Why the HELL are we importing Wheat from China?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

they have so much surplus that they can send us poisoned food additives for our spoiled animals?

What the FUCK is going on here?
I thought China was a net importer of food, and would continue to be for the foreseeable future.
I thought that we were the second or biggest producer of wheat in the world.
I thought that companies feed my precious animals actually cared about quality.

I thought wrong.

[LisaM]

1. Wal-Mart world.

Wal-Mart cares about low prices, period. Their standards are zilch. They drive the market. Blame them. I do.

[madokie]

13. you are so right

for instance we purchased a microwave from chinamart recently that I wanted to disconnect the busser on and when I took it apart, remove cover, it was the sloppiest made item I have ever bought in my life, bar none, needless to say it was returned and I won't be tempted to be buying another anything from there again. went to sears then a bought one that is a work of art inside, all the little pieces that guide the microwaves to the heating compartment were so well fitted where as the one from chinamart was, well not acceptable

[Warpy]

17. Yeah, I know, I once made that mistake

and the thing started to rust out within the first 2 weeks.

My present one is from Target. It was only 5 bucks more expensive and the increase in quality is astounding.

[WinkyDink]

25. Did Wal-Mart make the microwave? No. I buy by brand, not retailer.

[LisaM]

45. Wal-Mart leads the market

I actually think they help compromise brand integrity.

[krispos42]

50. I don't know how much that is worth now

Wal-Mart is so big that they can dictate standards to their suppliers. The brand may have made a microwave exclusively to Wal-Mart specifications and wholesale price limits. And to meet that standard, they scrimped on quality.

Not saying they did this, but it makes a certain amount of sense.

[NMDemDist2]

54. BINGO

we have a winner, Alex!

that's exactly how Wallyworld does it

[madokie]

59. that is exactly what I was saying

upon taking the cover off it was obvious that it was a cheaply made pos. I have had many microwaves apart too, both for repair and just to look, see how its made etc.

[sammythecat]

72. Also, I think they dictate standards in an unspoken way.

The competition to gain or keep an account with walmart is fierce and ruthless. If unconscionable compromises in quality means walmart will sell 50 million units, most will do it in a heartbeat.

[PDJane]

2. You haven't been looking.

The US is now a net importer of foodstuffs.

[Raksha]

96. Why are we a net importer of foodstuffs?

There's no logical reason for that--as far as I can tell anyway.

[PDJane]

98. Because........

if it's grown somewhere else, one doesn't have to be as careful about paying farmers even what it takes to produce it.

Look at how coffee and tea and cashmere are produced some day.

[valerief]

3. It's a shame, isn't it? I think they'll ask us to start sending our piggy banks

to China, too, soon. They gotta get all our money. Well, whatever Hell O'Burden doesn't steal.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. That is curious, in that China had a 10% decline in its wheat production

because of drought.

[CottonBear]

5. One point: Menu Foods is a Canadian company. Here's a website link:

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/

[Shoelace]

32. menufoods not updating their site, recall info - wtf?

just read that on the Pet Connection Blog website. Menufoods has their last update listed as Mar. 19th. Since then, more petfoods have been listed. Shameless.
My take - buy organic wheat grown in this country and buy organic pet foods without any wheat products in them.
Here's one I'm going to investigate which says that they do NOT use any "menu foods in their pet foods.

http://www.petpromiseinc.com/

Thankfully, I've been feeding our little doggy cooked chicken grown right here in Oregon. Yeah I know - no guarantees there either but can't afford to get the organic chicken just yet.

[chelsea0011]

6. "amber waves of red grain" is the new added line to "America"

[City Lights]

26. Good one!

:thumbsup:

[Leopolds Ghost]

84. Wave after wave of RED GRAIN has descended on America.

[formerrepuke]

7. If we keep sprawling onto what used to be farmland, this will be the norm...

..shopping malls & big box stores with acres of surface parking are devouring our landscape.

[smoogatz]

11. Yep.

Not to mention ticky-tacky subdivisions miles from the nearest anything.

[Selatius]

15. Unfortunately, I fear the only way the trend will stop is when gas prices get too high.

Eventually, as fossil fuel-based transportation continues to increase in price, people will eventually try to alter their behavior by living closer to work, but for that to happen, they need to apply pressure on city councils to reimpose rent control and force the government to find ways to create affordable housing for people to work. Cities like Boston, unfortunately, abolished rent control and forced out many poorer residents in the following years.

[smoogatz]

19. It'll require political change locally, too--

Every town/city I've ever lived in, the city council (or equivalent) has always been made up almost esclusively of landlords, who then make sure that their interests are protected regardless of the public good. No one seems to notice, for some reason.

[Selatius]

35. Where I'm at, the city's largest landlord became the mayor.

The city has no rent control, but the saving grace is the city operates on a weak mayor system. People don't notice because few local news outlets broach the issue of rent control laws and their effect on working class people and the working poor. The city added 2 percent onto the state's 7 percent sales tax in order to raise revenue, and it's hurting local consumers here, as sales taxes generally hurt the poorest.

My suggestion at the time when the mayor was elected was to repeal the 2 percent sales tax on local businesses and instead impose a local income tax on income derived from charging rent. It takes some pressure off the poor. Of course, this would anger the city landlords.

The mayor may be in the same party as I, but we are worlds apart on economic issues.

[Leopolds Ghost]

88. Didn't he defeat a guy from South side Boston progressive, too?

Ended the man's political career?

Here in DC we are experiencing a series of "high-yeller Gold Coast oreo cookie mayors" who hire a vast majority of whites in management level positions, and the vast majority of black aides come from the wealthiest parts of the city to boot, despite it being a majority black city. They elected a city councilman who advocated for the elimination of scattered-site public housing on Capitol Hill, some of which was sold to the military (!) and turned a public school into a Gold's Gym (!)

because there were "not enough students left to justify" after tearing down all the public housing and replacing it with 1-BR loft condos for dual-income no-kids.

It is the stated policy of most "blue cities" to explicitly discourage parents with children, and poor people of any kind, from living there.

It's known as "ratables". Check with Boston's office of economic development or Zoning board. Pose as a concerned upscale citizen and ask what they are doing to enhance ratables. Let us know what you find out.

[Leopolds Ghost]

87. Yes, and good luck finding an urban, elite liberal or even leftist from the coasts who cares --

I've had no luck. They are personally benefiting from the ethnic cleansing of their neighborhoods. And many "social issues" Democrats were never progressive on race or pocketbook issues, even in the 60s during the Vietnam War there were huge tensions. The overriding assumption then was "black people should riot, look how they've been mistreated, it's not like we live in their neighborhood anyway." Now it's "OK, poor people have had their fun, now it's time for us to 'take back the city' we abandoned. We'll start by tearing down what was there before..." The tolerance for integrated neighborhoods has actually DECREASED since the 60s, according to studies done by realtors and builders.

[baldguy]

53. McMansions need at least 2 acres of land around them.

[wordpix]

80. In FL, CT and NY, they're being built cheek-by-jowl. I am renting in n. Stamford, CT & $750K/lot is

the asking price for property in this neighborhood. I called a realtor about a neighboring 8.5 ac. property and he said there are five lots subdivided at $750K/each lot. Trust me, people will be building McMansions on each one.

Same thing happening in sw FL, where I just visited.

[Leopolds Ghost]

90. 1.5 acre lot is "cheek by jowl"? To eliminate sprawl they need to be built MUCH closer together.

See, this is the problem I have with American attitudes toward land use, especially when environmentalists equate density with sprawl. 8.5 divided by 5 is not cheek-by-jowl. In America, McMansions on 1-acre lots are considered "cheek by jowl" for some bizarre reason. 1-acre lots are huge!

That land could be preserved if divided into 5 quarter-acre lots. I live in a semi-suburban area that is quarter-acre lots. They are large lots for an urban area.

[wordpix]

79. you are so right---the RePIGS have been in charge of environmental policy for far too long!

I can't wait until Christine Todd Whitman is asked a few questions.

[liberal N proud]

8. America - We used to be the breadbasket for the world

We used to be the leading agricultural source for the world, but the sourcing of food stuff followed the jobs right out the door.

[Norquist Nemesis]

9. Lou Dobbs is going to go bananas over this one

and rightly so.

[Marlie]

10. A Couple of Years Ago

A wonderful caterer in our area was sued and was forced out of business because of food poisoning
which resulted from tainted celery imported from Thailand. Of course they weren't even aware of
the fact it came from Thailand when they purchased it and put it in potato salad. How many of us
are buying produce coming from God knows where and under what growing conditions? Truly disgusting.

[smoogatz]

12. Not that our own food supply is any better--

since the foxes are running the FDA henhouse.

[City Lights]

28. The foxes run the USDA too.

:hi:

[ends_dont_justify]

58. Better Foxes than chimps N/T

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. Why the hell are we importing food stuff from any place that doesn't meet our standards?

Answer: Because it's allowed, and it's cheaper than using food stuff that is held to higher regulations.

The contaminated wheat (or wheat gluten, it's unclear to me where the gluten was extracted) was actually sent to Canada if I'm not mistaken. Then the pet food was exported to the US.

[piesRsquare]

83. Actually...

The company (Menu Foods) is Canadian. But the tainted pet food was produced right here in the USA at plants in New Jersey and Kansas...THAT ARE STILL PRODUCING!

[roamer65]

16. Amazing, Chinese wheat contaminated with rat poison.

Aminopterin. :mad:

[ends_dont_justify]

18. My mother used to always joke that "China is trying to kill us"

Now whenever I think of her saying that, I stop laughing...

[WinkyDink]

29. My 82-year-old mother always told me that China would rule the world.

[ends_dont_justify]

31. I wouldn't disagree with her

Interestingly in a game of risk I had once with my mother, to prove a point she took over china/asia and simply amassed armies in china. Took over the entire game board after about 30 minutes of patiently waiting with pretty much just that one area and the rest of asia while me and a friend took eachother out...cleaned up pretty easily, even against one of my equally sized yet distributed armies.

[in_cog_ni_to]

76. After I heard the food came from China, that was my first thought. Your mom may be right.

The pet food was just a test to see how well it worked? Next experiment...food for humans?:scared:

[GoneOffShore]

20. Because we're growing too much corn here

Thanks to ADM and the other big ag companies we're walking corn chips.

[MindPilot]

21. And why the hell are we feeding it to our dogs and cats?

Dogs are carrion eaters; cats are live-prey carnivores. Neither of them have digestive systems that can extract any useful nutrients from grain products.

[geardaddy]

22. Buy local and organic whenver possible.

That's the only way.

[mainegreen]

27. CSA! CSA!

[GoneOffShore]

43. Buy Fresh, Buy Local

CSA is the way.

Organic, Free range, pastured, grass fed.

[Eurobabe]

44. Exactly, know from 'whom' you buy your food!!

CSA is a win-win program.

[geardaddy]

46. Yeah!

CSA! CSA!

Gotta love 'em!

[LSK]

64. what is CSA?

[mainegreen]

68. Community Supported Agriculture

ie buying a share of a farms produce and getting that from the farmer directly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture

[LSK]

69. thanks n/t

[Critters2]

94. Do I remember that you're in Chicago?

I have parishioners who run a CSA and sell in the city. I could put you in touch. Or go to localharvest.org and do a search for CSAs in Illinois. You can search for Farmers Markets, too. My parishioners sell at the Logan Square Farmers Market.

[wordpix]

81. yes, if you can find it. In sw FL, local organic was hard to find.

A lot of the tropical fruits came from elsewhere, too. :(

[Kelly Rupert]

23. We export and import.

Welcome to globalization.

[Dora]

34. Other than soldiers, what do we export these days?

:shrug:

Corn?
Culture?

[Kelly Rupert]

36. The 2005 value of US exports was $927.5 Billion. n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

47. Where is that info from?

I recently researched this and I thought it was $894.6 billion in exports vs. $1,677.4 imports in total trade of goods for 2005. Or at least that's what I have in my file. I site the US Census Bureau Foreign Trade Statistics.

I'm only curious as to if there were other information regarding trade that I missed.

[Kelly Rupert]

56. CIA World Factbook.

We're at $1.024 trillion for '06.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

62. Census bureau has different info

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/annual.html


I imagine the census bureau is more accurate since it's what they do.

[Kool Kitty]

42. What are we exporting? How can you ask such an

unpatriotic question? We are exporting DEMOCRACY! I'm sure the Prez will be on momentarily to explain all to you!:silly:

[libnnc]

37. Yippee! Joy! Globalization Rawks!!!11111!!

That explanation makes me feel ever so much better.

Now I know why we've lost 4 pets in just under 3 years. We thought we were feeding them the good stuff--chunks in gravy--yummy food they'd enjoy from a label we trusted. WE'VE KILLED OUR OWN FURBABIES.

Relying on cheap products that are untested, made with lower standards, from overseas markets that are unregulated--just so we can save a buck, will end up killing us. Literally.

But that's just the very special, warm and fuzzy magic of an unregulated free market, ain't it?

[Kelly Rupert]

38. I highly doubt that pet food killed your animals.

As far as we can tell, this recall only goes to food produced in the last few months. If you've killed your "furbabies," it likely wasn't the result of globalization.

[libnnc]

40. No. It goes back further than that.

Edit to add: I have no link. But it's a gut feeling from what I've read about this crisis. We will find out that this wheat has been in our pet food supply longer than just a couple of months. I'm betting at least 2 years.

[ends_dont_justify]

65. precisely

This was simply largescale. Not the "First". Just the straw that broke the camel's back. Remember, we hear about it because democrats have subpoena power and corporations don't want to try to lay low anymore.

[MzNov]

24. In CA we have GILROY, the garlic capital of the world. Except

my garlic is imported from China!! along with wheat and just about everything else these days !

[WinkyDink]

30. I just shocked my pals here in PA.---Mushroom Capital---showing all canned mushrooms are from

SouthEast Asia.

[MzNov]

55. it all just boggles the mind...

[kineneb]

33. gotta' read them labels- country of origin

as a former Farmers Market manager, I will not buy imported produce. I know what California farm practices are, and have no idea how the foodstuffs are treated in other countries. My one exception are imports from EU countries (usually canned goods) because their standards are as high or higher than ours.

Push to keep country-of-origin labeling, and then do not buy
foreign-produced foods!

[MissB]

61. I started reading labels last year

when I noticed that a store brand apple juice that I had bought for years suddenly said that it was made from apples grown in China. For crying in a bucket, I live right next to Washington state... no need to import freakin apples from China!

[gravity]

39. We probably won't be importing wheat from China anymore

After this incident.

[NAO]

75. Do people know the scale? Or are they still on the "10 dead cats" story?

I have a suspicion that many people - even those who "follow the news" - which is a small minority of people - do not know HOW MANY animals have been/will be affected.

And the news stories are emphasizing "RAT POISON" not "FROM CHINA".

[Beelzebud]

41. They grow wheat American farmers don't want to!

/me pukes.

[TX-RAT]

51. Not that they don't want to.

They don't need to, why grow when you can just put your land in CRP.

[AZBlue]

48. I'm sure the answer is money.

It's probably cheaper.

[krispos42]

49. Probably to drive down prices

Import just enough slave-wage produced wheat to drop American and Canadian wheat prices so things are cheaper.

[baldguy]

52. Wheat, just like everything else, is a commodity.

It's not sold to benefit the people who produce it, or for the benefit of those who use it. It's marketed for the sole benefit of those who trade it - brokers selling to other brokers. The system is set up so the farmer gets screwed and the consumer gets screwed.

Welcome to Corporate America!

[pacalo]

57. This article is from 2003, but it seems to answer your question...

Though the volume of world wheat trade has changed little in the past 15 years, shares of trade volume in exporting countries have changed quite a bit. The U.S. remains the largest exporter, but U.S. farmers are increasingly producing other crops, like corn and soybeans, so the U.S. share of the wheat market has fallen from 40 percent in the 1970s to 23 percent (forecast) for 2002/03. This shift in U.S. agricultural production, combined with rising prices caused by drought in three of the largest exporters—U.S., Australia, and Canada—has created opportunities for “nontraditional” wheat exporters.

With their favorable climates and large land bases, the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Central and Eastern Europe are traditional places for wheat production. Reductions in agricultural subsidies during the 1990s, however, caused a sharp drop in livestock production, which, in turn, curtailed domestic demand for wheat as an animal feed. While wheat output also fell, recent large harvests, caused largely by favorable weather, have supported wheat exports. FSU wheat exports surged in 2001/02 and 2002/03 as increasing world prices generated the investment needed to expand port capacity. In 2002/03, Russia is expected to be the world’s third largest wheat exporter, behind the U.S. and the European Union (EU).

India, Pakistan, and China have also become net exporters of wheat in recent years. High government production supports during the 1990s boosted production and stocks. When the cost of maintaining these stocks became burdensome, exports increased, particularly as prices increased in 2002/03. However, these opportunistic exports are not expected to persist because these countries are unable to produce wheat cheaply enough to sustain increased exports without large subsidies.

The EU continues to be a large wheat exporter. Historically, EU wheat production and exports depended on large subsidies. Despite lower domestic wheat prices, EU wheat production has grown because of favorable net returns compared with those for other crops. Lower prices have increased the domestic feed use of wheat, limiting exports.

The U.S. is expected to remain the world’s largest wheat exporter, though its share will likely decline if U.S. producers continue to turn to other crops and if other countries find wheat profitable. As export shares shift, changes in U.S. supply will not affect prices as much as in the past. For example, when the U.S., Canada, and Australia suffered from drought in 2002/03, nontraditional exporters and the EU were able to export enough to keep a lid on prices.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/June03/Findings/NontraditionalExporters%20.htm

This information was published during the Bush administration, so I can't vouch for its truthfulness.

[Holly_Hobby]

60. Because we don't make anything here anymore, except

bombs and trouble???

[jus_the_facts]

63. NAFTA and GATT....n/t

[hootinholler]

66. Well, there ya go, thinking again!

You got a permit for that? The thought police will be by to check it.

-Hoot

[Lasher]

67. My guess is the Chinese discovered they had a mountain of poison wheat

I figure they were just gonna have to throw it out. Can't feed it to Chinese people, you know. But instead of discarding it they offered it to the Canadians at a very low price. This is known as a win-win in the corporate world.

[doc03]

70. I know this may not be politically correct on

this site but I suspect the reason why we import Chinese wheat is to keep Chinese farmers in business. The same thing happened in the late 90's with the steel industry, there was a slowdown in the Asian economy and the Clinton Administration let the Chinese illegally dump millions and millions of tons of steel in the USA and it bankrupted the entire American steel industry.

[OhioChick]

71. Maybe this will be a wake up call

for people to start reading labels and boycotting goods from China. (With this particular case, it wasn't known)

[NorthernSpy]

73. today they poison your cat; tomorrow they poison your kid...

Globalism is such a sweet deal for everyone: China sends us heaps of shoddy, dangerous goods, and we only have to give up good jobs and entire industries in return. Good times!

:party:

[Leopolds Ghost]

89. They are destroying the Purity and Essence of our Precious bodily non-GMO foodstuffs.

[populistdriven]

74. Last year the US went from net producer to net importer of food - there was no media attention

blame the media for not doing their jobs - they had at least 24 months warning that something like this would happen.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

77. pardon me while I hit meself with mine 2X4

WHEN DID the breadbasketcase, the corn, the soy, the wheat producer of the whirled, decide to get out of the business?

[wordpix]

78. my first thought, too! I thought we were paying farmers NOT to grow wheat b/c of our oversupply

Now we find we're exporting it from China? :wtf:

Seriously the farming in our nation is disappearing. I was in FL recently and was very excited at the thought of getting fresh tropical fruits and veggies but most stores there, even ones that carry organic products, carry food grown elsewhere.

Very disappointing. Best oranges I hadt were picked unripe by neighborhood kids from their own tree.

WTF? :wtf:

[SoCalDem]

82. Middlemen have to make brazillions of dollars and burn mass quantities of oil

in the process of procuring and moving the stuff around..

and bump up the almighty stock market in the process..

it's NOT about us..or the safety, access, and affordability of our food supply..

[Crabby Appleton]

85. If by "we" you mean the US - we don't - the US exports

more wheat than any other country. In marketing year 2005/06, the U.S. produced 57 million metric tons of wheat. The American public used over 31 MMT and 27.5 MMT was exported .

Menufoods, the source of the tainted pet food, is a Canadian company.

[tammywammy]

91. Facts!

It's rare to see facts sometimes.

[Jcrowley]

86. It's called Golbalization

Don't worry the free-market will adjust.

Oh in the meantime sorry about all the damage.

Where's that sarcasm thingie...

[treestar]

92. We have a huge debt to the Chinese, don't we?

We have a shallow understanding of economic questions.

We are living on credit. Our creditor will gain tremendous power over our lives. This is simple fact. We look babyish whining about it. We took what we took, we have to pay.

[NNN0LHI]

93. Probably because the Iraqis were too smart to let us pawn it off on them

The Australians were "selling" some poisonous wheat to Iraq for human consumption a while back and the Iraqis got pretty honked off about it. Can't blame them.

Don

[Trillo]

95. Perhaps there's a financial rationale: creative accounting,

right hand passing to the left hand, and back to the right, then to the left again, increasing the volume of cash flow for the corporatist, or some such gimmick.

But I really have no idea, just a guess, nothing more.

[mrbill]

97. a big kick for Chinese wheat

For the last few years farmers in Texas have been selling their wheat just a little over the cost of production. Didn't have a clue until now that China was dumping crappy wheat on the us markets. Texas farmers don't use rat poison in the fields.