In the wake of all of the problems that have been reported with both food and manufactured products coming from China, my wife has decided that we should try to have a Chinese-product free household for a while. With manufactured items its pretty easy to look for (and avoid) the “Made In China” label, but with food products its a lot harder. I know a lot of garlic comes from China, as does a fair amount of seafood and “manufactured” foods, such as candy, etc. I suppose most organic food is grown locally, but I’m not certain. Is anyone else trying to avoid Chinese products? Hows that working out for you so far?
Rotsa Ruck. I think most of it is just percentages- there are always going to be problems like these- the fact that everything here is made in China means that when there is a problem, odds are it is with a Chinese product. If everything used here was made in the US, we wouldn’t avoid US products. For example, didn’t the Taco Bell problems originate with US made food?
i am, but the origin of many products is not labelled anymore. for example-those little tubes of toothpaste that hotels give out-they might say"distributed by P&G"-but they may be relabelled chinese.
I’ve always had a preference for buying non-Chinese products, knowing that the Chinese have abusive labor and environmental practices. But it’s a resolution that’s hard to stick to – impossible, sometimes, without massive inconvenience. I don’t worry that much about Chinese foodstuffs or counterfeit toothpaste, even though someone apparently bought a tube of the same from a convenience store about a mile from my house.
Here’s a factual question: most manufactured articles say where they’re made, and I’ve always wondered, is it because they have to? Otherwise, doesn’t it seem like there’d be some value in disguising the country of origin?
By law, everything imported into the US, with very few exceptions, has to have the country of manufacture on it. Some items, the country must be on the product itself, others on the outer packaging only, others on the outer shipping carton only, etc.
Good luck with this. Out of curiosity, I took a look at our toys and almost every single one says Made in China, and we have mostly low-tech and wooden stuff. I bought an organic cotton outfit for my son, sold by a local company, and it was made in China.
For food, I try to buy a lot at our local farmers’ market. Ours is really great and I can get locally raised meat, eggs, milk and vegetables. Also, I look at the produce labels (or the signs the store has up) and try to get the stuff that was grown closest to home. You could also join a CSA (community sponsored agriculture) run by a local farm and they’ll give you a portion of their produce. We don’t buy a lot of processed foods.
For other stuff, I look at the labels and try to get stuff manufactured in the U.S., but this is really hard and the labels are sometimes confusing. I’m often not clear on exactly where it was manufactured and, of course, you don’t know where the ingredients or parts came from.
For me, the motivation is to try to cut down on the distance the products have traveled, not necessarily to avoid Chinese products. It sometimes seems impossible, though, to find things made in the U.S.
Good luck collecting damages from a poorly made Chinese product.
It’s funny this thread came up. I actually started consciously NOT purchasing/using Chinese products (when able) two weeks ago when I first heard the story about Chinese seafood. And, also because of stories I’ve heard before about the findings of:
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lead paint on toys and other items (cooking items, dinner plates etc.)
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plastics used as food containers that contained chemicals deemed unsafe
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the pet food incident
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Chinese automobiles that prove to be fatal in 40mph accidents (I know we can’t buy them here but they made a huge play last year to enter our market)
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the fact that they are suspect when it comes to compliance with western copyright laws
Let’s not even get into what’s been happening to our satellites, how they’re bankrolling their defense program, still horrible human rights voilations, and questionable activities with regards to Iraq.
I’d hate to quote a rap song but, “I think that friend to me might be my enemy”
No thanks China.
That is what lead me to begin an informal/personal attempt at boycotting items made in China. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been educational.
I tried to buy a bird feeder at a big-box store. Every damn one I liked, I eventually set aside as it was “made in China”. I left the store feederless. I wound up back at a local hardware store and found one there.
Yeah, I think the first thing you have to avoid is the big-box stores. The non-Made in China items are so few and far between that it’s not even worth the trip.
That Macbook Pro I bought a month ago? The power supply was “Designed in California, Made in China”. Not sure about the main body of the computer…
I’d like to, but it’s nearly impossible these days. I can usually find non-imported foodstuffs that are what I want, but other items? No way.
The Times today had an article about Chinese seafood. While China had 20% of the imports, they had 60% of the problems, so they are worse than average.
It isn’t just the poor quality that concerns me, but their attitude and lack of traceability. The Taco Bell problem was from US grown food, but they were able to trace the onions and lettuce down to a grower and field. The attitude of the Chinese seems to be “we didn’t make it,” then “it won’t hurt anyone,” then “it’s a conspiracy to block our products” and finally they quietly execute the people responsible. The real problem is that for the most part there are a lot of manufacturers who don’t care who gets hurt so long as they can make some more money, and through corruption and state ownership no one is regulating them. There seems to be a start, but I suspect that this is only because the government is scared they are going to get their exports blocked, not from an actual concern about the problem.
The Times article gave the percentage of Chinese seafood imports inspected, and the percent with problem. I haven’t done the statistics, but it looks to me (and I do quality) that we are expecting way too few shipments given the poor quality levels. Given this, it seems safest to avoid Chinese seafood, at least.
A couple of years ago there was a big problem because motherboard makers in China were buying crap capacitors to save money, and the board started failing way above expected levels. This was a problem for lots of computer makers.
It appears they promise a certain quality level, but once they get the contract they start cutting corners so long as no one is looking. Since it costs money to monitor them, some companies who go to China for cost savings will tend to assume everything is okay. They’ll mostly find out eventually (like with the toy trains) but not before the bad product gets to consumers.
What is more worrying, is the international trade in chemicals and food additives, which are brokered around the world. like the poisonous glycerine 9containing ethylene glycol)-it was bought from one place, sold to another, brokered again, and sold again. So nobody 9at the end of the chain) even knows who produced the stuff!
of course, if the US bans Chinese products, they will probably ban our beef. I think the safest thing is to stop buying any food stuffs made in china, or made with chinese ingredients.
Does that include travel to and around China? Whoops! Too late.
The New York Times also had an interesting article analyzing a video iPod to see where it was manufactured. The short answer is that the 451 parts were made in several different countries.
As for Chinese goods, I haven’t been specifically avoiding them, but I do notice the amount of stuff that comes from there. I went to IKEA last year and wandered around the kitchenware section checking the country of origin of the products. I think I had to look at fifty items before finding one not made in China.
I have tried not to purchase certain types of China made stuff for a number of years. I’d seen too many recall incidents.
The product if made in the USA and using imported ingredients, doesn’t say anything about it origin. Labeled made in the USA doesn’t make it safe from misrepresented materials being used.
My wife is convinced that contaminated wheat gluten killed our cat back in January. She switched cat foods two weeks before he became ill. Now the toothpaste thing …
From the NPR reports I’ve heard, it appears the Chinese government is moving fast and coming down hard on places where the bad toothpaste was made. Not surprising … this could badly damage their trade situation if it becomes a trend.
Trade situation aside… It’s already a trend my friend.
Yes!
While some products are bound to be unsafe from any country, I don’t think China produces less safe products by percentage.
I think it’s ridiculous to completely avoid all Chinese(or any country’s) product based on a relatively low number of incidinces.
However, to be fair, they have done the same. I’m not suggesting the Chinese wouldn’t or haven’t avoided our products for the same grounds.
It’s foolish for them, and foolish for us. It’s just a childish “blame game”.