McClatchy: USDA may allow China to import chickens to U.S.

[Pirate Smile]

USDA may allow China to import chickens to U.S.

By David Goldstein
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to allow China, where 14 people have died of bird flu since 2003, to sell chicken to the United States.

The agency is drafting a rule that would permit China to export cooked poultry to Americans, even though public health officials have been warning for several years about a potential avian influenza pandemic.

Food safety watchdog groups are alarmed, but U.S. poultry producers, who would be facing new competition, are generally keeping mum. Some believe that the proposed rule could be a bargaining chip to get the Chinese to drop a ban on U.S. beef imports that they imposed after a case of mad-cow disease in 2003.

The World Health Organization has said that chicken and other poultry are safe to eat when cooked at the proper temperatures. USDA spokesman Steven Cohen said that since the exported chicken would be cooked, there'd be no risk to public health.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16665792.htm

[kurth]

1. Hmmm... How would you know if it's chicken

instead of something that tastes like chicken?

[nealmhughes]

2. OK, cooked chicken...

My God you can't even carry Montreal Smoked Meat over the border with you from Quebec into Vermont on the train without getting busted!

Yes, I am a known pastrami smuggler. Luckily my car was able to help me eat it all before we reached White River Junction...

[MadMaddie]

3. um..why would we be importing chickens...don't we have

chicken farmers...so how many American farmers will this put out of business?

At what point does the American citizen and it's infrastructure industries like farming get protected from this importing bullshit. We are importing more than we are exporting which means America is losing in the long run.....

Oh wait I answered my own question these industries will become important to protect when we have a Democratic president.....sigh...it's going to be a long two years. Unless a miracle happens.....:beer:

[baldguy]

4. Why?

Can't America grow enough chickens for ourselves? Is there a "Great Chicken Shortage" going on? Are McNuggets a premium menu item now?

[salin]

18. to get the Chinese to lift their ban on US beef

while preventing efforts of small beef operations in the US to test all of their cattle for madcow (USDA prohibited those efforts because it might put too much pressure on big beef operations to do the same and the big boys don't want to spend the dough.) Seems that the USDA is still out for protecting big beef over protecting health of the american public.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. Thanks, but I prefer my avian flu home-grown.

[MadMaddie]

6. Bwah...haw..haw....home grown....I like that...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[zann725]

7. Wasn't it chickens in Asia that most often carried/developed "Bird Flu?"

n/t

[originalpckelly]

8. GODDAMN FUCKING IDIOTS! The recent UK Bird Flu outbreak is thought to have come...

from turkeys imported to the UK from Hungary.

That might signal a way for this to hurt us.

[Trillo]

15. Nice Reply. Where's Homeland Security?

Out feeding the birds, I guess.

[colorado_ufo]

23. Homeland Security?

Guess they chickened out.

Tish-BOOM!

[roamer65]

9. Great way to bring bird flu to North America...Geez.

:eyes:

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. Tyson is not going to be happy.

[MadHound]

11. Tyson may be actually pushing this one.

After all, the can trash Chinese farmland with impunity, and literally pay slave wages. While here in the US they're starting to have to pay out money for the enviromental damage that they've done and are having massive busts for illegal immigrants that they could be paying some very big bucks for. With the savings on fines and lawsuits they can cut costs, pass on the shipping costs to the consumer and still make a higher profit.

I think I'll continue to get my chicken from my neighbors.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Is the bird flu worth the risk?

Tyson will be wiped out if Chinese poultry are the main vector.

[wickerwoman]

19. Bird flu exists in wild flocks.

The main vector is migrating wild birds, not Chinese domestic poultry. And most of the transmissions of bird flu from poultry to humans has been in Vietnam, not it China.

That being said, this is still lousy news... Chinese poultry farmers buy expired antibotics intended for humans and feed them to their flocks because they can't afford the real stuff.

There's virtually no oversight of this kind of thing. Bird flu is the last of your worries eating chicken from China.

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. How can the FDA approve this?

Oh, that's right. Bush is still in the executive office.

[buddysmellgood]

13. What a great idea! Raise chickens on the other side of the planet and then ship

them here to eat! Then we can raise our chickens and send them over to China, where they will burn them to produce energy to fuel the boats that bring us more chickens! It can't fail! It's too brilliant.

[lovuian]

14. This is Your government at work NOT protecting you

:argh:

[JDPriestly]

16. Chicken is affordable. We don't need cheap Chinese chicken

considering the dangers. This is just a way to cater to Bush financial supporters. Edit to clarify: This sounds like it is a proposal by some big corporate investors, and I suspect that the game in the Bush administration is to buy into such ideas when they are proposed by big donors.

[confludemocrat]

17. Ah Yes, Walmart strikes again

getting what they want. And don't think they haven't weighed this against the Tyson/Arkansas connection.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

21. how do you import to? isn't it called EXPORT?

just asking.

[Zero Division]

25. I had the same thought myself.

[scarletlib]

22. you know this is just insane

aside from the fact that the risk of disease is increased (and how do you know that meat is really chicken?) what is really the point? we can grow plenty of chickens here in the U.S. Its just another way to drive down wages and put ordinary working people out of jobs.

What part of our industrial/agricultural base will be left after all of this? How can we call ourselves a 'great nation' much less a nation at all when we no longer have the means to support ourselves with the things we make ourselves?

It's just too f**king much.

[kineneb]

24. looks like time to start a "locally grown" campaign

rather like the "California Grown" campaign from the CDFA. And an education program about the origins of your food. I certainly don't want to eat foreign raised chicken, cooked or not.

Remember folks, read those labels!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. if the chinese use fewer antibiotics and other nasties,

I for one will love eating their bird.