# Canned Green Peas
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 20, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004 "2014-08-20T15:14:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/1 "2014-08-20T15:14:27Z")
I got a brown bag from the FoodPantry. Among other things there was a can of Green Peas. On the back of the can is “Made in China” I’m throwing them out. I can’t weed out everything grown/made/ in China,but I do my best. I believe they are trying to poison us… They’ve poisoned thousands of our pets,millions of their own children.
Am I crazy? Am I prudent? Am I something else…
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/2 "2014-08-20T15:18:14Z")
> [@Lorene89095](#):
>
> I got a brown bag from the FoodPantry. Among other things there was a can of Green Peas. On the back of the can is “Made in China” I’m throwing them out. I can’t weed out everything grown/made/ in China,but I do my best. I believe they are trying to poison us… They’ve poisoned thousands of our pets,millions of their own children.
> Am I crazy? Am I prudent? Am I something else…
You’re throwing away free food from a Food Pantry? I vote for “something else.”
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### Author:  [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/3 "2014-08-20T15:19:15Z")
If you got it from a Food Pantry, and don’t want to eat it, you should bring it back to the Food Pantry. You may have the luxury of rejecting food that could possibly meet your imagined condition of potentially being poison, but I’m sure there are plenty of people grateful to have that.
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### Author:  [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/4 "2014-08-20T15:32:44Z")
Ah - Thank you… I’ll do that… My blood pressure is so high my ears are ringing… See,this pushes all my buttons. Our farms and ranches are being bulldozed, paved and made into ugly housing "developments. Soon the US will not be able to feed ourselves. Our supply lines are too long and unstable…
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### Author:  [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/5 "2014-08-20T15:51:14Z")
I vote “Give it back,” with an explanation about why. We are buying peas from China? Good Grief.
I, too, try not to buy Chinese imports, especially not food items. They may not be \*trying \*to poison us, but I think quality control is not a high priority there.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/6 "2014-08-20T15:56:37Z")
> [@MLS](#):
>
> **I vote "Give it back," with an explanation about why.** We are buying peas from China? Good Grief.
>
> I, too, try not to buy Chinese imports, especially not food items. They may not be \*trying \*to poison us, but I think quality control is not a high priority there.
“I’m not willing to risk being poisoned but I’ll let someone else take their chances.”
Better to throw it out but still let the Food Bank know why.
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### Author:  [@PorchePine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorchePine)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/7 "2014-08-20T16:06:35Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> “I’m not willing to risk being poisoned but I’ll let someone else take their chances.”
>
> Better to throw it out but still let the Food Bank know why.
What chances are they taking? Not everyone has an irrational fear that a can of food from China has anything other than green peaness in it.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/8 "2014-08-20T16:09:09Z")
> [@PorchePine](#):
>
> What chances are they taking? Not everyone has an irrational fear that a can of food from China has anything other than green peaness in it.
I don’t care what color the peaness is, I ain’t eating it.
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/9 "2014-08-20T16:12:10Z")
I wouldn’t open that can, lest peaness ensues.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/10 "2014-08-20T16:13:06Z")
> [@PorchePine](#):
>
> What chances are they taking? Not everyone has an irrational fear that a can of food from China has anything other than green peaness in it.
[Irrational?](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/18/opinion/chinas-corrupt-food-chain.html?pagewanted=all)
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/11 "2014-08-20T16:21:02Z")
give it back for someone to eat.
i knew someone would would eat canned peas cold. now that’s just plain sick.
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### Author:  [@PorchePine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PorchePine)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/12 "2014-08-20T16:28:10Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> [Irrational?](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/18/opinion/chinas-corrupt-food-chain.html?pagewanted=all)
That’s not about imported food from China, but what the Chinese are doing to themselves. Nor is it about China intentionally poisoning us, which was alluded to in the OP. The US still has inspections of the food coming across our borders–the fear of being poisoned by Chinese food is irrational.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/13 "2014-08-20T16:50:35Z")
> [@PorchePine](#):
>
> That’s not about imported food from China, but what the Chinese are doing to themselves. Nor is it about China intentionally poisoning us, which was alluded to in the OP. The US still has inspections of the food coming across our borders–the fear of being poisoned by Chinese food is irrational.
[A Decade of Dangerous Food Imports from China](http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/DecadeofDangerousImports.pdf) (PDF)
> [@](#):
>
> The FDA manages to inspect less than 2
> percent of imported produce, processed food, seafood and
> manufactured food ingredients each year.
[Food Imports from China Under Scrutiny for Fraud and Lack of Inspection](http://ecowatch.com/2013/05/09/food-imports-from-china-under-scrutiny-fraud-lack-inspection/)
> [@](#):
>
> Kastel added that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are only inspecting one to two percent of all the food that enters U.S. ports. And even with this small sample size, Kastel noted that a “disproportionate number of serious problems” are being found with Chinese exports, including “unapproved chemicals, dyes, pesticides and outright fraud (fake food).”
[Why Americans Should Worry About China’s Food Safety Problems](http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/05/21/why-americans-should-worry-about-chinas-food-safety-problems/)
> [@](#):
>
> Food safety problems are, of course, not only a concern to the U.S. The German magazine Der Spiegel recently posted online a list of “rejected food” imported into the EU from China during 2012, including insect-infested potatoes, rabbit meat loaded with antibiotics, oyster sauce with staphylococcus, salmonella-infected ginger, pumpkin seeds contaminated with glass chips and arsenic in frozen calamari.
[What’s In The Food We Import From China?](http://www.care2.com/causes/whats-in-the-food-we-import-from-china.html)
> [@](#):
>
> A recent Bloomberg investigation highlighted the frankly unsanitary conditions in which produce and fish (who are sometimes fed with feces from geese and pigs) are raised. Bloomberg also underscored that the Food and Drug Administration completely lacks the resources to inspect food imports and leaves the process very much to third-party regulators hired by the food industry.
>
> Der Spiegel emphasizes that the “biggest problem” food products from China is the fact that they are, indeed, grown in China in the “local production environment, which includes the excessive use of toxic pesticides for crops and of antibiotics for animals, sometimes coupled with a complete lack of scruples.” Some 300,000 infants were sickened, some fatally, from milk powder and baby formula products that contained the chemical melaminem in 2008
[Fatal Misperception: How Unsafe Is Chinese Food?](http://thediplomat.com/2013/07/fatal-misperception-how-unsafe-is-chinese-food/)
> [@](#):
>
> Being an incorrigible tea drinker and a big fan of Chinese herbal products, I was disheartened by two reports released by Greenpeace. One study from 2012 suggested that twelve of the eighteen tea products the organization bought at random contained at least one pesticide banned for use on tea; the other, just released, found that thirty-two of the thirty-six samples of herbal products imported from China had residues of three or more pesticides considered highly hazardous by the World Health Organization.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/14 "2014-08-20T17:16:44Z")
I think the OP is being irrational **and** I won’t eat anything imported from China. The two positions aren’t mutually exclusive. The US isn’t going to lose the ability to feed itself any time soon - we produce too much. Imports are just cheaper sometimes. But Chinese production is way too slipshod and corrupt for my tastes. I’ll pay more for my food rather than take a chance on any Chinese food product, even for my pets.
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/15 "2014-08-20T17:28:01Z")
Eating canned peas is irrational, regardless of where they originated. Fresh peas – yummy. Frozen peas – good. Canned peas – revolting.
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### Author:  [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/16 "2014-08-20T17:32:33Z")
I agree with the previous advice: If you cannot, for whatever reason, use a commodity that has been graciously donated to you, give it back. The next recipient might be hungry enough to take the minuscule chance that s/he’ll be poisoned by a can of peas.
> [@Lorene89095](#):
>
> Ah - Thank you… I’ll do that… My blood pressure is so high my ears are ringing… See,this pushes all my buttons. Our farms and ranches are being bulldozed, paved and made into ugly housing "developments. Soon the US will not be able to feed ourselves. Our supply lines are too long and unstable…
Just to address this point: The US is a net exporter of food. The latest reliable numbers I found indicate that, in 2012, “we” imported $110 billion, and exported $133 billion in food. Yes, we import more and more each year; but that’s largely a product of increasing demand for exotic foods or non-seasonal foods. I come from a long line of farmers, and many of my family took up the family business. I understand that small- and medium-sized family farms are under increasing economic pressure (although there are a great many publicly-funded subsidies that help keep them in business.) But just because Uncle Joe lost the family farm in 1982 doesn’t mean that US agribusiness as a whole is failing.
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### Author:  [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/17 "2014-08-20T17:33:18Z")
Goober peas – goodness, how delicious.
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### Author:  [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/18 "2014-08-20T17:44:52Z")
Goober Peas is Peanuts
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### Author:  [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/19 "2014-08-20T18:08:43Z")
> [@Lorene89095](#):
>
> Ah - Thank you… I’ll do that… My blood pressure is so high my ears are ringing… See,this pushes all my buttons. Our farms and ranches are being bulldozed, paved and made into ugly housing "developments. Soon the US will not be able to feed ourselves. Our supply lines are too long and unstable…
Sorry, no. Malthusians have NEVER been right, and they’re not about to start now.
> [@](#):
>
> U.S. farmers will harvest a record haul of corn and soybeans this fall as fields throughout much of the Corn Belt experience some of the best growing conditions in years, the Agriculture Department said Tuesday.
> **[Record corn, soybean crops predicted](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/08/12/record-corn-soybean-harvest/13967873/)**
>
> Corn harvest expected to top 14 billion bushels for first time ever, driving down prices.
---
### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-green-peas/696004/20 "2014-08-20T19:20:17Z")
> [@Lorene89095](#):
>
> I believe they are trying to poison us.
Yes. The Central Committee decided that it wants to poison the same people to whom it’s trying to sell stuff. Does that sound rational to you?
BTW, if you can afford to turn down free food, why are you going to a food pantry at all?
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