the laws on food labeling,

As to Country Of Origin, there are NO Laws requiring it.

Not COOL...

[Cicero]

California-based grocery store chain Trader Joe's stopped offering some single-ingredient Chinese-grown food products like frozen organic spinach and garlic.

It's time we started leaning on our damned politicians for a little more truth in labeling. TJ had to stop selling "single-ingredient" foods from China because it says "Made in China" on the label. But if only SOME of the ingredients are made in China, they don't have to label it.

That is now true of a lot of foods and medicines. The ingredients may come mostly from China, but there's no way to tell. And if anyone thinks that FDA inspectors are about to protect us from Chinese poisoning, forget about it.

[Cicero]

To give Trader Joe some benefit of the doubt, they may not always know where the ingredients come from, either. The chains of middlemen can be extremely long.

Not that I didn’t have that suspicion, too.

[FormerACLUmember]

To give Trader Joe some benefit of the doubt, they may not always know where the ingredients come from, either. The chains of middlemen can be extremely long.

Trader Joes is reponsible. I also strongly believe they know precisely 99% of the hidden chinese food they are selling to unsuspecting consumers.

That being said, and to be fair, Trader Joes is not unique. I have exactly the same concerns in competitors Fairway, Whole Foods and Wild By Nature.

[NVDave]

Organic certification, even here in the US, says nothing about the quality of the water.

Because of other regulations here in the US, you’re able to make *assumptions* about water quality. You’re able to *assume* that people aren’t using irrigation ditches as open sewers. You’re able to *assume* that farmers aren’t using “night soil” as fertilizer. You’re able to *assume* many things.

When you’re dealing with communists, you can assume nothing.

People seem to forget that when you’re buying food from China, you’re buying food from the nation who had the largest famine in history (with more than 30 million people dying) that was a result of Mao’s communist doctrine in agriculture.

The ChiCom’s don’t know jack about producing food. Never have. At the rate they’re going, they never will.

[NVDave]

The reason for Congress dragging their feet on COOL has to do with the meat packers’ influence on Congress. US ranchers and many organic (and even non-organic) farmers have been pushing for COOL for years.

The meat packing companies had a hissy fit at the idea that Canadian beef would not be labeled as US beef, even after it might spend a month or two in a US feedlot. This was after the “cow that stole Christmas” — the first North American cow detected with BSE in the US that was traced back to Canada.

Now we’ve had three detected cases of BSE, all originating in Canada.

If consumers *and* farmers push for it, I believe that the current Congress will enact a COOL. This again is where the GOP has lost their power - by pissing off individual farmers and ranchers in favor of less than a half-dozen meat packers. How many votes do the meat packers have? Less than 100. How many US farmers, ranchers and consumers want COOL?

Taken together, millions.

Real smart election calculus by the GOP, yea?

[#1CTYankee]

"It’s time to bring back the “Victory Garden” mentality to those who do have yards and pots to grow in. I remember food gardens were standard in every yard no matter how small.

Get those seeds going!"

Seedlings are nearly ready, garden goes in the next week and then the following.

Carrots, peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, peas, green beans, watermelon, spinach, broccoli, lettuce and various spices.

I'm sure I missed some but you get the point.

For some reason we have been lucky and never had to use pesticides, maybe it's the placement of herbs, garlic and onion.

Got me.

[metmom]

Because anything grown in a polluted country like China does not stand much of a chance of being really organic.