Update on Tainted Pet Food: We Are Next
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 05. 2.07
When last we wrote about this subject we titled it "Tainted Pet Food: We could be Next" and expressed concern that "Is the human food system so different? Do all industrially farmed pigs or cows get some additive or drug that could come back to harm us, all over the country, all at once?"
It turns out we were not too far off. Melamine, the plastic ingredient that mimics protein in testing, has been found in chicken feed in Indiana, and Tyson Foods has sent 200 hogs to the knacker because they were fed tainted pet food. The melamine appears to have been added to wheat gluten exported from China, although China and the manufacturer still deny it. As the graphs show, more food is being imported, but of the 8.9 million shipments of food from China last year, less than two percent were sampled.
Aaron Newton at Groovy Green gets it right: "We can shut our eyes and go on eating McChicken sandwiches, we can gamble and bite down on plastic wrapped spinach and we can pray to God that our infants aren’t drinking contaminated formula. Or we can make change."
Stop buying manufactured food, buy local and cook it yourself, look your farmer in the eye. That is the only way to be sure your food is safe. ::New York Times
Graph enlarged below the fold.
Stop buying manufactured food, buy local and cook it yourself, look your farmer in the eye. That is the only way to be sure your food is safe.
Yeah, if you have the time, money and transportation! Local is often (not always) best, but we need to fix the inspection systems to make sure ALL our food is safe.
Anytime you have a factory farm you have problems.
Anytime You have Farmers you have problems.
There is an age old tried and trued way to keep the poisons off your plate, it is a Victory Garden. During world war 2 folks grew their own food in the back yards as gas rationing was hitting the markets hard. Folks who remained in the states had to pay the piper. So then the wisdom kicked in to make more food available, it worked quite well. There is only one sure way you know what is in your food and that is to grow it your self.
D~W
What I find most mind-boggling is that somebody though it's more cost effective to ship wheat gluten in from China, instead of using US-grown wheat gluten. Maybe they saved a little to begin with, but when lawsuits start pouring in from poisoned pets and people, the savings will rapidly disappear. I've seen it happen in the automotive industry, and I'm disturbed that it's going to happen to food as well, which should be a much more rigidly protected product!