Eat in, Eat Local
China has become the Walmart of the world, and we can’t get enough cheap food! But at some considerable price.
From the spate of recent food contaminations and public poisonings, it’s apparent our system for insuring untainted vegetables and meats and canned products has its problems. They start early in the supply chain: the lowest bidder for many food products these days is China. Their prices are so low, in fact that they have driven American competitors out of business.
Ah, but isn’t that what makes the world go ’round–getting the largest volume for the least dollars?
However, there is the issue of quality, where the lowest bidder may also have the lowest standards for fish and fruits:
China’s less-than-stellar behavior as a food exporter is revealed in stomach-turning detail in FDA “refusal reports” filed by U.S. inspectors: Juices and fruits rejected as “filthy.” Prunes tinted with chemical dyes not approved for human consumption. Frozen breaded shrimp preserved with nitrofuran, an antibacterial that can cause cancer. Swordfish rejected as “poisonous.”
What we have resisted until now is buying Chinese meat.
But that has not stopped Chinese meat exporters. In the past year, USDA teams have seized hundreds of thousands of pounds of prohibited poultry products from China and other Asian countries, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced in March. Some were shipped in crates labeled “dried lily flower,” “prune slices” and “vegetables,” according to news reports. It is unclear how much of the illegal meat slipped in undetected.
But the demand for chicken “nuggets” by the opulent and corpulent of the first world will ultimately see Chinese poultry become “legal tender” at MackieD’s. Can you say salmonella?
So will locally grown chicken, fruit and vegetables cost us more? Yes. And much less. Quotes from Washington Post
