Latest food to avoid: pistachios

My my my... what's next? I'm running out of foods to avoid.

I wonder now - every time I shop - is this lettuce safe? How about the spinach... is it safe to buy it again? Should I simply avoid all non-local vegetables and shop at the local farmers market?

Is it OK to buy peanuts again? How about pet food? So corn syrup contains... mercury? Can I actually find any cough syrup that doesn't contain corn syrup?

And how much of this stuff presented to us as 'food' is being shipped in with little to no oversight from China? (Shudder.)

Thanks guys. You -- yes, I'm looking at you, FDA. We once - once - had one of the safest food distribution systems in the world.

No more.

But obviously the GOP is right... quite obviously government oversight is bad. (For corporate greed.) Good thing they got rid of nearly all of it under the eight years of the Bush Administration. I'm sure we all needed a little more lead and mercury in our diets anyway -- it will create an even larger and more bloated market for all of those big Pharma drugs, as one by one we all get sick.

Do I sound cynical? Oh I'm not the only one.

Haven't been paying attention? No kidding.

“It’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing our food safety problems as coming from other countries,” said Robert Tauxe, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who helped trace the outbreak to the Blakely plant. “This outbreak is telling us we haven’t been paying enough attention.”

Ya think?

The New York Times has a written a relatively comprehensive piece on the peanut butter recall. Rather than break into another 'oversight and protection are dead in this country' rant... I'll let them handle it:

Peanut Case Shows Holes in Safety Net
By MICHAEL MOSS

BLAKELY, Ga. — Raw peanuts were stored next to the finished peanut butter. The roaster was not calibrated to kill deadly germs. Dispirited workers on minimum wage, supplied by temp agencies, donned their uniforms at home, potentially dragging contaminants into the plant, which also had rodents.

Even the roof of the Peanut Corporation of America plant here in rural southwest Georgia was an obvious risk, given that salmonella thrives in water and the facility should have been kept bone dry.

“It leaked when it rained,” said Frank Hardrick, 40, an assistant manager who, along with four other workers, described life inside the plant. “Different crews would come in to work on it, but it would still leak.”

The conditions at the plant, more circa 1955 than 2009, would have been enough to cause alarm in an industry where sanitation can be a matter of life and death, food experts said.

But they were only one element in the salmonella outbreak and subsequent food safety train wreck that started here and swept through the country — claiming eight lives, sickening an estimated 19,000 people in 43 states and spurring an array of recalls, including TV dinners, snack bars labeled organic and ready-made meals for disaster relief.

An examination of the Blakely case reveals a badly frayed food safety net. Interviews and government records show that state and federal inspectors do not require the peanut industry to inform the public — or even the government — of salmonella contamination in its plants. And industry giants like Kellogg used processed peanuts in a variety of products but relied on the factory to perform safety testing and divulge any problems.

At the same time, processed peanuts have been finding their way into more and more foods as a low-cost yet tasty additive, making tainted products harder to track.

Read more...

Rodents! Hard to imagine salmonella thriving in a leaking factory infested with rats.

Broken trust

So now I can add peanuts and peanut butter to my ever-growing list of items I no longer trust.

I was doing my daily search for updates on the salmonella outbreak, and wonder of wonders, I found this:

FDA News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
P07-32
March 1, 2007


Media Inquiries:
Michael Herndon, 301-827-6242
Consumer Inquiries:
888-INFO-FDA

FDA Update on Peanut Butter Recall

Salmonella found in the ConAgra Plant

As a follow-up to the recent Salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is conducting an extensive inspection of ConAgra's Sylvester, Georgia processing plant. Samples collected by the FDA revealed the presence of Salmonella. The fact that FDA found Salmonella in the plant environment further suggests that the contamination likely took place prior to the product reaching consumers. Last week, tests by several states identified Salmonella in many open jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter recovered from consumers. In these instances, the Salmonella found in the plant and in the open jars matched the outbreak strain recovered from consumers who became ill.

Peanut Butter Toppings Part of Recall

FDA has learned that the ConAgra plant in Sylvester, GA, sent bulk Peter Pan peanut butter to its plant in Humboldt, TN. The three brands described below are part of the original Peter Pan recall. These brands have been recalled and are no longer being sold. However, some consumers may still have these products in their home.

Consumers who have any of the products listed below should discard them. Individuals who are not sure if the purchased product contains the recalled peanut butter topping should contact the store where the product was purchased.

The bulk peanut butter was used to make the following toppings:

* Sonic Brand Ready-To-Use Peanut Butter Topping in 6 lb. 10.5 oz cans. Sonic outlets used the topping until 2/16/07, when the product was recalled.
The topping was used in the following Sonic products:
- Peanut Butter Shake
- Peanut Butter Fudge Shake
- Peanut Butter Sundae
- Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae

* Carvel Peanut Butter Topping in 6 lb. 10 oz. cans. Carvel used the topping until 2/16/07, when the product was recalled.
The topping was used in the following Carvel ice cream products:
- Chocolate Peanut Butter
- Peanut Butter Treasure
- Peanut Butter & Jelly
- Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sundae Dasher
- Any other customized products containing the Peanut Butter Topping, including peanut butter flavored ice cream in ice cream cakes

* J. Hungerford Smith Peanut Butter Dessert Topping in 6 lb. 10 oz. cans: This topping may be used by retail and restaurant outlets throughout the United States but is not available for direct purchase by the public.

Recall Status and More Information

ConAgra informed the public that it is recalling all Peter Pan peanut butter and all Great Value peanut butter beginning with product code 2111. The company's recall extends to products made since December 2005. FDA's advice to consumers continues to be not to eat any Peter Pan peanut butter or any Great Value peanut butter beginning with the 2111 product code.

FDA will provide updates on recalled products, including any other products that may have been made with potentially contaminated peanut butter and distributed to consumers.

Symptoms of foodborne illness caused by Salmonella include fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In persons with poor underlying health or weakened immune systems, Salmonella can invade the bloodstream and cause life-threatening infections or death. Individuals who have recently eaten peanut butter-containing products from these companies and who have experienced any of these symptoms should contact their doctor or health care provider immediately and report the illnesses to their state or local health authorities. Similarly, institutional food establishments and other food service providers who have received reports of illness from consumers after they consumed a product containing this peanut butter are encouraged to share that information with their local health department.

FDA is continuing to work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and with states and local officials to identify how the contamination occurred in order to prevent similar foodborne illness outbreaks.

####
Additional Information

Q and A - Peter Pan & Great Value Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak and Product Recall

February 23, 2007 – FDA Update on Salmonella Outbreak Linked to All Peter Pan Peanut Butter and Certain Lot Numbers of Great Value Brand Peanut Butter

February 16, 2007 – Update on Salmonella Outbreak and Peter Pan Peanut Butter and Great Value Peanut Butter

February 14, 2007 - FDA Warns Consumers Not to Eat Certain Jars of Peter Pan Peanut Butter and Great Value Peanut Butter -- Product May be Contaminated With Salmonella

CDC Salmonellosis - Outbreak Investigation, February 2007

Photos: Peter Pan and Great Value Peanut Butter

FDA's Pilot Program to Better Educate Consumers about Recalled Food Products

Whoa. That isn't 'new' news. This is from 2007!

How many times has this happened? And the FDA under George Bush did... nothing?

How very much like George Bush's EPA that refused to protect the environment.

And George Bush's FEMA that refused to respond to Katrina.

George Bush's FDA was working on behalf of the drug and food corporations to keep us all in the dark and cover up known dangers, instead of protecting us against drugs and foods that it knew were unsafe. We've seen it time and again with drugs, and an endless stream of food recalls. Do you remember food recalls during the Clinton administrations? I don't remember even one.

This whole idea that corporations will oversee and police themselves is ridiculous - against both logic and human nature, not to mention corporate nature (make as much money as you can with as little oversight as possible.) I suspect most members of the GOP know this - but its economically advantageous to believe otherwise, so they rationalize that the corporations will 'do the right thing.' Under the Bush Administration, the GOP pulled all protections for the American people and left us at the mercy of greedy food and drug suppliers. Now we have lead poisoning from China, gluten poisoning in our pet food, salmonella in our own food... and our trust is broken.

Now I buy local vegetables - from farmers that I know. I buy natural pet food that is made in the US, and I make sure to do research on the company (now I have to verify that they don't use peanuts, so even this system is subject to flaws -- I'm at the mercy of their suppliers.)

After a bird seed recall last year that forced me to dig up about 6 inches of soil in our back yard (and that may have made our dog very sick, from the pesticides that were finally deemed 'unsafe,') I will only buy seed and suet from suppliers that are American and preferably local. Or the birds go without. I figure they are better off fending for themselves than being poisoned by me.

I walked into Petco before Christmas to buy some toys for our cats and our dog, and walked back out empty-handed. Every single item in the store was made in China, had no information about materials used in construction, but some included stern warnings not to give the items to children and about dyes that would run all over our furniture.

I didn't trust them. I happen to care about my pets... and my trust is broken. So the stockings were empty this year. Many people with small children had similar issues finding toys that were safe for their children. I recall my orange cat staring at me - he's 15 years old and has seen a lot of Christmases - and in desperation I took one of his rubber balls and slipped it into his stocking pretending it was 'new.' I doubt he fell for it. Later - some time after Christmas - I made it up to him with a feather toy made in the USA.

I don't drink our water - we have a long history of PCBs in our area, dumped here in the 50s and 60s - and I seldom eat out in restaurants. And speaking of water - its impossible to find a stainless steel spray nozzle attachment for the garden hose, like the ones we took for granted when I was a child. All nozzles are now made in China, contain lead (thanks to the state of California for warning me about that - and the fact that this lead is released into the water if the water is warm, like water in a hose often is during summer months.) There isn't much point in watering tomatoes with lead-poisoned water. I have given up my search for a safe nozzle.

Is this overkill? Perhaps. But that's the funny thing about trust... once broken, it can't be restored. I know that I - that we Americans - are now on our own when it comes to the products that we buy. I know we have literally no protection now, so God only knows what is really in our food.

Senator Lugar once told me in a letter that our food was 'the safest in the world.' Well it used to be, back when we had responsible government. What a shame to destroy that hard won ideal simply out of greed.

President Obama can't fix the FDA fast enough to restore my trust. That said... I sure hope he starts soon.

Murder by peanut butter

If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. - Abraham Lincoln

They knew.

The company that distributed the contaminated peanut butter knew it had tested positive for salmonella... and sent it out anyway.

Eight people have now died, over 500 are sick, and the FDA is still trying to track down every resulting food that contains the contaminated peanut butter.

I call that murder. The owners of this peanut company should be tried for negligent homicide (at the very least.)

Peanut Corporation of America, in Blakely, Georgia. Murderers.

Perhaps things will be different under Mr. Obama's Administration. Perhaps now there will be CONSEQUENCES for knowingly killing American citizens and pets.

FDA Alleges Company Knowingly Sold Peanut Products Containing Salmonella

KRIS-TV
updated 18 minutes ago

GEORGIA - There is new information available about the recent salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter from a plant in Georgia.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said at least 12 times over the past two years the Peanut Corporation of America has knowingly sold products that had tested positive for salmonella.

The FDA also claimed the company did nothing to improve its manufacturing and sanitation practices after salmonella was found in its plant, and that is a clear violation of the law.

Consumer advocates are outraged at the new revelations.

"This kind of lab-shopping is absolutely shocking, and it really shows that the FDA's program is inadequate to protect American consumers," Sarah Klein said, who works for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Oh, and we need a new FDA. The old one is broken.

The FDA admits that this same company shipped out salmonella-contaminated peanut butter in 2007 and 2008. Apparently - having gotten away with it, with no repercussions from the FDA - they decided to continue. With deadly results.

This is why we need consequences; oversight with consequences.

I still cannot fathom how the ruling GOP believed that their watered down FDA could simply tell these greedy corporations "now be good boys - don't do that again" and the corporations would immediately and willingly comply.

Of course they didn't comply! Why would they comply when they could easily get away with it? We aren't dealing with Mother Teresa here. This is why our Federal Government is forced to exercise oversight of corporations that produce the food we eat -- because they won't willingly do it themselves if they can avoid the cost. And once caught, they will simply do the same thing again... unless they are fined, thrown in jail or closed down.

Consequences.

Somehow the GOP recognizes that regular citizens should go to jail for committing crimes, and especially murder (and they believe staunchly in the death penalty for crimes committed by the great unwashed.) If crime isn't punished, society breaks down. But when a corporation commits a crime, or kills American people with their poisoned products, they look the other way.

And because they looked the other way for eight long years, today hundreds of children are sick - and more will undoubtedly die - because their peanut butter was distributed by a company that knew it was poisoned, but didn't bother making a new batch.

That should tell us all we need to know about the GOP. They don't represent us; they represent the wealthy elite and the corporations that donate to their campaigns. Different standards apply (in this case, no standards at all.)

The government Tuesday accused the peanut butter manufacturer tied to a nationwide salmonella outbreak of shipping products in 2007 and 2008 after internal tests found bacterial contamination, violating food safety regulations.

Peanut butter and peanut paste manufactured by the Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) has been tied to the salmonella outbreak that has sickened 501 people in 43 states and is believed to have contributed to eight deaths.

The Food and Drug Administration said that its inspection of the PCA plant in Blakely, Ga., found records of 12 instances in which plant officials identified salmonella in ingredients or finished products. The products should not have been shipped, the FDA says. PCA took no steps to address cleaning after finding the salmonella, says Michael Rogers, director of the FDA's division of field investigations.

(Hint to the FDA: This is where you force them to clean up their act, or close them down.)

"It's incredibly negligent," says William Hubbard, a former FDA associate commissioner. Hubbard questions why the FDA didn't act sooner, given the sanitation violations found by state inspectors.

Previous inspection reports by the Georgia Department of Agriculture found deficiencies in how well the plant was cleaned.

Mad Cow in Indiana...?

Thank you FDA, USDA, Department of Agriculture, Indiana media, and all of the rest of you who were supposed to be protecting us and chose to keep us in the dark. No wonder Bush doesn't want anyone testing for mad cow disease. It would appear that it could already be here.

U.S. government fights to keep meatpackers from testing all slaughtered cattle for mad cow
The Associated Press
Published: May 29, 2007

WASHINGTON: The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone should test its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well.

The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.

Today CNN announced that four people in Northern Indiana (Ft Wayne area,) have died within the last 5 months of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare brain disease that can be caused by eating meat infected by Mad Cow (or by eating brains, so I suppose these people could all belong to a secret, brain-eating cult. I've heard Ft. Wayne is an odd city.)

There is almost no news coverage of this here in Indiana.

I found one story, just breaking, on the Indy Star; and it stated that "the four deaths appear to be from classic CJD and not related to mad cow disease, which is linked to the rare variant CJD found in humans."

Personally, I can't say that I am feeling the trust these days.

Four cases in 5 months? The average is apparently only one case out of 1 million people, over an entire year. Something is definitely 'up' in Ft. Wayne.

And by the way, did you know that the Department of Agriculture is only testing %1 of the meat we eat - in spite of the fact that several known cases of mad cow disease have already been found in the U.S.?

And now they are trying to keep anyone from testing more than 1%. What are they afraid will come to light with more extensive testing?

This is a recipe for disaster.

I'll bet hardly anyone knows that:

Three cases of mad cow disease have been found in the United States. The first, in December 2003 in Washington state, was in a cow that had been imported from Canada. The second, in 2005, was in a cow born in Texas. The third was confirmed last year in an Alabama cow.

The Consumer's Union is covering this on their website. Another must-read site for further information -- Mad Cow Disease: Is the USDA covering up an epidemic?

Mainstream media has been failing to do its job. It takes years for this disease to show up, and without any real and ethical oversight under the Bush Administration, we are sitting ducks.

Killing us softly, Pt. 2

Breaking news from PetConnection blogger, Christie Keith, out on Daily Kos. And here I thought I was actually on top of this FDA, melamine, poisoned food, deadly drug, Chinese tainted disaster. Not hardly. They're way, way ahead of me.

It would seem that the FDA today announced that Tembec, an Ohio-based company, has been adding melamine and related compounds to an ingredient used to make fish, shrimp, cattle, sheep, and goat feed.

Yes, this is an AMERICAN company adding melamine to animal feed. Seriously! Apparently this feed has have been sold internationally as well as domestically. So now other countries will be forced to recall American food.

Feeling proud? You betcha.

And we truly think our corporations are any less creepy than the Chinese? Hey - the Chinese actually sentenced the head of their FDA to death. We can't even impeach... oh never mind.

I'll let Christie Keith tell you about the strange media blackout that followed:

Wed May 30, 2007 at 06:46:33 PM EDT


On May 22, the FDA suspended its until-then twice-weekly media conferences on the melamine contamination investigation, saying there was nothing new to report and they’d let us know when there was.

The night before they suspended the media conferences because there was nothing new to report, UC Davis had found melamine in a previously unrecalled pet food. FDA did subsequently issue a recall notice for this food, although they had not at the time they canceled the media conferences.

On the very day they canceled the media conferences because there was nothing new to report, a news story broke that the FDA’s own labs found melamine in catfish submitted by the state of Arkansas for testing, which was meant for human consumption. That catfish had been imported from China.

This was the first time melamine was detected in food meant for human consumption, but there still has been almost zero coverage of this in the mainstream media. Would there have been if the media conferences hadn’t been canceled?

Still wonder who the media is really working for? Democracy? Oversight? Anyone?

Christie Keith continues:

Now we find out that four days before canceling the ongoing press conferences because there was nothing new to report, on May 18, FDA learned that a US company had been adding melamine to its binding agent, which is used to make commercial fish and shrimp feed as well as livestock feed for cattle, goats, and sheep — not only in the US, but we’ve been exporting this stuff.

Some of the reporters at the media conference sounded pretty aggravated -- I especially liked the guy from the Washington Times who kept pushing for "FDA food safety czar" David Acheson to share how he felt, really felt, about the food safety official in China who just got the death penalty, and ABC News' David Kerley was absolutely relentless with his questions -- but I still want to know, where the hell has the legacy media been since the press conferences got canceled?

Not only have we been reporting these things on PetConnection -- a freaking PET BLOG, albeit one run by nationally syndicated columnists who are actual reporters, but still -- but I posted about the catfish here on DKos last Tuesday. David Goldstein has been posting about this on horsesass.org, too. It's not like there isn't a story here. It's not like the media doesn't have this story. But literally overnight, the minute FDA stops holding press conferences, it all just stopped.

Of course it stopped. My God, imagine if this one got out. Americans might (gulp) stop trusting their Bushie government...

Beam me up Scottie. This is getting beyond belief.

Killing us softly

Wonder why people are suddenly starting to get sick from the food? I mean, isn't the FDA supposed to be protecting us?

Well it used to be that way... before Bush stuffed the agency full of necon cronies bent on undermining any 'oversight' of business interests. Better get used to it... this is the 'Reagan way.'

On June 6, 2007, Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will haul in Andrew von Eschenbach to testify on why the FDA failed to warn Americans of the extreme cardiovascular danger and increased risk of death from taking Avandia, a $3 billion-a-year blockbuster diabetes drug made by GlaxoSmithKline. Statistics that were primarily obtained from GlaxoSmithKline's own research data predict that 35,000 people needlessly died taking Avandia last year and the FDA was fully aware of the risks and chose to ignore them.

Who is Andrew von Eschenbach?

Andrew von Eschenbach has never hidden his agenda; it is more an issue that people simply aren't paying attention. The top priority of the FDA is now the von Eschenbach dream, which is to bring new biotech drugs to the market with far less safety or effectiveness testing and then conduct experiments on individuals as the drugs are used in clinical practice. This effort is called the Critical Path Initiative and it will take a giant step forward should the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA come into existence as proposed in Senate bill S.1082. Von Eschenbach has stated that this is the very top priority of the FDA for many years to come (not food or drug safety).

Here is a really freaky story. Hamburger, anyone?

WASHINGTON: The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

Nice, huh? There's more...

A contact-lens solution made by Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc. has been linked to a serious eye infection that can lead to blindness, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website Friday.

And how about this one:

Toxic fish bought at North Side shop:
Chicago Tribune

The frozen fish consumed by a Chicago couple containing a potent toxin found in puffer fish was purchased at a North Side Asian grocery, officials said Friday.

Officials declined to name the store that sold the fish. The California-based distributor announced a recall Thursday of thousands of pounds of fish.

The fish, imported from China, was labeled monkfish, but the Food and Drug Administration found life-threatening levels of tetrodotoxin, a substance found in puffer fish that can cause paralysis or death.

Who loves ya baby?

The Bush Administration and their 'new and improved' FDA, that's who. All business, all profits, all the time.

Go go capitalism! God bless America!

(Just don't eat the food...)

Happens every day

We may have won the Cold War, but we're sure as hell losing the trade war.

It appears that tainted food imports from China are actually quite common. As in, it happens all the time.

Who knew? Heh - you can bet the FDA knew, they just didn't bother to tell the sucker American consumers.

Feel safe?

Seriously -- we're supposed to be afraid of isolated terrorist attacks, while every day, American businesses are importing poisoned ingredients from Chinese food suppliers and lacing them indiscriminately throughout our food chain?

I think its high time we picked a new definition of 'terrorism.'

It would seem that our economy is now so dependent on these Chinese imports that we can't do anything about this problem. According to Carol Tucker Foreman, a former assistant secretary of agriculture:

"Our farmers and food processors have drooled for years to be able to sell their food to that massive market," Foreman said. "The Chinese counterfeit. They have a serious piracy problem. But we put up with it because we want to sell to them."

At first glance, it seems rather odd that our government has forgotten that they are dealing with a communist nation governed by brutal dictators: guys that have basically wanted us dead, for generations. How shocking -- they're cheating us! (You should see what they did to Tibet.)

I have nothing at all against Chinese people. I do have some issues with their government.

Once upon a time, we actually disliked communism. Remember all of those foreign wars (via other countries -- Korea, Vietnam?) Most living Americans over the age of 30 were raised to believe that communists can't be trusted to have the same ethics that we do. That communism was bad. Evil, even.

Then someone figured out that we could make a whole lot of money by trading with them. Voila! Suddenly the Cold War was over, and communism was OK! (Well, except for Cuba of course.)

Turns out that our government was right in one respect: the Chinese really aren't any less ethical than our own corporations. Either side will happily sell us out for a yen.

Too bad our government didn't think of this 'trade thing' before all of those people died in the Vietnam war. I guess we were 'fighting them over there, so we wouldn't have to fight them over here.'

Now we're fighting them here - and they're poisoning us, apparently without remorse. This may not be as dramatic as flying airplanes into the World Trade Towers, but nevertheless quite effective. Ask any pet owner if they feel 'terrorized' right now. And we're even paying them to do it to us.

Tainted Chinese Imports Common
In Four Months, FDA Refused 298 Shipments

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 20, 2007; A01

Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.

Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics.

Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.

Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.

For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught -- many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.

Nice of our FDA to tell us about all of this, don't you think? And now we find out that this has been going on for years.

Should we be wondering if there is asbestos in our styrofoam pots, and cyanide in baby teething rings? My God - nearly everything we buy now is made in China. Just how poisoned are we?

China and the FDA come clean, sorta

China finally admitted that two companies illegally exported contaminated wheat gluten and rice protein to the U.S., supposedly to keep up with demand for higher protein levels in the products.

Meanwhile, the FDA has now admitted that a few more than '16 confirmed deaths' have resulted from tainted pet food.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it has received about 17,000 complaints of sick pets, with about 4,000 deaths reported. Investigations have extended to livestock feed containing tainted pet food that made its way to some 6,000 hogs and as many as 3.1 million chickens.

That's closer to the truth. Its not like the pet owners, desperately checking the web every day for updates, didn't know how high the numbers were climbing. It was past time for the FDA to come clean as well. This is a mess.

China had denied FDA assertions that melamine, a chemical used in plastics and fertilizer, had been added to wheat gluten and rice protein exported from China for pet foods. But Xinhua state news agency reversed the official position.

"The two companies illegally added melamine...in a bid to meet the contractual demand for the amount of protein in the products," Xinhua said, quoting the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

The Administration said the two companies, named by the FDA as Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd. and Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd, evaded quality checks by labeling their products as exports not subject to inspection.

What do Indiana markets have in common with Baghdad?

It appears food isn't very safe here either.

We may not have any exploding IEDs behind the squash cart, but better not buy the chicken...

At least 2.5 million broiler chickens from an Indiana producer were fed pet food scraps contaminated with the chemical melamine and subsequently sold for human consumption, federal health officials reported yesterday.

Hundreds of other producers may have similarly sold an unknown amount of contaminated poultry in recent months, they added, painting a picture of much broader consumption of contaminated feed and food than had previously been acknowledged in the widening pet food scandal.

Well at least this pet food thing has been upgraded to a 'widening scandal.' It certainly looked and smelled like a scandal to me - along with the FDA's assertions that only 16 animals died (uh huh.) There are claims that over 4000 pets actually died... but who ya gonna believe? (The government: NOT.)

Meanwhile the FDA is assuring everyone - not to worry! (Only 16 people...)

"We do not believe there is any significant threat of human illness from this," said David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's chief medical officer. FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach named Acheson yesterday the agency's new "food czar" -- officially, assistant commissioner for food protection.

A food czar? What's with all of the czars lately? We'd just like our plain old FDA back please - you know, the old one: the FDA that used to look out for the well-being of the populace rather than just protect the interests of big business. (That FDA.)

What on earth can I feed my pets?

An open letter to my Senators. FIX IT.

Dear Senators Lugar and Bayh:

We have four animals: 2 older cats, an aging, beloved dog and a younger, feisty Brittany spaniel that we rescued from the side of the road in 2000. We have no children, so this is our family. They sleep with us (well, the cats do,) and are our daily companions. It is our responsibility to protect them, provide good health care, good nutritious food, and exercise. We take our responsibility very seriously... but right now, we are completely paralyzed.

Every day more and more animal foods - and now biscuits - are being added to the food recall, as pets all over the country are dying. The FDA has fielded 12,000 complaints in three weeks!

My cats are on a Hills prescription diet (one of them has bad kidneys,) and cannot eat any other food. We already survived that cold stab of fear in our stomachs when we saw that one Hills dried (prescription) food was recalled - so far their special diet food is considered safe. But for how long? Every day, it changes. We are also afraid to buy their favorite 'Greenies' because now dog biscuits are being recalled.

One company is apparently responsible for the distribution of ALL pet food in the United States! How on earth could this be a good idea - a safe idea for consumers? I am sure its terrific from a business perspective, but this nation is made up of people -- not simply businesses!

What on earth has happened to our FDA? I know what has happened to our EPA... it was 'privatized, ' meaning that the 'fox is now guarding the hen coop,' and representatives of the companies being regulated are now in charge of regulating themselves. As you can imagine (especially after Katrina,) this does not inspire confidence. What is happening all across the nation with our pet products is outrageous and unacceptable in America. We count on our government to regulate business and protect us, and this includes our beloved pets.

We trusted you!!

I have no idea what to feed our dogs or cats... I dread going to the store to buy more dog food. I won't buy their Greenies at all until this has passed (if it ever passes.) I know my entire family is going through the same confusion, as are my friends. This is... a very, very large bloc of voters. You can call us the 'pet owner' vote. And you can't imagine how angry we are... unless you have pets of your own.

Our trust is gone. And these days, we are finding it harder and harder to trust our government, our regulatory commissions and any other agency diluted and infiltrated by the Bush administration. Its FEMA all over again. This is not America... this is not how we do things here. This would never have happened under Reagan, Bush Sr, or any other American president in history. This is a nation of the people -- not of big corporations with the people as 'customer/victims. '

I am asking you to please do something about this. Please exercise your oversight and join Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in demanding that oversight be returned to our pets' food - and while you are at it, our own food.

Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is Senate majority whip, said he would hold an oversight hearing on the FDA's response perhaps as early as next week.

"The system broke down," he said. "It's not just about contaminated food killing pets, it's a system that failed." Menu Foods "felt no sense of urgency" to publicly raise an alarm when it first became aware of a potential problem Feb. 20, Durbin said.

This time it is our beloved pets... the next bell will toll for us.

Thank you.

Additional links:

• Officials say 38 Oregon pet deaths could be tied to recall
• Anger Grows Over Tainted Pet Food
• PetConnection.com Update, 4/6: 3,242 pets have been reported as deceased into our Pet Connection database
  
• Nervous Owners Seek Answers: No Centralized Database Exists for Vets to Report Sick Animals
  
• China firm denies role in pet deaths food scare
  
• The Entire FDA Recall List (so far...)
  
• For Cat Food
  
• For Dog Food
  
• Pet Food Recall Expands as Senator Announces Hearings on FDA Investigation
  
• Menu Foods Pet Recall List (ridiculously long)
• Pet food recall expands to food made in November
• Pet Food Recall Gets Bigger
• Pet food recall covers many brands
  
• Pet Food Recall Expansion, Class Action Lawsuit Arises From Recall
• Some Del Monte, Nestle Purina products targets of pet food recall
• Pet Food Recall: Recent Dog Food and Cat Pet Food Recall Summary 9
• Wal-Mart Dog Treats Join Pet Food Recall
• Home-cooking for area pets
• Alarmed pet owners resort to making their own pet food
• Pet Food Recall Prompts Cat & Dog Pet Owners To Make Own Pet Food
• CNN Video: Watch how toxic food was traced to China (I heard on the radio today that they are now insisting the harmful gluten wasn't even from China!)
• Pet food recall lingers on - now 100 brands
• Recall helps Indiana pet food maker
  
• Pet Food Recall: PETA Warns That Dry Food at Risk From Vitamin D-3
• FDA Issues Warning To Recall More Pet Food For Salmonella Outbreak
  
• Chinese government discusses pet food recall for first time
• What to do if you think your pet is sick