Saturday, November 5, 2011

Why no food from China either?

Some people have asked what’s so bad about having China mixed across our consumables without us even knowing it, in our food supply, in the sunscreen we put on our kids, in the toothpaste we brush our teeth with everyday, etc? Here is a quick summary of why 4.9 billion given to China each year to supply us with these things are of concern:

1. The former associate commissioner of the FDA sees big time issues. Very enlightening interview. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june07/foodhubbard_06-08.html

2. Unlike our president who shows up at a local hamburger joint to grab something to eat, the leaders of China don’t ever eat the same food as is giving to regular people. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/MG07Ad02.htmlThat means they never eat any foods that is given to you or me either. That says something.

3. American greedy food companies are going to China to get ingredients to get mixed across our food supply b/c it is cheap, not because it is any healthier for us than something that an american farmer can grow for you and your family. Cheap does NOT equal healthier. If it was cheap and healthier, I’d be okay with it. But it is definitely not healthier. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/food-safety-in-china-and-the-risk-to-the-us/ I want the healthiest food for your family and mine.

4. China has no equivalent of an FDA, there is no centralized agency that monitors food safety and “bigger, cheaper, faster is the name of the game”. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/26/world/la-fg-china-food-20110627. If some type of bad food scandal happens, the government executes the person and/or closes the shops a warning to others and claims to implement food safety standards but there isn’t a central agency to enforce it.

5. There are over 200 farms in China that are sourcing organic food ingredients for the USA and products coming out of there are not necessarily truly organic. This is probably happening because it is so cheap and we don't have enough organic property to keep up here with demand in the US b/c so much has been Monsanto ed. We really need to clean up our fields here in the US so we can provide truly organic, the way we all think it to be. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-report--many-organic-soy-food- brands-importing-beans-from-china-61901012.html

6. “Last year alone, 4 billion pounds of food worth almost $5 billion were imported into the United States from China and large amounts of those shipments are rotten or pumped full of cancer-causing chemicals that violate U.S. Food and Drug Administration health standards. Between 2006 and 2010, more than 9,000 dangerous goods were stopped at the border. Chinese food imported to our country has tripled over the last decade, but less than 1 percent of imports are inspected.”
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/food-327547-chinese-china.html

7. The Chinese government has received criticism after it ruled that small amounts of potentially lethal bacterium were permissible in frozen foods. This bacterium can cause a range of mild to several infections and diseases including life-threatening pneumonia and meningitis. Watchdog groups have accused the government of "deliberately lowering food safety standards to pander to big business" http://news.yahoo.com/china-govt-under-fire-over-food-bacteria-rule-115730834.html

8.The flood gates to free trade with China opened wide in the 1970s. Corporate america jumped on the bandwagon fast because it was sooo much cheaper to get ingredients for our food supply from there instead of American Farmers and all they care about is how BIG their profit margin can be. This is soooo wrong! Corporate greed for cheap unhealthy ingredients should NEVER come before your family's health! They should be sourcing ingredients from the healthiest places, not the cheapest!!!

9. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1254746/Chinese-medicine-caused-kidney-failure-cancer-So-safe-popular-cures.html

I want to see country of origin labeling so if we want to avoid ingredients from China we can. Back in 2007 before he was influenced by big campaign contributors, Obama agreed. http://www.youtube.com/embed/zqaaB6NE1TI.

If you agree that we should not lose sight on country of origin labeling, please take a moment to sign this petition http://www.change.org/petitions/the-us-senate-tell-us-where-our-food-is-from. If you already have, please repost this message so your friends and family can become aware and do the same. Thank you.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, do you mean to tell me that food products from China are as dangerous as those from the USA? And that the Chinese are as guilty as the USA about undermining the food supply for financial considerations? For now lets just fight to get any labels on food, such as universal allergens and GMO labeling, while we are at it why not label the products used in the production of the food regardless of the country of origin or would that interfere in your program against China?

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  2. Yes, ingredients from China are dangerous. If you read the links you would know that. Some would say ingredients from China are even more dangerous than GMOs because people and pets have died from purposeful contamination from China and they are a communist country, one of our main adversaries. Should they really be feeding our children? From my perspective both are dangerous. Everything you mentioned needs to be labeled. I disagree that we should wait on anything. The time to revamp our labeling on foods is now because it is all one issue. The petition says label both GMOs and country of origin. http://www.change.org/petitions/mr-president-us-senate-congress-tell-us-where-our-food-is-from

    We need these changes on our food labels now. Ingredients from around Japan are also being dumped into our food supply. Many areas around there are highly contaminated with cancer causing mutate your DNA all the way down your line material from the ongoing 19 month nuclear disaster. You really don't want to eat ingredients from there but guess what, those same companies that are giving you GMOs are the same companies giving you ingredients from China and Japan. So even if GMOs were labeled and you were avoiding those since they are labeled, your health could still be jeopardized because in addition these same companies are sourcing from cheap unsafe and unhealthy areas.That's why we need both labeled now.

    To top things off, these food companies say yes, we are getting ingredients from around Japan and China but we won't tell you what the specific ingredients are so you can't avoid products with those ingredients in them it even if you wanted to. That's wrong. Look under August, Corporate Responses, that blog is an eye opener for sure.

    The time to change our food labels is NOW. We need everything you mentioned labeled all together in a major revamping of our labels to get consumers the information they deserve to know.

    http://www.change.org/petitions/mr-president-us-senate-congress-tell-us-where-our-food-is-from


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