Food Safety

Activist always talk about American farmers and ranchers producing unsafe food. There is always something wrong with it according to them. You want to read about unsafe food, read this story about <a href="http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/04/14/ap/health/d8ofbfrg1.txt">food safety and China</a>.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Worried about losing access to foreign markets and stung by tainted food products scandals at home, China has in recent years tried to improve inspections, with limited success.<br />n<br />nThe problems the government faces are legion. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used in excess to boost yields while harmful antibiotics are widely administered to control disease in seafood and livestock. Rampant industrial pollution risks introducing heavy metals into the food chain.<br />n<br />nFarmers have used cancer-causing industrial dye Sudan Red to boost the value of their eggs and fed an asthma medication to pigs to produce leaner meat. In a case that galvanized the public's and government's attention, shoddy infant formula with little or no nutritional value has been blamed for causing severe malnutrition in hundreds of babies and killing at least 12.</blockquote><br />n<br />nHell, American farmers and ranchers are saints compared to this. Reading the story really makes you worry about any food you buy coming from China.<br />n<br />nRead about the food safety problems in China then think about this.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Over the past 25 years, Chinese agricultural exports to the U.S. surged nearly 20-fold to $2.26 billion last year, led by poultry products, sausage casings, shellfish, spices and apple juice.<br />n<br />nInspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are able to inspect only a tiny percentage of the millions of shipments that enter the U.S. each year.<br />n<br />nEven so, shipments from China were rejected at the rate of about 200 per month this year, the largest from any country, compared to about 18 for Thailand, and 35 for Italy, also big exporters to the U.S., according to data posted on the FDA's Web site.</blockquote> <br />n<br />nHow much bad food is getting in to the US from China. With $2.26 billion worth last year coming in, I bet you a lot. This also shows my contention that American people don't care where there food comes from, as long as it is cheap. If China can undercut American producers price wise the American buying public is all for it.<br />n<br />nIf people pay attention to this and the recent pet food problems, maybe China can fix its food safety problems because of consumer demands. The problem is Americans won't remember about it or care about the problem. They more worry about Don Imus's screwup or who is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby, not important stuff like the safety of the food they shove in their mouths. Damned short sighted of them, but its the truth.<br />n<br />n<strong>Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life. Elie Wiesel</strong>