Western Standard

The Shotgun Blog

« One Large Pizza & a Side Order of Child Support | Main | Trudeau Two »

Monday, March 26, 2007

Communist China's latest export: poisoned wheat

I mentioned this in passing earlier today, but Steve Janke has given me reason to give it more attention.  The Menu Foods fiasco - at least a dozen pets killed and counting - has its source in exported wheat gluten contaminated with aminopterin.  Where was the source?  Communist China.  More to the point, who was the exporter?  The Communist-run China National Cereals, Oils, and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO).

Credit goes to S.J. for ferreting out the COFCO angle and writing the quote of the day:

So as authorities try to understand where the aminopterin came from, they might find themselves demanding answers of an organ of the Chinese government.  Good luck with that.

No kidding.

Posted by D.J. McGuire on March 26, 2007 in Current Affairs, Food and Drink, International Affairs | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515b5d69e200d834f0bfa953ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Communist China's latest export: poisoned wheat:

Comments

Kind of interesting. Last week there was an article here saying science had not seen any difference between ordinary food (with pesticides, insecticides, hormones, antibiotics)
and organic food (no chemicals or hormones at all).

So?

Posted by: Rémi Houle | 2007-03-26 4:36:37 PM


DJ,

I believe this story is still too new to make any real conclusions.

However,I cannot resist pointing out that as a metaphor,this story is quite apt at highlighting how we may be poisoning our own future with cheap Chinese imports.

Posted by: Canadian Observer | 2007-03-26 6:01:12 PM


Canadians give farmers billions of dollars in welfare cash and grant farmers monopolies so they can keep prices high for average Canadians, raking in more millions - yet we have to import food from China? This stinks.

Posted by: philanthropist | 2007-03-26 11:00:35 PM


Philanthropist, it's all about the value of the crop. Cat Food grade crops are worth less than Man Food grade crops, so no one wants to grow them here. It's better to have a dead, subsidized field that's not growing Man Food, than to lower your income potential by lowering yourself to growing Cat Food, or Cow Food, or Pig Food. So we have to import those crops, often from countries who grow our Cat Food and Pig Food for more profit than they'd grow the Man Food they probably need domesically.

My wife and I just switched to making cats' food from domestically-grown rice, and fish caught off our shores. It supports local business and at least reduces the risk of pesticdes. (That and the cats lap the stuff up.)

Posted by: bushido | 2007-03-27 8:42:37 AM


Perhaps we should send the dead animals to China. They eat cats and dogs there don't they?

Yes they do.

Posted by: John | 2007-03-27 8:44:16 AM


Could be worse. Most north americans chow down on cow crap when they have a burger or a steak. We call it 'curing', ut it's really the putrifactive (crap) germs from the dead animal's colon breaking out and tunneling into the dead flesh and softening it into sweet sweet tender beef. It's why kosher meat tastes so different. Not enough crap and pee in the meat to properly flavor it.

At least the chinese stick to a "fresh daily" approach with their cats & dogs. Not enough time for crap and pee germs to tunnel into the chow mein.

Posted by: bushido | 2007-03-27 9:07:14 AM


If you're looking for homemade diets, go to Balanceit.com. They have recipes that are developed by board certified veterinary nutritionist. You can get a free recipe by entering the promo-code "homemade" at the checkout.

Posted by: alicia | 2007-03-28 2:13:01 PM



The comments to this entry are closed.