Feds Want To Allow Lots Of Chinese Chicken Imports - No Country-Of-Origin Labeling Required

WASHINGTON -- In China, some farmers try to maximize the output from their small plots by flooding produce with unapproved pesticides, pumping livestock with antibiotics banned in the United States, and using human feces as fertilizer to boost soil productivity. But the questionable practices don't end there: Chicken pens are frequently suspended over ponds where seafood is raised, recycling chicken waste as a food source for seafood, according to a leading food safety expert who served as a federal adviser to the Food and Drug Administration.

China's suspect agricultural practices could soon affect American consumers. Federal authorities are working on a proposal to allow chickens raised, slaughtered, and cooked in China to be sold here, and under current regulations, store labels do not have to indicate the meat's origin.

According to the US Department of Agriculture , China's top agricultural export goal is opening the US market to its cooked chickens. Representative Rosa DeLauro , who is fighting the change, says China does not deserve entry to the coveted, closed poultry market.

Agricultural exports from China to the United States ballooned from $1 billion in 2002 to nearly $2.3 billion in 2006 , according to the US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service . DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut and chairwoman of a US House agricultural subcommittee , said Congress should signal its willingness to restrict imports from China until it improves food safety oversight. "There is deception. There is lax regulation, and they've got unsanitary conditions," DeLauro said. "They need to hear from us they're at risk. Congress has to look at limiting some of their agricultural imports."

EDIT

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/05/09/chicken_from_china/

poison the poor.

voluntarily state country of origin, and even state of origin. the local foods movement is just getting started and it's going to leave the organic movement in the dust.

People have had quite enough of imported food disasters and Chinese dishonesty.

The dishonesty and greed isn't limited to the Chinese who sell the stuff but our American manufacturers and retailers who resell it.

I read your posts carefully and diligently during the pet food recalls. Remember, there was coverup all over as animals continued to die, thanks to American and Canadian dishonesty from the FDA down to the shift supervisor at Wal-Mart.

The problem is systemic, us AND them. Please don't limit it to an oh-so-easy-to-turn-into-racism-when-other-people-read-it disparaging characterization of Chinese people.

This makes NO SENSE! We have a huge trade deficit with China and why would they need to send chickens to us when we already have massive chicken factories here in the US? With their huge population why would they need to export chickens at all? :eyes:

I can't understand this at all. Except that INSANE people are now filling the whole US Govt.

This makes NO SENSE! We have a huge trade deficit with China and why would they need to send chickens to us when we already have massive chicken factories here in the US? With their huge population why would they need to export chickens ? :eyes:

I can't understand this at all. Except that INSANE people are now filling the whole US Govt.

... But somehow this administration manages to do that.

Why does anyone want to change that?

:puke: No. I really don't want to know.

:kick:

If Stephen King had written the plot ten years ago, they would have said his best days as a writer were over.

"...using human feces as fertilizer to boost soil productivity"

I lived in China for 2 years. I saw many farmers do this. They have outhouses and all the family's ... waste goes into a lagoon. Its a liquid slurry extremely high in organic nitrogen (as opposed the ammonium-salt, synthetic fertilizers derived from petroleum). They move it in big buckets carried accros their shoulders and ladle a bit onto the base of each plant. I got sick ONCE in China. This technique has been used for thousands of years and the only real drawback has been overpopulation.

"But the questionable practices don't end there: Chicken pens are frequently suspended over ponds where seafood is raised, recycling chicken waste as a food source for seafood."

*GASP* Oh the horror! Recycling waste!!! Again, this is hysterics over nothing. Except for the accumulation of antibiotics force-fed to the chickens (which are largely unnecessary on a small, intensively managed farm), there is NOTHING harmful in chicken shit. The fish love it and the grass and algae too, which in turn feed more fish, chickens and ducks. China has TONS of problems: environmental, social, economic, labor standards, the list is endless. Using feces to grow crops is NOT one of them.

Whew, sorry for the long post but Im 1) a farmer 2) a fan of China and 3) the husband of a Chinese American.

:bounce: