permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

SANET-MG Archives -- November 2008 (#60)
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0811&L=sanet-mg&T=0&O=D&P=42862
Subject:         Re: "Our Home-Grown [U.S.] Melamine Problem"
From:   Michele Gale-Sinex <[log in to unmask]>
Date:   Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:23:29 -0800

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On a more concrete note, melamine not only has widespread industrial
applications, but is also used to buttress the foundation of American
agriculture.

Fertilizer companies commonly add melamine to their products because
it helps control the rate at which nitrogen seeps into soil, thereby
allowing the farmer to get more nutrient bang for the fertilizer
buck. But the government doesn't regulate how much melamine is
applied to the soil. This melamine accumulates as salt crystals in
the ground, tainting the soil through which American food sucks up
American nutrients.

A related area of agricultural concern is animal feed. Chinese eggs
seized last month in Hong Kong, for instance, contained elevated
levels of melamine because of the melamine-laden wheat gluten used in
the feed for the chickens that produced the eggs.

To think American consumers are immune to this unscrupulous behavior
is to ignore the Byzantine reality of the global gluten trade.
Tracking the flow of wheat gluten around the world, much less
evaluating its quality, is like trying to contain a drop of dye in a
churning whirlpool.

More ominous, the United States imports most of its wheat gluten.
Last year, for instance, the F.D.A. reported that millions of
Americans had eaten chicken fattened on feed with melamine-tainted
gluten imported from China. Around the same time, Tyson Foods
slaughtered and processed hogs that had eaten melamine-contaminated
feed. The government decided not to recall the meat.

Only a week earlier, however, the F.D.A. had announced that thousands
of cats and dogs had died from melamine-laden pet food. This
high-profile pet scandal did not prove to be a spur to reform so much
as a red herring. Our attention was diverted to Fido and away from
the animals we happen to kill and eat rather than spoil.