Chinese grain causing more poison problems???

[dmccarty]

Dan, are these special soybeans you're buying? I have about 200 acres behind me that will be in beans this year

The edamae I planted last night said "edamae" and "soybeans" on the package. I think the difference is when you pick. The ones in the field they let go and "dry". The package said to pick when they start to turn yellow from green. Which makes sense. I'll find out in a month or two.

The beans in the package looked like soybeans to me.

Later,
Dan

 

[dbdartman]

Don't think this pet food poisoning is a recent thing! We believe, & have heard reports, that this has been happening for the last 18 months or so. Around that time, we had previously healthy cats getting REALLY thin, loosing hair at an alarming rate, & throwing up constantly. When we changed foods, the cats started putting weight back on, stopped yacking & their coats have stopped shedding like crazy & look better. We've been raising & showing cats since the mid 60's & never saw something like this before. Every day, it seems, we're hearing about more wide spread recalls of tainted pet foods. It's scary! Thinking about how easy it would be for this to be happening to the human food supply, it's even scarier!

 

[JoeR]

PBS has a documentary on China, and it is scary! 70% of their rivers are so polluted that they are not fit for human, or animal consumption, and plants die from the water too. They have such a polluted water issue, that the Chinese are planning a 50 Billion dollar project to bring water from Southern China to Beijing since all the rivers within 200 miles of Beijing are either polluted or drying up. I really don't understand how China can export any food. According to the PBS report, China has over 40% of the world's population, and only 18% of their total land mass is capable of food production. I can't believe we would import any food from China based on their health issues and the way they handle their food.

Joe

 

[scott_vt]

Don't get me started on this. I've worked in manufacturing for 25 years. I don't won't to get political.

In the future, when historians look back at the facts and that we let our manufacturing base waste away, I wonder what term they'll coin for this "era". Pun intended... The chinese have us in their financial reigns. Some companies have found that the $$$ saved building their parts abroad are minimized when time lost and descrepant parts are factored in.

Mornin Kyle,
I have been a modelmaker/ toolmaker for better than 35 years, the last 18+ working on mailing machines and paper handling equipment. The company that I work for has sent entire projects over to China. The last mailing machine that we sent over there was so totally screwed up, that we sent a team of engineers over there to try and rectify all the problems with the machine. Numerous trips over there and it was apparent that we had to bring the project back to the USA and reengineer the entire project, actually good news for me, because I got to do some of the mechanical work to fix all the problems. I just cant see how we saved money doing this project in this fashion !

Im really hoping that the Chinese dont figure out how to do what we do for a few more years ! 6 to be exact !

 

[Jagmandave]

I don't believe we are buying whole grains from China, but rather processed powders, additives and so on........and that's where the problems are coming from, in addition to pesticides and other pollutants, they do not have the stringent quality and safety controls in place that the "first world" countries do. So, how do they feed their own people and animals and keep them alive? They also have one of the highest percentages of smokers in their population.......

 

[livincountry]

Do environmentalists ever visit China? If so are they ever heard from again?

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Update. Been doing some more reading. Melamine is made from coal for various industrial uses. A byproduct of making Melamine is big chunks(they use the small powder for industrial use). They sell the chunks to the grain grinder companies. The chemist have found that adding Melamine to the grain artificially raises the numbers when testing for protein levels. It does not add any protein, it just fakes out the test. Come to find out, it apparently is very common in China nowadays. Nobody is sure of the consequences of human consumption. Seems they are almost always willing to cheat their way to gain a buck...what happened to scrupples.

I can just imagine some backroom boiler salesman offering the pet food industry a "great price on some grainmeal with some excellent protein test results". I know the hog industry has been hit. I'm waiting for them to admit its been used to make human food...Just a matter of time.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Now the media is reporting that not just wheat gluten, but enriched flour has been compromised. Also said that someone or more could get in trouble for this.
So far,
1) fish food fed to fish for human consumption
2) Hogs quarantined
3) chickens quarantined

Yet to be determined (by the feds) what ill effects it will have on us Humans.

 

[Tom_H]

PBS has a documentary on China, and it is scary! 70% of their rivers are so polluted that they are not fit for human, or animal consumption, and plants die from the water too. They have such a polluted water issue, that the Chinese are planning a 50 Billion dollar project to bring water from Southern China to Beijing since all the rivers within 200 miles of Beijing are either polluted or drying up. I really don't understand how China can export any food. According to the PBS report, China has over 40% of the world's population, and only 18% of their total land mass is capable of food production. I can't believe we would import any food from China based on their health issues and the way they handle their food. Joe

Do environmentalists ever visit China? If so are they ever heard from again?

Maybe PBS is doing not so bad of a job in its reporting and perhaps is not the biased unrelieble agency so many accuse it of being. Perhaps there actually is some degree of good that the EPA exists and tries to protect us from these same things in our country. Perhaps moderate environmentalists are our friends in that they try to keep us from poisoning ourselves rather than allowing greedy business interests from poisoning the entire natural world, including us.

One of my degrees is in biology. As such, I consider myself an environmentalist, but at the same time, a pragmatist. I actually support ANWR drilling, and drilling off the CA coast, but under constrictions far tighter than have ever before existed. We can never turn the Earth back into the Garden of Eden, but I do think we should do every practical and reasonable thing to protect the air we breath, the water we drink, the soil in which we plant our crops, etc. At this point, I support going to 4th generation nuclear plants instead of fossil fuels, as it is cheaper and has less total impact. A huge electromagnetic rail gun could potentially in the future, launch solid nuclear waste into the sun. The money spent on the current war, may have been enough to have already perfected fusion reactors, which one day may make all the cheap electricity we need (and with virtually no nuclear waste). Enough to use electrolysis on water for making Hydrogen to use in cars. Everything is a trade off, and I am in favor of doing the most practical solutions from all the ones available. My own take on things is that radical environmentalists and anti-environmentalists are so entrenched in their positions, that no sensible progress ever gets made. Whatever happened to plain common sense?

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

I like that. Very intelligent little saying.