This whole pet food scare is so strange to me.

[Dover]

Rat poisoning? Was it sabotage?

I also wonder if this crisis is being studied for how the public might respond to the contamination of their own food supply? What would you do if a major food manufacturer went through a similar situation? Thought about it?

I know we've had recalls with meat, baby formulas, spinach, etc. and constant issues with salmonella, mercury poisoning and other pollutants, to name just a few.

So is the food industry decentralized enough to prevent a similar scenario?

[Double T]

1. Don't kid yourself; we're next on corporate america's poisoning menu.

[Eric J in MN]

2. The rat poison on the wheat was to kill rats who eat the wheat.

Apparently, that's considered acceptable in China.

[Dover]

3. So somehow it got integrated into the pet food supply without being tested along the way? n/t

[MadMaddie]

5. Ding, Ding, Ding...the same controls we have in the US

to monitor and inspect food is not applied in the same manner to these countries that we are trading with.

[kestrel91316]

6. If this is indeed what happened, and I suspect it is, then it is probably

a case of China ONCE AGAIN using SEED grain in the food supply. Feed grain would not have rat poison in it because it would poison any mammal who ingested it.

China has a bad track record of keeping treated seed out of its own food supply. I can't find a reference, but I know I have read of it in a reputable source recently.

Aminopterin is illegal in the US as a rodenticide. We need pet food ingredients to be labeled as to country of origin, or at least pressure manufacturers to use safer, more regulated countries of origin.

I would never knowingly eat imported ANYTHING from China after this, nor do I wish my pets or patients to.

[MadMaddie]

4. Good Questions...

Apparantly the NAFTA, CAFTA and all of those other bullshit bills are directly or indirectly responsible for this. One of the ingredients came from China...China still uses this particular pesticide on the farms crops for rat control....it gets sent to the Central producer in the US as you have mentioned and wala...you have a huge crisis.

What would have prevented this?

I am of the school of thought that our family farms and other farms are a part of the US infrastructure and should be protected because food supply is vulnerable. We should empower our states to make sure that each state can produce whatever crop that they are able to.

1. If we are cuttoff from the world, each state can feed it's population.
2. If the producers are decentralized then the possibility of massive human poisening is reduced...

Huge problem.

[libertypirate]

7. Single points of failure always worry me

Specifically when media and news is used to constantly contrive what we know, see, and think.

Since most people still believe that in the rock paper scissors world of construction fire beats steel.

Do you remember Islamo-fascists?


You can make people do anything when you keep them afraid...


Fear-Fear-Fear at the heart of your freedom, how free do you think when you are afraid?

How many people won't go swim in the ocean? I don't even have to reference the movie that caused that irrational fear we all know...

Fear the quickest way to get people to limit their own choices, ah self control in America.

[WinkyDink]

8. Ha! I just remembered: Last fall I went to a taping of "The Martha Stewart Show".

A segment was on the Chinese New Year, and MS gave to every audience member a "good luck" egg cake (a cake with a hard-boiled egg in it) from CHINA (she had staffers find them in NY's Chinatown).

I'm glad I didn't take one.

[Bitwit1234]

9. Why do we import wheat from another country???

We grown enough wheat in this country....It is terrible that this happened.

[loudsue]

10. It's strange to me, too, Dover. The stuff has poisoned THOUSANDS

of people's pets, and the media is not exactly "getting it" that their OWN meals could end up poisoned the very same way. You'd think that at some point, their own survival instincts would kick in somewhere.

I've really been worried about some of the pesticides that are coming in on people food, as well, but the republicans have TOTALLY dismantled, or crippled, the FDA, the EPA, and the other protections that Dems fought really hard to get passed 3 decades ago. Last I heard about 4 years ago, there were only around 83 investigators positions budgeted for the EPA -- for the whole country. If you don't staff a government agency charged with keeping our food and water safe, then you may as well not even have any safeguards.

As long as there's a profit coming to a corporation, who might in turn buy some campaign donations (bribes), republicans don't give a rat poison if their own kids die off...

For all we know, this could have been done by Al Qaida as a test run on how the government responds to attacks on the food supply. (I don't think it was, I'm just sayin... ) .

People's pets in America are often every bit as important as family members, and there are a whole bunch of bereaved families right now, trying to adjust to the loss of one of their own. And I just haven't seen the proper amount of outrage in the media. What planet are these "news" shows from? This is a whole lot more important than Michael Jackson's new robot, fer crissake.

:kick:

[Dover]

12. Do my eyes deceive me? Is it really loudsue?! Haven't seen you in a coons age.

Don't know if I've just not seen your posts or if you've come out of retirement/hiding. But it's so good to see ya!

And I, of course, agree with everything you said. No one is looking out for the people anymore. That is the hallmark of corporatism and 'for profit' amoralism.

[loudsue]

13. Out of retirement! Well, more like IN retirement.

I was out of state on a project for about a year, working 24/7, and when I got back I was on dialup, so I didn't get online much. Now, I'm on high speed internet, and I'M HOME!!! :applause: So, yeah, I've been posting a little for the past week.

Thanks for the 'howdy'! It's good to be back, and it's so good to see you're still here, too! :grouphug:

I'm also glad you started this thread: it has really been strange about this pet food ordeal. It's just so wrong on so many levels!

sooo....I'm kickin' it back up there!


:kick::kick::kick::kick:

[earth mom]

11. The bottom line is the government does NOT care about it.

Between poisoning infants with mercury laced vaccines and then allowing the pharma giants responsible to go scot free...AND mad cow which cows are NOT being tested for...AND the peanut butter scare a short while ago...TO this poisoning of peoples beloved pets...Well....I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they don't give a damn.

It's greed and profits before everything or anyone ya'll! You can take that to the bank!

:grr:

:tinfoilhat: