China Fights Back, Goes After U.S. Meat

[Snazzy]

Source: AP

China Fights Back, Goes After U.S. Meat

Jul 14, 7:48 AM (ET)

By ANITA CHANG

BEIJING (AP) - China has suspended imports from several major U.S. meat processors, including the world's largest, in the latest indication the government may be retaliating as its products are turned back from overseas because of safety concerns.

Frozen poultry products from Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN), the world's largest meat processor, were found to be contaminated with salmonella, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its Web site late Friday.

Other imports barred by China included frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms, Inc. tainted with residue of an anti-parasite drug, as well as frozen pork ribs from Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. containing a leanness-enhancing feed additive, the AQSIQ said.

A spokesman for Cargill denied the agency's claims, while officials at Tyson and Sanderson Farms were not immediately available to comment.

....



Read more: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070714/D8QCBH1O0.html

[soothsayer]

1. both countries should be more careful with their products, no matter where they are being sold

[hlthe2b]

2. We've given China the ammunition to do this, unfortunately

Our food safety and regulatory activities have reached an all time low in effectiveness under this pro-business administration. It is abysmal. So, as bad as China is right now, I say good on them for casting a bright light on our own deficiencies.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. China's retaliation demonstrates that it's begging the question on the issue

of their food products being safe for consumption. Boycotting US meat products is not a prudent business decision unless China can prove consumption of it is a health hazard and it doesn't answer the initial accusation against its own products.

[antiimperialist]

44. What if the US meat was in fact contaminated?

Why are you calling it a retaliation?

[Dark]

56. One: It's a totalitarian dictatorship. Two: 600,000 chinese people will die this year from pollution

Protecting its people from contaminants is not a top priority for China.

[Double T]

4. Sell Americans and their pets contaminated and poisonous food..........

and then don't comment on it or better yet deny it. The corporate scum bags, BOTH in china and the U.S., can't be trusted to deliver a quality product. American corporations that buy the raw materials or finished goods from china are always blaming china, when in fact the responsibility for the bad products rests solely with corrupt corporate america. KNOW WHERE YOUR FOOD IS COMING FROM AND STOP BUYING CHINESE MADE PRODUCTS, SPECIALLY FOOD PRODUCTS.

[Snazzy]

5. country of origin labels would help

till the fox is out of hen house here, best plan is go local/organic. Most people don't have slightest clue or ability to do that of course and are screwed. China meantime also executed their version of the FDA head. Here we've got "doing a good job, Brownie" in charge.

[brentspeak]

6. Is there anyone in Congress pushing for country-of-origin labeling laws?

This would be a good time to advocate for that kind of law.

[Snazzy]

14. Yes, WH is pushing them back

On May 13, 2002, President Bush signed into law the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, more commonly known as the 2002 Farm Bill. One of its many initiatives requires country of origin labeling for beef, lamb, pork, fish, perishable agricultural commodities and peanuts. On January 27, 2004, President Bush signed Public Law 108-199 which delays the implementation of mandatory COOL for all covered commodities except wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish until September 30, 2006. On November 10, 2005, President Bush signed Public Law 109-97, which delays the implementation for all covered commodities except wild and farm-raised and shellfish until September 30, 2008. As described in the legislation, program implementation is the responsibility of USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service.

From:

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main

Apparently comment period was recently reopened on this till August. You can register a comment there but not sure what the comments are directed at (or the specifics of who labels what and do we see 'em) since this was to be the law already. As far as more sweeping improvements NOW, no clue if anyone is working on it but the time is ripe like ya say. I wonder who put it in the farm bill and if they are pissed.

[Doremus]

42. They executed a -former- head of food & drug safety who last served in 2005.

Who knows, he might even have been guilty. But he sure wasn't involved in any of the numerous recent contaminations and, with that kind of scapegoating going on, it would seem that China's dictators and Junior have much in common.

[Snazzy]

50. Not advocating executing ours

And for sure China's approach seems to be spin control via throwing enough shit at the wall. (They are especially worried about the Olympics it seems). Gov PR in China often seems to toss in an execution. Anyway just suggesting that somewhere on the continuum of doing nothing versus killing those responsible there may live rational policy.

---------

China Executes Former Drug Regulator

By JOSEPH KAHN
Published: July 11, 2007
BEIJING, July 10 — China executed its former top food and drug regulator today for taking bribes to approve untested medicine as Beijing scrambled to show that it is serious about improving the safety of Chinese products.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court carried out the death sentence against Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, soon after the country’s Supreme Court rejected his final appeal.

Mr. Zheng, who had appealed his May 29 sentence on the grounds that it was too severe and that he had confessed to the bribery charges against him, became the first ministerial-level official put to death since 2000 and only the fourth since China opened it doors to the outside world nearly 30 years ago.

...

China carries out more court-ordered executions than the rest of the world combined, according to human rights groups. But even by local standards the sentence against Mr. Zheng was unusually harsh and his execution uncommonly swift.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/business/worldbusiness/11execute-web.html?_r=1&em&ex=1184212800&en=51b5a0580d379fc5&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin


---

The Politics of Shame
Beijing is racing to avoid an Olympic-size food scare.

By Melinda Liu
Newsweek
July 23, 2007 issue - It was a harsh penalty even by the standards of China, which executes more criminals every year than any place else in the world. The former head of the State Food and Drug Administration was put to death last week. His crime: approving untested medicines in exchange for $850,000 in bribes. At least 10 deaths have been blamed on bogus antibiotics that were OK'd during his tenure. But his offense went far beyond that—an SFDA spokeswoman said Zheng Xiaoyu had brought "shame" on the agency.

Shame has always been a dreaded force in China—and now it has Beijing's leaders scrambling to save face amid the country's multiplying food-, drug- and product-safety scandals. In centuries past, the Chinese emperor's No. 1 responsibility was to guarantee that his subjects were adequately fed. Only then did he earn the "mandate of heaven" that justified his reign. And this in essence has been the Communist Party's bargain with China since the days of Deng Xiaoping: in return for accepting a sometimes brutal regime, the people would be allowed to prosper. Now, however, the rotten underpinnings of that prosperity have emerged as a threat to the "harmonious society" promoted by President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. "The top leaders have decided you can't have leading regulators' behavior leading to the death of citizens," says David Zweig, a Sinologist at Hong Kong University. "How can people have a harmonious society with such deaths?"

....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19762051/site/newsweek/

[jmowreader]

55. He was executed for allowing adulterated drugs, not adulterated food

I expect to see executions over the adulterated food sometime soon.

[luckyleftyme2]

7. perhaps severe penalties

Perhaps if both countries used severe penalties to companies who had let tainted food get through their safety barriers the people would be better served. for instance for the first offense a minimum of thirty day closure of the plant involved. and before reopening a complete history of how the problem had been corrected along with preventative methods to produce a safe product.
I'M sure this is a small price to pay if it will save lives!

[FlaGranny]

8. Hey. One thing I want to know -

What the heck is a "leanness-enhancing feed additive" and where can I get some? :evilgrin:

Everything you ever wanted to know about what is fed to pigs:

http://soyasa.org/documents/1/Thaler_P_Feed%20Additives%20for%20Swine_May04.pdf

"As consumer demands for leaner pork products increase, producers have begun feeding carcass modifiers to decrease fat thickness and increase muscle of their market pigs. Commonly used carcass modifiers include ractopamine (Paylean), chromium tripicolinate, betaine, and L-carnitine."

When you call them "carcass modifiers," it somehow sounds not quite as nice as "leanness-enhancing additive."

[rcdean]

9. US meats are FULL of chemicals, hormones & steroids.

That, I'm convinced, explains about 70% of the obesity problem in our country.

When people eat animals that were fed steriods and weight-enhancing compounds, those chemical leach into the human body. Or if they don't then where in the hell is the evidence that they don't? The rock-solid, objective, indisputable evidence.

And if they do, then why is nobody in the US noticing?

[Coventina]

10. Because we're brainwashed from infancy to believe that meat is "good for us".

:puke:

[conspirator]

Meat is an important source of protein. It is not a bad thing. Monkeys eat meat n/t

[Coventina]

23. It's also an important source of the fats responsible for America's

most wide-spread (pun intended) health problems.

[conspirator]

24. That is because people don't eat lean meat. They eat processed corporate meat

which is only 5% lean.

[Coventina]

26. True to an extent. However, merely switching from beef to turkey

still does not address the gross imbalance of consumption of meat versus vegetables, fruits, and grains in the diets of the vast majority of Americans.

Can you eat healthy with meat in your diet? Sure. But most people don't. They let the calories they consume in meat push out other important healthful foods.

[Penance]

45. Meat's been eaten for generations

Go to eastern Europe and check out their local cuisine. You'd consider those heavy, meaty, fat-filled main dishes to incredibly unhealthy, but they've been a staple for centuries. The main three factors in American obesity are overly large serving sizes, the fact that few americans do hard manual labor anymore and that high-fructose corn syrup is in just about everything. That last one is why the diabetes rate is so absurdly high in this country.

As for the Chinese blocking our bad meat, bravo. I hope this tit-for-tat thing gets nasty. Maybe both countries will be forced to supply healthy food in order to sell it. I know it didn't do anything for food safety in the beef industry, but I can dream, right?

[Coventina]

48. Just because something's been eaten for generations doesn't make it healthy

Portion sizes and lack of exercise are certainly part of the problem as well. I never meant to imply that meat was the ONLY problem in the American diet. But the choice of making meat the center of nearly every meal is not a healthy one.

[burrowowl]

62. Plus in Western Europe

Hormones, etc. are banned.

[cliss]

33. now there is a comment

I've never seen before. I always thought the culprit was High Fructose corn syrup which they dump in soft drinks, practically anything that's processed.

But why not? Why wouldn't it be steroids & all the other crap?

[rcdean]

41. It's got to be something we haven't put our finger on yet.

Kids diets were much worse when I was a kid. Gobs of sugar, lard-filled baked goods, fat, buttered steaks, etc. Nobody understood anything about nutrition back in the 50s.

But the dramatic and uncontrollable ballooning of our population has to be attributed to something more than simple will power and fast foods.

They feed these chemicals to the animals for the express purpose of making them gain weight. Then they feed the animals to us. I have never seen or heard of any study examining the effects of the secondary ingestion of the growth inducing chemicals in humans.

[silverojo]

51. I beg to differ

When I stopped drinking soda pop, cut back on the junk food, and got off my fat ass to do some exercise, I lost weight.

And yes, I continued to eat meat.

It's not the meat making people fat. Barring those who are taking prescription drugs that make you fat (like Zyprexa), it's a sedentary lifestyle and not pushing away from the table that causes obesity.

I know from personal experience: One of those sedentary, self-indulgent people was my aunt, and she died just a few months ago from heart problems that were a direct result of her obesity. People don't know (or care) about the horrors that await them, because they refuse to get serious about losing weight.

[rcdean]

57. Of course there are other factors, as well, but...

... there are many "obese" (what a pathetically prejudicial and ugly term) people who eat healthily--even more healthily than the average person, are reasonably active, and either gain weight or can not lose weight. Gaining and losing comes easily to most under the age of 40. But to those over about 40, and to a growing number below that age, weight gain is inexorable no matter what they do.

A lot of that--about 70% of it to be exact--has been proven incontrovertibly to be the result of genetic factors. (See "Genes Take Charge, and Diets Fall by the Wayside" May 8, 2007, New York Times:
Research into the genetics of obesity indicates that each person has a comfortable weight range to which the body gravitates. It's a fascinating article which will of course be ignored by a culture that feels smug satisfaction in pointing accusatory, judgmental, holier-than-thou fingers at those who are not slim and trim.

Still, aside from genetics, there are clearly other yet unidentified factors at work. When I look at young people today who are in their early teens and look for all the world like they're on steroids. I don't buy that it's just indolence or lousy diets.

[kurth]

11. Not enough cardboard and carcinogens

[Zenlitened]

12. Well, ultimately, it could be the consumers who benefit from this sort of trade war.

Imagine... food producers competing to out-do each other on safety, cleanliness, etc.

(Hey, I can dream, can't I? :D )

[AndyTiedye]

31. And Inspectors That Actually INSPECT the Food!

Imagine That!

[Exultant Democracy]

13. Good for us and them. Both countries should be protecting their people

first and trade second.

[Hekate]

36. Regrettably I don't believe either government.China's never been reliable,& under the Repubs the FDA

...has regressed a full century. Caveat emptor!

For those who don't remember the Great Leap Forward and the Five-Year Plans, let me just point out that China has a long history of public pronouncements that bear little resemblance to reality and often serve to wreck individual lives.

Individual Chinese may believe in consumer protections, equal justice under the law, and all that other good stuff, but the government is NOT to be trusted.

Furthermore, in this vast and ancient country there is also a long tradition of individual manufacturers and sellers (especially the small-scale ones) seriously cutting corners in order to maximize profits, product safety be damned.

And this is the nation to whom the US has gone deeply in hock. Stupid of us. Really stupid.

Hekate

[Exultant Democracy]

40. Whatever the reasons behind it I always support a ban on tainted meat

even if it is short live and ineffective the message is important. Oprah needs to get back to work on this one, screw the ranchers.

[Dover]

15. As I said during the pet food scare, this may have less to do with food safety/quality

issues and more to do with applying economic pressures. I mean really....Coca Cola on trial in China? Blasphemy! Read the article in this thread to see how tit for tat it all is:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=548591

March 2007

China turns cold on foreign brands
By Robert Hartmann

HONG KONG - Many makers of international brand-name products have flocked to China in recent years, particularly after the country's accession to the World Trade Organization, to tap the potentially huge market. But are such world-famous brands trusted by Chinese consumers? Not really. In fact, Chinese consumer confidence in foreign brand-name products is decreasing after frequent media reports about their shabby quality.

Early this month, two young men from Hangzhou, provincial capital of Zhejiang in eastern China, sued the Zhongcui Foodstuff Co Ltd for producing and putting on the market Coca-Cola and Sprite drinks containing the preservative sodium benzoate, which has been proved to be harmful to human health when consumed over a long period. The plaintiffs accused the manufacturers of covering up the preservative's chemical nature, thus depriving the consumer of "the right to know". The case is reported to have been accepted by a court in Hangzhou's Jianggan district and will soon go to trial.

This is only one recent example of people questioning the quality of foreign brands. Other examples found in Chinese media reports include: complaints about the quality of US brand Boshromb Eye Liquid; the recall of six models of Sony digital cameras; excessive iodine in Nestle powdered milk for infants; baby clothes and adult underwear containing harmful substances; shoes made by European firms Clarke, Strada and George being burned because of their allegedly shabby quality.

As a result, Chinese consumers have started frowning at some foreign brands in the past couple of years.

Spring 2005 has become known as "the Black Spring" because more than 10 reputed brands, including Colgate, Carrefour and McDonald's, had serious product-quality complaints made against them. It seems the famous foreign brands are facing a "Waterloo" or a "Qualitygate" crisis.

For many years after China opened up to the outside world in the late 1980s, the credibility of world-famous brands was high in the minds of Chinese consumers. This credibility, however, seems to have been greatly undermined by recent quality complaints....>

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IC28Cb03.html

[Akoto]

16. Ah, but was the chicken made of 60% cardboard? Where were the antifreeze additives?

[lynnertic]

17. IMO china's doing us all a favor.

Are you defending the sale of tainted food as long as it's produced by the US? Your equivocations make me wonder whether you really get the point of the story.

Sure, China's scrutinizing imports, they really should. We know that industrial farming doesn't yield healthy food, but we just look the other way and keep buying it.

So hopefully this, on the heels of the melamine poisoning, will spur some requirements for US food producers to clean up their act.

[Akoto]

19. Well ...

My meat, which I purchase from the local market, contains no antibiotics or hormones. It doesn't mean that the meat's pure as the driven snow, but it's a start. A few years ago, I would never have seen that on the shelves.

That said, I'd rather take my chances with antibiotics or the possibility of something like salmonella than with a chemical meant to fuel my air conditioner.

[brentspeak]

29. Somehow, I don't trust China to tell the truth -- about anything

For all we know, China simply made the accusations up, to retaliate against the revelation that its food exports are dangerous.

[Hekate]

37. That would be in keeping with their long-established previous behavior. nt

[Eurobabe]

20. Quite honestly American poultry (ie Perdue, etc) tastes like cardboard

soaked in antifreeze. I stopped buying that hormone-laden shit a long time ago.

Buy organic, it's not that much more expensive and it really tastes like CHICKEN!!!

[Akoto]

21. I do!

My local market actually has an entire section devoted to organic meat and poultry. It's only a little bit more expensive, so I purchase there. No antibiotics, no hormones, which is nice! :)

[0007]

32. More healthy to eat buzzards than to eat chickens from

modern day super markets.

Here in Texas its the latest wave. Very yummy! Especially Turkey Buzzards, LOL!

[Eurobabe]

46. Are you serious?

:wow:

[0007]

49. Just making a comparison between the two fouls

Who'd eat either? :shrug:

[rug]

18. Food fight!

[silverojo]

53. ROTFL!

Toga...toga...toga!

[MetaTrope]

22. Well, at least China knows where to look

Top poultry processors faulted for high Salmonella rates

Meanwhile Tyson Foods, had 10 of its 36 broiler-producing plants, or 27.8 per cent, fail during at least one test period for Salmonella. A total of 5.1 per cent of the company's test periods resulted in failure. The average contamination rate of failing test periods was 33 per cent, according to the Food & Water Watch data for 1998 to 2005.

[Trillo]

39. That article really brings home why it's so important to fully cook

chicken, and for consumers to make sure that when handling it raw, all hands, knives, other utensils, dishes, and counter tops that it touched prior to cooking are sanitized before any other food touches them.

[Shoofly pie]

25. Not Surprised

They were probably stunned that our exports actually contained real meat.

[Dover]

27. US hysteria hikes China trade tensions

Business
Jul 14, 2007


US hysteria hikes China trade tensions
By Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON - Just hours after new data showed an ever-widening US trade deficit with China, Washington asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Thursday to arbitrate its dispute with Beijing over what the US government considers illegal trade subsidies. The move increases trade tensions that came to the fore during a high-level meeting here between the two economic giants in May.

Washington says two rounds of WTO talks initiated by the US in February failed to persuade Beijing to go far enough in curbing its use of trade subsidies that Washington says violate its commitments to the Geneva-based global trade body. China says it has already repealed one form of the subsidies that Washington objects to. But the US remained unsatisfied.

"We continue to prefer a negotiated settlement to this dispute, but without assurance of complete corrective action by China, we must continue to pursue the WTO process to enforce our rights," said Sean Spicer, spokesman for the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

Mexico joined the United States in its request for the WTO to sponsor the talks with China. In April, the two countries filed another supplemental consultation request after China removed one subsidy and passed a revised income-tax law.

At issue are broader subsidy programs that the US believes are prohibited by the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. These include alleged backing for China-based firms that use domestic rather than imported products, as Washington prefers, or for firms that export overseas rather than for local consumption....>

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IG14Cb01.html

[brentspeak]

28. Hysteria???

Let's see the people at Asia Times gobble down some cardboard burger buns. Then they can talk to us about "hysteria".

[Dover]

35. I suggest READING the article next time, rather than reacting to headlines.

It's very informative.

[AndyTiedye]

30. If BOTH Countries Start Actually INSPECTING the Food We Eat, That Has to be a Good Thing

I hope our FDA is looking into the salmonella contamination that the Chinese have reported,
as it is not likely to be isolated to what has been sold to China.

[Karenina]

34. What would be REALLY COOL...

the Chinese gubmint gets 1000 head of live cattle, a coupla tons of meat and runs tests for MAD COW!!!! BUWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! :evilgrin:

[David__77]

38. Hopefully improved regulations in each country will be the result.

Food safety, and consumer safety in general, have been sorely ignored since the late 70's and the first waves of "liberalization" of regulations.

[0rganism]

43. Why should EITHER country be importing food from the other side of the planet?

This conflict stems from mutual irresponsibility rooted in flawed premises. Two thumbs down.

[conspirator]

47. Not growing food locally is the way the corporations found to cut costs and escape responsability.

"Hey it's not our fault you have eaten poison. We bought it from China. Sorry no refunds."

[Rosa Luxemburg]

52. yes

[EClark5483]

54. Just my opinion, but...

This little tit for tat game being played by the US and Chinese inspectors is all just another stock market money game. My guess is these "contaminants" that they are complaining about are actually quite the norm.

As for why Americans have a higher obesity rate, nobody HAS quite put their finger on what it is yet, and choose to instead blame sugars, chemicals, lack of exercise, yadda, yadda, yadda....

Well, I am here to tell you all why America is so fat.. Processed foods..

Back in caveman time, we were all hunter/gatherers, and we ate our food any way we could get it.. time went on, we mixed foods together and made something that tasted even better... probably soup...

still further in time, someone discovered the practice of preserving food. Advancements later on into the 20th century found a way to not only preserve food, but to alter it's essential taste with different chemicals. And, even better, a way to break food down till you get it's most essential component.

It was a great way to get your orange juice, you didn't need to cut and squeeze and at less then a buck for a can you had a pitcher of the stuff.

They even tossed some pulp your way to make you think your getting a BIT more rough-age but the truth is, peeling the orange and eating it the way it is, is much healthier then a 100% full days supply of Vitamin C in every glass of ANYTHING you find at the store, even the ORGANIC stuff.

Oh even the ORGANIC FOOD guys drive me nuts.

They still miss the boat on what is healthy, a few less chemicals in your body from the organic stuff is NOT gonna make a difference in your body. What is making you sick is the fact the plant you are eating was STILL ground down into a fine powder then reformed into the flakes of your ORGANIC raisin bran.

Take something as simple as Dorito's®™

No it is NOT the preservatives in it, or the yummy cheese tasting chemicals that give it flavor, but the corn itself is the problem..

God intended for humans to chew that corn from the cob, not filter out its starches and other components, then jumble it back up into a predefined shape.

Regular doritos are no worse on you then BAKED Doritos, and even ORGANIC doritos.

[Fire Walk With Me]

58. Saving face (ego) and retaliation are more important than making sure your product does not kill?

Of course it is.

[Javaman]

59. Pot. nt

[LanternWaste]

60. It seems the more I find out just how much US debt...

It seems the more I find out just how much US debt, real estate, and bonds are owned by the Chinese, there's an inverse reaction-- the more I'm told by the MSM not to buy Chinese products. :shrug:

[SayWhatYo]

61. Good!

I was wonder when China was going to do something about all the anti-Chinese propaganda.