China’s Latest Stomach-Churning Food Scandal: Frozen Meat From The 1970s
Some 800 tonnes of smuggled frozen meat have been seized by Chinese authorities, including one batch dating from the 1970s, state media reported.
China’s Tainted Meat Scandal Explained
July 30, 2014
McDonald’s restaurants in many Chinese cities have been eerily quiet this past week. Many McDonald’s addicts have been forced to go cold turkey as numerous branches have yanked flagship burgers off the menu amid a tainted meat scandal.
The fast food giant is enormously popular in China where it has 2,000 outlets, each one typically overflowing with hungry crowds. Read more
Why Walmart and Costco Shrimp Prices Are So Low
Some of the most popular American corporations are importing shrimp at super-cheap prices from Thailand, where migrant workers are in slavery, like in Nazi Germany, being tortured while they work for no pay 20 hours a day. How much shrimp is being imported that’s processed by slaves, including child slaves? Walmart and Costco are contributing to the chaos, buying and selling shrimp exported from Thailand every year, and it’s slave-labor shrimp at “rock bottom” cost. No wonder Walmart and Costco are such “successful” businesses. What else are they buying that’s made by slaves who are tortured mentally and physically while working 20-hour days for zero pay? Wine, maybe?
House Votes to Repeal Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) for Meat
The House of Representatives has voted to repeal country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for beef, pork, and chicken. Read more
The Biggest Chicken Seller in the U.S. Is Eliminating Antibiotics
Tyson Foods will no longer use human antibiotics in chickens. The Arkansas-based company, the nation’s largest seller of chicken, is announcing today that it plans to eliminate the use of medically important antibiotics in its flocks by September 2017. Read more
Chicken From China Labeled “Made In America”
Yet again another food scandal is among us as the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently agreed to allow four chicken processing plants in China to raise and slaughter their chickens in the U.S., export them to China for processing, and them ship them back to the U.S. These chickens will then be sold on every grocery store shelf in the United States with no country of origin labeling. What’s worse is that U.S. inspectors will not be on site at the processing plants in China before the processed chicken will be shipped to the U.S. Again, chicken from China labeled “Made In America”?
Read more
Smithfield Agrees To Takeover By China’s Shuanghui
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Shuanghui International won the largest ever Chinese takeover of a US company Tuesday when shareholders of pork giant Smithfield Foods approved its $7.1 billion offer. The deal locks in for Shuanghui and the giant Chinese market a strong supply from the world’s largest pig raiser and pork processor.
Strong Support for Labeling Modified Foods
Reposted from The New York Times:
Americans overwhelmingly support labeling foods that have been genetically modified or engineered, according to a New York Times poll conducted this year, with 93 percent of respondents saying that foods containing such ingredients should be identified.
Three-quarters of Americans expressed concern about genetically modified organisms in their food, with most of them worried about the effects on people’s health.
Thirty-seven percent of those worried about G.M.O.’s said they feared that such foods cause cancer or allergies, although scientific studies continue to show that there is no added risk.
Among those with concerns, 26 percent said these foods are not safe to eat, or are toxic, while 13 percent were worried about environmental problems that they fear might be caused by genetic engineering.
Nearly half of Americans said they were aware that a large amount of the processed or packaged foods they now buy at the grocery store contains genetically modified ingredients. And although just a handful of G.M.O. crops are on the market, about 4 in 10 respondents said they thought that most or a lot of their fruits and vegetables were genetically modified.
Overall concern was higher among women than men, perhaps not surprisingly, as more women identify themselves as the principal grocery shopper in the household.
Americans were almost equally divided about eating genetically modified vegetables, fruits and grains, with about half saying they would not eat them.
They were even less comfortable about eating meat from genetically engineered animals: three-quarters said they would not eat G.M.O. fish, and about two-thirds said they would not eat meat that had been modified.
The national telephone poll was conducted from Jan. 24 to 27 with 1,052 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Thirty-seven percent of those worried about G.M.O.’s said they feared that such foods cause cancer or allergies, although scientific studies continue to show that there is no added risk.
Among those with concerns, 26 percent said these foods are not safe to eat, or are toxic, while 13 percent were worried about environmental problems that they fear might be caused by genetic engineering.
Nearly half of Americans said they were aware that a large amount of the processed or packaged foods they now buy at the grocery store contains genetically modified ingredients. And although just a handful of G.M.O. crops are on the market, about 4 in 10 respondents said they thought that most or a lot of their fruits and vegetables were genetically modified.
Overall concern was higher among women than men, perhaps not surprisingly, as more women identify themselves as the principal grocery shopper in the household.
Americans were almost equally divided about eating genetically modified vegetables, fruits and grains, with about half saying they would not eat them.
They were even less comfortable about eating meat from genetically engineered animals: three-quarters said they would not eat G.M.O. fish, and about two-thirds said they would not eat meat that had been modified.
The national telephone poll was conducted from Jan. 24 to 27 with 1,052 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
SOURCE: The New York Times
