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.

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.)