Stop Importing Food From China

The United States can’t safely import food from China and should only allow imports from that country if the foods are certified by the Chinese government as safe, House Energy and Commerce Committee investigators testified Thursday. The melamine-tainted products that entered the United States from China earlier this year and killed hundreds of cats and dogs lacked that certification but FDA procedures didn’t require agency inspectors to look for it, one of the investigators told a House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing.

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The Organic-Industrial Complex

(article is from June 2001)

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It turns out the Cascadian Farm pictured on my TV dinner is a real farm in Rockport, Wash., that grows real food. Originally called the New Cascadian Survival and Reclamation Project, the farm was started in 1971 by Gene Kahn with the idea of growing food for the collective of environmentally minded hippies. At the time, Kahn was a 24-year-old grad-school dropout from the South Side of Chicago who, after reading "Silent Spring" and "Diet for a Small Planet," determined to go back to the land, there to change "the food system." He went on to become a pioneer of the organic movement and did much to move organic food into the mainstream.

Today, Cascadian Farm's farm is a General Mills showcase — "a PR farm," as its founder freely acknowledges — and Kahn, erstwhile hippie farmer, is a General Mills vice president and a millionaire. He has become one of the most successful figures in the organic community and also perhaps one of the most polarizing; for to many organic farmers and activists, he has come to symbolize the takeover of the movement by agribusiness.

U.S. Organic Companies Are Importing More & More Organic Foods from Overseas--Undercutting U.S. Farmers

A major U.S. organic grain supplier, Clarkson Grain Co. of Cerro Gordo, Ill., has lost 25 percent of its soybean business during the past year because of surging imports from China and South America.

U.S. farmers "will lose their markets overwhelmingly if they don't meet this competition," said the grain company's president, Lynn Clarkson.

One of the most popular brands of organic soy milk, Silk, is now made in part with imported soybeans.

Organic Valley, a Wisconsin-based farmer cooperative, imports some of its beef from Australia.

Cascadian Farm, a major name in organic frozen produce that started out buying commodities in the Pacific Northwest, now buys many of its fruits and vegetables from overseas.

According to package labels, the broccoli is from Mexico, the asparagus from China, the green peas from New Zealand, and the cherries and raspberries from Chile. Even the California-style vegetable mix isn't entirely American; some of the veggies originate in China.

Where does your food come from?

That loaf of Sara Lee bread on the grocery shelf in San Jose was made with flour from U.S. wheat. But the Illinois-based food giant uses honey and vitamin supplements from China.

While Paul Newman's daughter uses California figs in cookies made by her Aptos organic food company, she turns to Mexico and Austria for other ingredients.

And even though a Procter & Gamble spokeswoman described Crest toothpaste "as a truly American product," it uses additives from China and Finland.

Recent reports of tainted imports from China have focused new attention on a little-known trend: In today's global economy, more food items are being produced in this country with some ingredients from other lands. But the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all food imports - and that means consumers must trust food makers to guarantee the safety of their products.

"It's not just the stuff that says `Made in China.' It's the stuff in the stuff that says `Made in the USA,' " said Elisa Odabashian of Consumers Union, a non-profit consumer advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. "We're importing more and more of our food and we're inspecting almost none of it."

William Hubbard, a former Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner who is advocating for a beefed-up food safety system in the United States, agreed.

"It's not which foods contain these ingredients, but which foods don't contain them," he said.

You may not know it from the label. Food makers aren't required to disclose the source of what goes into most products.

Some major food makers won't even talk about it. Campbell's and Kraft use ingredients from around the world, although representatives there refused to say which countries supply them.

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Organic Food, with a Side of Pesticides

In 2005, China's organic food exports totaled $350 million--more than double compared to the year before. But questions about whether or not its really organic is on the rise.

This is especially true after the numerous, recent scandals over tainted food products, deadly pet food ingredients, toxic toothpaste and fake medicines made in China.

Fraud is a widespread problem, and China's organic food market is chaotic, say organic farm owners. According to Liu Lei, secretary of the Association of Green Development (a Chinese trade group for organic farmers), many small companies sell produce grown with pesticides and chemical fertilizers as organic.

Since true organic produce does not travel well, most of the fresh fruits and vegetables are sold to closer markets, such as Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But plenty of it still ends up on your food plate here in the United States.

Organic soybeans, rice and other grains, frozen vegetables, and fruit concentrates are commonly imported from China.

Wal-Mart got caught in the mislabeled organic scam last year, after a surprise inspection revealed their "organic" vegetables were tainted with pesticides. Since then Wal-Mart's organic standards have come under scrutiny again for a variety of mislabeled "organic" food products.

Some American companies are now beginning to take charge of their own organic certification, dispatching their own people to verify the farming and manufacturing practices of their Chinese producers.
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