Coming soon maybe to a grocery store near you — chicken from China.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ruled recently that poultry processed in China can be sold in the United States. But first the birds must be born and raised in the U.S., Canada or Chile. Then they’re exported to China before being shipped back to the Americas.
Food-safety experts worry about the quality of chicken processed in a country notorious for avian influenza and food-borne illnesses. And they predict China will eventually seek to broaden the export rules to allow chickens born and raised there.
“I’ve never been to China, but my impression is it’s very polluted and the food isn’t always safe,” said Annie Hall, shopping recently at a Kroger’s supermarket in Atlanta. “We’ve got chicken farming and processing plants right up the road on I-85. We have enough here already. It doesn’t make sense to ship chickens all over the world.”
Poultry officials in Georgia — the nation’s top broiler producer — say food-safety fears are overblown. They don’t expect a deluge of imported Chinese chickens.
Access to the American market is the quid pro quo, though, for a hoped-for explosion of exports to China.
“Believe it or not, it’s something we’ve been pushing for as an industry for several years,” said Jim Sumner, president of the Stone Mountain, Ga.-based USA Poultry and Egg Export Council. China “is one of our largest export markets and has the potential, by far, to be our largest market, and we don’t want to risk upsetting them.”
Food is just the latest commodity to succumb to globalization.
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2022117749_chickenchinaxml.html
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