What if I told you it was Made in the USA. You'd still eat it, right?
How about if I told you it was made in the USA but there were ingredients in that bread that were sourced from somewhere within close proximity to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that is still leaking nuclear cancer causing material into the air, water, and soil today? It doesn't look so appealing anymore does it.
Here's the problem: Companies are hiding behind Made in USA or Manufactured in the USA to make us think that we are getting something nice and wholesome from the United States of America whereas in reality this tells us absolutely nothing about where the ingredients formulating the product have actually come from. I don't know where the ingredients from that bread are coming from. Your guess is as good as mine! You could be consuming something from the USA or something from around Fukushima, Japan (and big companies are actually doing this!...read blog on Corporate Responses). I just don't know.
This has got to change. You and your family have the right to know where the ingredients are coming from in everything you consume.
I've written the letter saying as citizens we want this changed. We want to know the country of origin of the ingredients that make up the products we consume. See blog titled The Letter.
I wrote the letter, now I need your help to sign it, sign the petition on the right to tell your congressperson you want this changed, and after you sign, tell all your friends and family to sign and then share with those they know and love. This can't stop with you or me. Others have a right to know too. Start by signing the petition yourself. Let congress hear you want change. It is the signatures that will get the attention of Congress so please be sure to sign. Really if we can prevent cancer causing material from entering our food supply I think all of us should take the 2 minutes to SIGN the petition and then SHARE on FB or email with all those you know and love. It's really important to take care of each other.
In addition to notifying us about countries of origin, I also included in there a piece that would require companies to let us know if a product contains any genetically modified ingredients.
SIGN THE PETITION on the top right hand side of this page then SHARE with all those you know and love. Takes 2 minutes tops. Let's get this done.
SIGN THE PETITION - takes less than 2 minutes at the top of this page- then pass along to ALL those you know. It is our right to know where what we are eating is coming from and if it has been genetically modified in any way.
PLEASE keep letting everyone you know about this so we can get this changed. The more signatures the more likely it will be to become law! Don't let it stop with you!
Stay tuned...
UPDATE Thursday August 25, 2011
I just signed the petition "The U.S. Senate: Require labels on consumables to include country of origin of ingredients." Please support our efforts by adding your name.
I just signed the petition "The U.S. Senate: Require labels on consumables to include country of origin of ingredients." Please support our efforts by adding your name.
SIGN THE PETITION on the top right hand side of this page then SHARE with all those you know and love. Takes 2 minutes tops. Let's get this done.
I read the fpc documents that you posted in the beginning of your article and I didn't see anything that said the government was allowing affected food from Japan to come into our country.
ReplyDeleteCan you please tell me where you found this info exactly? Thanks for your help.
Hi, Thanks for the note. The FDA is currently allowing food from in and around Fukushima, Japan to be sourced for our consumption. I know that much. That can be found on the blog titled FDA/Fukushima. I also know big companies are there sourcing food. PEPSICO and others are there. See the other blog titled Corporate Responses
ReplyDeleteIs the food affected? I guess that could be debated. On the one hand you have the Japanese government saying only certain things are contaminated and the rest is good to go. On the other hand you have nuclear experts saying even with a geiger counter chances are you'll still miss some really small cancer causing particles, and that's assume that 100% gets tested before it enters our ports and we know that can't possibly happen. So are we getting affected food? I guess it depends on who you ask. I guess no one can be 100% either way.
What I am most concerned about is the chance that some people in our country might get cancer from consuming a raw ingredient that is being sourced from there 10-20 years from now. Why risk possibly making people sick? I don't understand that. I don't think the FDA would have sourced from the Chernobyl area at the time of that accident, or maybe they did and I didn't know it. That's why I want to get labeling laws changed. So for those people who don't care one way or another, they can continue to buy regardless of the country of origin. But for those of us who care, we can turn the box over and see where it is from. If we don't think it is safe for our family to consume, we can leave it on the shelf and choose something else instead. Right now, we just don't have the slightest idea.
The link to the FDA on the blog FDA/Fuskushima is really a good starting point to gather information. It's the one that gives the green light for companies to be over there sourcing food. They are relying on the Japanese government to tell them what is safe and what is not. To me that is flawed in itself. Nuclear experts are saying Fukushima is as bad if not worse than Chernobyl. I wouldn't dream of feeding my kids anything from around Chernobyl. The Japanese government has a reason to say food is still good. They want to keep the feeling of normalcy going as much as possible. However, watch the raw footage on the FDA/Fukushima blog. The reality is not normal.
The 60 minutes episode is really a powerful look at that piece, about how bad the accident in Japan was ,and still continues to be. The people there wonder if they are going to get sick from eating food there. At least in my book, we should be giving the people in Japan healthy food, not continue pretending that everything is good over there and risk consuming it. People have forgotten about it mostly b/c the media has pretty much stopped covering it but the disaster is still ongoing. Last I checked, the plant is still leaking, contaminating the area around there.
If you really want to really to kind of get your arms around this whole thing, after you read the blog on FDA/Fukushima and watch the 60 minutes episode, watch some of the videos that Arnie Gundersen has. He is a nuclear expert and knows a lot about the specifics of all of this. I think I listed his website address under the FDA/Fukushima blog as well.
Hope this information is helpful to you