This is enormous. If I understand this correctly, billions of tons of food additives have to be tested before Customs can clear them for import. We’re taking action to keep out products like that melamine-“enhanced” stuff that seems to be relatively harmless when eaten by people, but that has been poisoning cats and dogs by thousands over the last few months.
The FDA now says they considered over 17,000 reported sick animals, including 1950 dead cats and 2200 dead dogs, before taking action. Over 5,600 brands of pet food have been recalled since March 16th. Most of the announcements have taken place on Friday afternoons or over weekends, and as a result have been reported mainly on the financial news pages.
Melamine (and some of its breakdown products) was probably added to the food ingredients to increase their apparent protein content and command a higher price. If it had all entered the human food supply, we might never have noticed; as far as we know, it has no immediate toxic effect on humans, so tests weren’t looking for it. Our pets really were our canaries in the coal mine (not original, but it’s been quoted so often I can’t locate the source, sorry). And the government’s attention has been caught and maybe, just maybe, food will be a little safer. Yes, more expensive, I fully expect that.
Disclaimer: my cat got sick after eating some of the tainted food and endured a couple of traumatic days on fluids in the hospital. He’s better. His kidneys are making and concentrating urine appropriately again. Just recently, he seems to have set out to eat all the food he couldn’t tolerate while he was sick. The thought of those greedy bastards taking a solid hit in the wallet for what they did is a little heartwarming, I must confess. So I’m celebrating with a little dish of ice cream brought home to share with my fur baby.
Well, the news has reported that contaminated feed has been given to pigs, but that they probably never entered the food chain. Of course, yesterday or today it was announced that poultry that eat the contaminated feed probably have made it in to the food supply.
And when this story first started breaking, wasn’t it reported that melmine shouldn’t pose a problem for cats or dogs?
I almost expect some people in China to get executed over this whole fiasco.
The Times had a big article on Monday about how feed suppliers in China commonly added melamine to feed since it looked like protein in tests, and was a lot cheaper. The people interviewed were totally unapologetic for ripping off their customers.
it would be nice to see executions, but that would imply a level of concern for public health which I doubt is there. The article gave a bunch of examples of even more disgusting food contamination, including of infant formula. One of the bastards quoted said that it was perfectly okay to put the stuff in US pet food, since our pets didn’t need to grow so fast.
So I hope this stuff gets held up a long, long time, and that these bastards choke on their own melamine.
I second this. The people who put melamine in pet food, and the people who got interviewed for this article, are all dogfuckers. And I apologize to practitioners of bestiality involving dogs for the expression…
That’s great that your cat is doing better, Ragiel!
Thanks, Anne. I think he did well because the food tasted bad and he didn’t eat very much. He really stopped eating right after we got the last batch of food, which was one of the first to be recalled.
The importers on this side didn’t exactly distinguish themselves either. And then add in the unspeakable manufacturers who watched nine animals in a routine taste test drop dead within days of eating the stuff and then spent the next three weeks doing nothing to speak of… except that CFO who coincidentally unloaded half of his stock before any announcement was made.
Why did any of these people think they could get away with it? I really don’t understand. It’s like Venal Stupidity on parade.
I saw an unrelated report about the severe pollution in China and how it gets into all their food crops which they are exporting. If we already knew of this type of crap going on why were we importing anything from there?
Pewrmit me to add to the general level of unease in society by reminding us all that melamine is just the impurity they caught and are now testing for. People who would add melamine probably wouldn’t scruple about adding other things, of which we are currently unaware.
Basically, the dream that Chinese people will give us huge amounts of things cheaply and we won’t have to pay for regulation or inspection and no one will commit any crimes out of greed is pure fantasy. And once we add in the costs of inspection and safety and oversight and fair labor costs it won’t be chaep anyn more. If we add in the cost of shipping and handling and the effects outsourcing has had on American society, we might be better off doing things here like we used to. At least we can tax that production.
Ahh, the wonders of the global economy in action. Perhaps no one was considering that a lack of (consistent) global regulations might be the reason why things are cheaper elsewhere?
Yeah, what **sailboat **said that I missed until after I sent this… :smack:
OK, I’ve been wondering this since the whole issue came up…
Don’t we still pay farmers in this country not to grow wheat? Don’t we export wheat all over the globe to get rid of the stockpiles?
Why on earth are we importing wheat from China?
And what Sailboat said. I know people who have lived in east Asia. The local attitude is pretty much that if you don’t drop dead immediately from it, it’s all good.
As I understand what I’ve read, we aren’t importing **wheat **from China; we’re importing a highly processed ingredient made of wheat from China, an ingredient that is used more in China than in the US. More demand for it there gives them economies of scale, and they also get to take advantage of the lower wages for processor operators.
I’m glad I’m not the only one seriously pissed by that, and I was wondering why the press wasn’t making more of a fuss.
The spokeperson said basically: “Well, of course we add melamine to the food. It’s there to make it look like the product has nutritional value that it doesn’t have.” That’s recipe for disaster like that fake baby formula that caused tots to die of malnutrition because there wasn’t much food in the baby food.
What… the… fuck? :mad:
That’s fundamentally evil.
ETA: And yes, I realize I’m making a comparisson that is blown out of proportion, but the idea that people would sent out “food” that has been disguised to look rich in protein when it’s actually not is utterly deplorable!
I think trade agreements are worked out so that lots of money goes to corporations who pay lots of political support money, and not much opportunity to make money goes to everyone else. I have the impression that governments have a lot of interest in their supporters’ getting rich, but that the corporations’ loyalty is strictly to their own bottom line. They can take the special breaks, take the profit, outsource jobs so they won’t have to pay American wages, contribute as little as possible to the country’s economy, and pick up and move somewhere else if they can avoid paying out money in Federal taxes. I also think the same system operates in any country able to participate in international trade. That’s the only way I can see it making sense to buy up crops and destroy them so the domestic produce can’t compete with the imports that somebody’s making big money on.
That’s why I’m amazed the FDA was allowed to mess up a major trade agreement. They have had less and less funding to oversee more and more and more potential problems. They’ve been given no authority to order recalls, they can’t investigate without permission from the place they’re investigating, they have to get permission even to name companies they’re trying to persuade to cooperate. Issuing an alert for known toxic contaminants is about the only way they can force something, and they don’t step on wealthy corporate toes too hard if they can help it.
I’m certainly happy to purchase Chinese-made products in many cases (personally, mostly low-end power tools and such), when my demands on such things are rather low. (Meaning expensive, high-quality tools are wasted on me). However, they’re always marked properly, and I know what I’m getting. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case; trying to sell knock-off watches and designer goods as the real thing is just the start of what goes on there.
I’m on the fence on the culpability of domestic companies, but IMHO China ought to have food exports shut down hard, with everything being dumped at port. From farmer to shipping inspectors, there are just too many unscrupulous people willing to look the other way for a yuan.
This is why I have the feeling that some people involved may end up with an acute case of lead poisoning. The Chinese government is in a perpetual crackdown on corruption and trading tainted foodstuffs probably requires some palms to be greased along the way.
