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  • From: <activism98201@verizon.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Ralph Nader: Grown In China
  • Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:04:52 -0500 (CDT)

While Nader seems to overemphasize the FDA's role in our food supply, he does
manage to point out the importance of growing locally (but places this second
in importance to increasing FDA inspections).


-Mark Nagel


Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/nader07102007.html

The Perils of Being a Food Importer
Grown in China

By RALPH NADER

It has been a long time coming, but now the mass media and even the
"look-the-other-way" Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are focusing on a
stream of Chinese imports that are contaminated or defective.

After years of warnings about farm-raised seafood imports from the Chinese
mainland, the FDA's Dr. David Acheson, in charge of food protection, said:
"There's been a continued pattern of violations with no signs of abatement."
So, finally, the FDA in late June blocked the sale of shrimp, frozen eel,
catfish, basa and dace. The reasons included carcinogens and too many
antibiotic residues.

Crowded into ponds, farmed Chinese fish are breeding grounds for disease,
lice and contaminated water. So heavy doses of antibiotics and other food
additives-many illegal in the U.S.-are applied. China is a major exporter of
seafood to the U.S. We import 80% of all our seafood.

In recent weeks, disclosures of hundreds of thousands of defective tires
(tread separation problems), lead-coated toys, contaminated toothpaste and
pet food (which destroyed about 6000 pets) have raised the profile of a
situation which is likely to get worse.

China produces products in a horrifically polluted environment-of the water,
air and soil. Industrial chemicals, farm run-offs, mountains of toxic waste
are alarming Beijing for both domestic consumption as well as foreign trade
reasons. Despite loud proclamations of forthcoming action, the Chinese
government has waited too long, allowed too much corruption and lax
enforcement, and condoned a huge industry in exported counterfeit goods where
anything goes.

Although country-of-origin legislation passed Congress in 2002, Mr.
Bush-obsessed by the costly Iraq war and indentured to large corporate
importers-did not push his Republicans in Congress to provide funds for
enforcement. Instead, the president has signed into law delays in the
labeling rule. Therefore, except for the required labeling of seafood from
foreign countries (consumers take note), all other food in your supermarket
is not required to have a label of the country that exported it. It is the
majority Democrats' job now to compel mandatory labeling of all imported
foods.

China is the largest apple juice exporter in the world. Apple juice from
China is pouring into the United States. Is there anything left that cannot
be imported into what was once the greatest food exporter the world has ever
seen?

It gets worse. The U.S. is on the verge of becoming a net food importer!

China has allies in the U.S.-the giant food processors that love to rely on
profit-maximizing Chinese foodstuffs, additives and other ingredients. The
large wholesalers and retail chains, like Wal-Mart, buffer the Chinese export
machine from long overdue inspections and enforcement actions.

The inadequate budget of the FDA, and its fractured role with other federal
agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, contributes to the
failure of consumer protection. The FDA 2007 budget is only $1.5 billion, or
one third of the price of just one aircraft carrier. That is not enough to
defend the health and safety of the three hundred million Americans from
hazardous drugs and foodstuffs.

Especially since the FDA has weak or non-existent enforcement powers to
obtain information, keep records, demand recalls or impose effective fines.

Presently, the FDA is able to inspect about one percent of food shipments
into the U.S. What can consumers do? Start yelling at your Senators and
Representatives. This is one issue they are afraid to duck if the heat is on
them. Second, buy from farmers and other producers near you, so you can skip
the long chain of middlemen from China to your area who could have caught the
problem but just pass the buck, so to speak.

Farmers markets from nearby farms are one way you can avoid contaminated
imports.

Eighty percent of all children's toys in America come from China. They come
with too many hazards-burning, choking risks for small children, toxics in or
on the toys. Some are recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. You
can be automatically notified of all CPSC recalls by registering with
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.asp.

But, really, the fundamental responsibility here is with Beijing and
Washington when careless or criminal companies fail their responsibilities.
There needs to be a consumer safety treaty between the two countries where
consumer needs are supreme.

Consumer groups and advocates in China need encouragement from their U.S.
counterparts.

As far as those half a million or more replacement tires on the U.S.
highways-already linked to two fatalities, the U.S. distributor in New Jersey
says it doesn't have enough money to recall them all. What about the Chinese
exporter?

What is the U.S. Department of Transportation going to do about what will
become more such defect-caused tragedies from a flood of auto parts and tires
imported from China and other countries?

Ralph Nader is the author of The Seventeen Traditions



  • [Livingontheland] Ralph Nader: Grown In China, activism98201, 07/12/2007

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