Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comSoapy milk, toxic apples: food safety in India
Seeded on Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:11 PM EST (msnbc.com)
— Filed under: health
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Oh dear god...if that's happening in India and China, one can only image what's happening here. As a lot of American food is imported from over-seas.
In the ever demanding quest for more profits, mo'money...they are committing murder.
Maybe we should handle things like the Chinese, don't even have to worry about feeding or housing, couple of cheap bullets will do ...... I think we really need stricter penalties, take someones life lose your own .....
Luckily for us, it's not happening here because the US has government regulations. If the conservatives have their way, this department will be cut because they want lower taxes.
sam_adams - Of course it's happening here, too. We imported melamine-laced pet food and infant formula, fungicidal OJ, we sold e-coli spinach, and on and on. Sometimes these things are caught before somebody gets hurt, other times these things get caught because somebody got hurt or died. We may have regulations but we also have an enforcement problem. I agree with you, the GOP would make things a lot worse in that respect.
NFIL- at least here we do something about it when people start getting sick. We figure out where exactly it came from, remove it from stores, and let people know to get rid of any they may have purchased.
If people really knew what was going on with the food supply here in America, there would be riots in the streets. We are being poisoned everyday for profit. Go educate yourselves. The health of our children and grandchildren depend on us. It's too late for us 40+. Watch the movie Food inc. and others to find out how the big food corps REALLY care how and what you eat. It's a joke, or it would be if it weren't so sad and criminal.
The FDA has approved a new chemical sweetener produced by Monsanto and has reportedly waved all requirements for product labeling. In other words, this new chemical—which some natural foods advocates say has toxicity properties—can be put in foods you buy, even organics, and the label does not have to inform you of it. One California local activist says,
Aspartame can step aside. There’s a new sweetener in town and it isn’t saddled with the inconvenience of having to be listed on labels, so it can be sneaked into any prepared food, even USDA so-called Organic. So sayeth the FDA. Neotame is a Monsanto-created chemical similar to Aspartame, including its neurotoxic properties. . . .
Neotame is now being marketed as Sweetos for use in cattle feed. Molasses has been utlized to get cows to eat foods made unpalatable by chemical additives. Neotame is both less costly than molasses and subject to fewer regulations. How do you like that? A natural food is more stringently regulated than a known-poisonous chemical that’s put into food.
The reach of Neotame is likely to be extensive. They’re planning to replace other artificial sweeteners with it. A major seller of artificial sweeteners, which goes by the misleading name of Ensigns Health Care Pvt Ltd, intends to use it in place of sucralose.
wow... you guys really should do some research. We have one of the SAFEST food suppiles in the world here in the USA. Yes, sometimes things go wrong and people get sick. I can tell you having worked in food production for the last decade that US companies do not intentionally adulterated your food. it is against the law. Does that mean the system is perfect and everything is perfect? No. But comparing our system to China or India is like comparing apples and oranges. Research HACCP and the New Food Safety Modernization Act that was passed.
Gee, Sarah, you really should get your head out of the sand...
http://www.ewg.org/health
Really, Sarah. Your term is a pretty relative one. You need to watch "Food, Inc." Cows, pigs and chickens fed antibiotics, sick animals slaughtered and mixed with healthy ones in supplying meat to grocery stores; fruit and vegetables laced with chemicals to make them grow bigger; e.coli and salmonella poisonings common...how can anyone call our food supply "Safe"?? And this doesn't even count the change in meat when we feed animals corn rather than allowing them to eat grass, etc. This process has been shown to change much of the meat supply from providing Omega-3 fats (healthy) to Omega-6 fats (unhealthy). Then there is High Fructose Corn Syrup in everything and Monsanto with all their "manufactured" food. I am continually amazed at how ignorant people can be. This is America...corporate lobbyists ensure things continue to provide profits to corporations with no thought for US, the CONSUMER.
@sam adams and @sara
Safe? Regulators? I think the port of LA has TWO (2) count them 2 food inspectors for the entire port. That means less than 1% of food imports are actually inspected.
The government under the Republicans and corrupt democrats has gone to "self-regulation."
HA! What a joke!
Almost as bad as the hormones given to pigs in the U.S. to add a few more pounds to them before they are sold ....
Many large U.S. food chains , ripen bananas with Ethylene Gas before shipping them to their outlet stores ....
Ethylene comes from Ethanol , which is a carcinogen ....
Do you realize that apples and other fruits NATURALLY produce Ethylene gas? Those brown spots on your bananas? They produce large amounts of ethylene gas of their own volition. This is why when you want fruit to ripen faster, you put it near apples or in a brown paper bag.... so the ethylene can build up and work.
Do you also realize that apples have (OMG!) cyanide in the seeds? A deadly toxin, which can easily be detoxified in small doses... not everything that sounds like it comes from a Chemistry textbook will kill you, and not every chemical which is related to a carcinogen is carcinogenic.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling that my comment will fall on deaf ears in this case.
"Unfortunately, I have a feeling that my comment will fall on deaf ears in this case"
NO it didn't but natural items like you described have no correlation to additives like Calcium Chloride or Melamine. This is greed driven inhumanity toward man, precisely what Regulations were made for: to protect us from the Sociopaths.
Gutting regulations is the Republicans way of letting Sociopaths out to play.
Ron Paul, sociopath in chief, for President in 2012!
Well, at least when it comes to this stuff.
There is an alternative to chemically altered food. Buy locally and in season. Buy beef, pigs, chickens from your local farmers who don't use chemicals. Have them butchered and stock your freezer. If you buy locally and in season, you not only get stuff in its original form, you support your local economy.
This will of course require some effort on your part. Not only will you have to locate sources, you'll have to learn how to prepare food.
Anyone who advocates less government, less regulation and banning of the EPA and FDA should re-read this article and shudder at the thought after reading this article. This is exactly what we would get if you got your wishes. If you think the hormones in pigs and pesticides in our orange juice are bad now, what do you think we'd get if we cut regulations? Do you really think corporate greed would not take advantage of that?
What we really need is an effective and de-politicised (good luck on that one!) FDA and EPA, and I know you'll scream when I say it - we need a lot more of it. Did you know that the FDA has so few border agents that they can only examine a few pieces of produce out of every twenty trucks that pass through our border with Mexico and it's a lot worse for food shipped in containers to our ports.
Wake up - this ain't our forefathers utopia and we need something to protect us - and the only thing big and powerful enough to do this is Government and regulation. Understand this, get over it, and work to make it more effective and less political.
As to "Bigbenalaska" - Ethanol - a carcinogen? ? ? Where did you get that one? Ethanol is what's in beer, wine and booze. Ethylene is a gas naturally given off by many fruits as they ripen, such as apples and tomatoes. Get the facts straight.
How very true, without regulations....profits would rule over the common good. One cannot just hope that industries will do the right thing, the United States history of slavery, child labor, mining safety problems and many other similar problems, are evidence that the greed will prevail over common sense of some unscrupulous people. Thank goodness for the EPA and the FDA and other agencies that make lives safer.
uncontrolled and unregulated greed will cause most in India to die off from cancers in the next 20 years...then they will have to outsource their workload to the USA...
Is that what they mean by the market working itself out? Yeah, we don't need no govmit interference in business.
Every Tea Bagger should buy themselves a one way ticket to somewhere with no gub'ment interfering in people's lives and see how well they like it. But then again, in India they'd have to actually tolerate diverse religious beliefs. Oh my!
They do not tolerate diversity. They kill each other in the name of their two primary religions. Also, there is a strong caste system. They actually consider the poor class "untouchable" and doctors have left women in labor to die on the street because they are "untouchable".
Before you blast away at REpublicans, get your facts and culture straight.
There's only one choice if you live in India--grow your own and buy a cow (eventually).
Cows are sacred and roam the streets. The water and air are so polluted, so what kind of "healthy" fruits and vegetables are they going to grow? No wonder I came back from India so sick and only ate cooked vegetables and rice.
No wonder I came back from India so sick and only ate cooked vegetables and rice.
Totally agree ! Same thing happened to me in Thailand, came back with the mother of all gastritis. Six months and 50 lost pounds later I'm slowly beginning to recover.
These Tea Baggers should get out more before imagining what's good for America. It's all there to see like a time machine. A good example are the Lepers crawling through black-water streets of Bangkok.
Is this what Conservatives want for America ?
Yes !
PandP & Nikki,
I think I'll visit India and/or Thailand. I need to loose fifty pounds. ;-)
Making light of a sad situation. Sorry.
Yeah. Voting in GOP/TP is a quick way to ruin. I'm not 100% for the Democrats but, over all, they make more sense than the Conservative Right.
This is not a surprise. India is a gorgeous country, with many honest and wonderful people, but it is also a country with just as many if not more dishonest and evil people, who enslave children and entire families in brick, tea or rice factories, who kidnap, sell and traffick people of all ages, especially young children for the sex slave "industry. It is a country where the caste system ,although now outlawed, is still practiced by many...the uneducated stay uneducated and under served, there is still honor killing and widow burning, and the government infrastructure either doesn't care enough or lacks the resources for societal reform. Truly sad, as the millions in India would of course love security and safety for children, young women and men and all ages, education, medical care, and safe food. Unfortunately, money talks and making a living and supporting a family, is what people do at all costs, even to harm others in the process. I do so hope that many of the upwardly mobile Indians and "upper caste" types, the newly educated and technologically savvy, would also become reformers and not ignore the social problems
this is the Koch bothers and the Republican dream state.
Dear Tea Baggers- Looks like your beloved, infallible free market is doing a great job maintaining food safety
India is also one of the world's largest manufacturers of ephedrine -- a drug used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. India shipped a record number of TONS of ephedrine to Mexico in 2011, and since Mexico has no drug tracking laws, that stuff is untraceable once it is off the ship. Now do you understand where all the drugs are coming from? India does not care how many Americans die from using methamphetamine, just as long as they get their CASH from the drug cartels for the illegal drugs they supply. India is NOT our friend, and they have nukes. China also helps supply ephedrine to Mexico -- and they have nukes, too. Do you see a pattern here?
I suspect the governments of India and China do not know the extent of the ephedrine that is sold to the drug cartels in Mexico. It is likely organized criminal types in those countries.
how you know mexicans arent pissing on the food that is picked and shiped here they probaly hate us and figured hey let me rubbed few apples under my balls and hope some american eats it.
I wash all my veg and fruit very well with water, don't you? And besides, urine is sterile, water not so much....lol
This is a little off-topic...but relevant I think:
My cousins and I were just 6 years old when we first played Monopoly (UK version)...too young to really understand the Rules to play the game. So we just played it like any other dice game. We all hoped to be the lucky ones to end up with the most expensive properties in the best locations. Then we charged the most outrageous rents (by putting up more houses or hotels, etc. than the rules allowed), so we could drive the other players out of business and buy up everything.
Do you see a pattern here? Capitalism unfettered, without sensible regulations, benefits the few who have the "best properties" and would punish or even drive the rest of us out of business.
The sad thing was that the game always ended, as soon as the luckiest player drives everyone else broke...GAME OVER.
I no longer shop eBay "almost all china made these days", i no longer shop Wal-mart, No do i purchase any items that say Made in china. I only purchase what i find that is american made yes i am paying more these days but i feel better inside perhaps cause i am not poisoned by toxic toothpaste and my kids are not sick and on deaths doors for playing with lead based toys from china. Or maybe it is just that i am standing up and saying i have had enough. Down with China and her products for life.
Don't just say, it spray it, help everyone to make the leap off the cheap crap products that china is poisoning the world with.
Where did you buy the USA-made computer you posted on?
UDunnoMuchBro....
She's talking tainted food and CHEAP products ! You know the stuff that lands in the trash a week after Christmas. I proudly use a China Macintosh and choose wisely for quality... and longevity. It's not like I bought a crap Dell or Acer or some other throwaway computer.
What are YOU typing on ?
Do you mean the Squishees at Kwiki mart aren't good for you?
This could easily happen here in the USA:
1. Conservative religious whackjob elected president.
2. Regulatory agencies dismantled. As you can read in the article, they cost businesses money!
3. Religious federal laws prevent birth control and promote out of control breeding.
4. USA is now West India.
It's been happening here for many years. Monsanto just introduced a new sweetener that will be going into our food and it will not have to be labeled or studied for toxicity. Thanks to our bought and paid for govt
I wonder what's the matter with the indians that they're so eager to rip themselves off.
And killing themselves at the same time. But not succeeding 'cause there are a LOT of them.
"A report by the FSSAI in January found that most of the country's milk was watered down or adulterated with products -- including fertilizer, bleach and detergent"
I was trying to make a snappy comeback to that one, but I can't beat it.
Just think this is what the republicans want the usa to be like, after all they are trying to kill off the fda.