Fresh markets sell poisoned food

[ExpatOilWorker]

14 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

 

I don't really think it's fair to condemn an entire country based on a scandal perpetrated by a few of its residents.  Several of the responsible people were executed and the country's dairy export market took a huge financial hit.  Show me a repeating pattern of such incidents and a government that takes no corrective measures, then I'll be concerned.

 

I think the Reagan Maxim of 'Trust but Verify' applies here.

 

The last sentence in the below article sums up China for me: Pointing to corn stalks growing beside syringes, he added: “We don’t eat these ourselves. We sell them to the market.”

 

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/12/26/asia-pacific/social-issues-asia-pacific/price-milk-chinas-giant-cow-farms-leave-neighbors-polluted-creek/#.WeWcHFuCzIU

[mtls2005]

1 hour ago, attrayant said:

"It must be true because I saw it on the Internet!"

 

When I mentioned the many, many, many news articles posted here on Thaivisa on pesticides, local health concerns, and issues which impact exports, I was specifically addressing the "defamation" issues which some raised early on in this thread. And not the 'truthfulness' of those dozens of articles.

 

Simply put, this topic has been covered extensively here without concerns of defamation. 

 

My advice for the OP would be to heed the Doctor in that old joke, and "don't do that" which negatively impacts your health.

 

 

[attrayant]

12 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

The last sentence in the below article sums up China for me: Pointing to corn stalks growing beside syringes, he added: “We don’t eat these ourselves. We sell them to the market.”

 

And that's where the 'verify' part comes in.  China is still very much a developing nation, especially its agriculture sector. It has nearly 20% of the world's population, so it's easy to hit a target that big.  That means you're going to find disproportionately higher levels of everything bad that can be blamed on humanity as a whole.  Until China gets serious about monitoring its agriculture and export sectors, we need to thoroughly inspect its exports and hold it accountable for its transgressions.

 

The other option is just let our imaginations run wild and think about all the scary things that could go wrong.  That's the precautionary principle taken to an absurd extreme.

[xylophone]

4 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

The sad part is, that every time you eat at a restaurant you probably do eat something from China. It is a competitive business and a sure way for restaurant owners to boost profits is to buy cheap products.

These days I don't eat at any Thai or Chinese type restaurants and any food of this type I cook myself with the ingredients which I source, however I know what you mean, as it's very difficult to get round the "non-Chinese produced food" mantra which I try to stick with.

 

I did notice some very cheap tins of peeled tomatoes and also of baked beans in the shops and a quick look at the back label showed that they were produced in China, so I didn't buy.

 

I was told by a Thai Chinese person here that the reason the Chinese stock their trolleys full of very cheap produce, which is readily available back in China, is because they really don't trust much of the food sold in that country, their own country!

 

A Chinese lady I have known for many 25 years and who goes back to her country regularly has told me a similar story.

[xylophone]

4 hours ago, attrayant said:

 

 

I don't really think it's fair to condemn an entire country based on a scandal perpetrated by a few of its residents.  Several of the responsible people were executed and the country's dairy export market took a huge financial hit.  Show me a repeating pattern of such incidents and a government that takes no corrective measures, then I'll be concerned.

 

I think the Reagan Maxim of 'Trust but Verify' applies here.

 

Nevertheless, I wouldn't trust China as far as I could throw it, as the saying goes. 

 

This especially when the people who were adding the melamine to the milk knew full well that much of it would be going into baby food, because it had the reputation of the New Zealand dairy industry behind it and Chinese people trust New Zealand and New Zealand produce and pay a much higher price for its dairy produce............if they can stoop this low, there's no telling where it stops.

 

Many Chinese people do not trust their own food source, so I certainly won't and I will go about my own sweet way of avoiding anything which emanates from that unscrupulous and uncaring country.

[Craig krup]

I'll always remember the scientist Steve Jones talking about chemical residues in food. He said that (for the EU at least) there was no evidence at all that the amounts allowed will do you any harm. However, the things that happen without pesticides and the like - like aflatoxins - are very serious: you get liver cancer. So, he said, "I'd avoid organic food like the plague" (IIRC). 

 

I work with people who wank on about organic food and then won't pause when you try to tell them why filling a kettle from the hot tap is a bad idea. The self-diagnose as gluten intolerant, and then spend a fortune on food which is probably harming them. All of our talk on "poison" is part of a "discourse" - a way of talking and thinking about the problem - and it often doesn't make much sense. 

[ExpatOilWorker]

2 hours ago, xylophone said:

These days I don't eat at any Thai or Chinese type restaurants and any food of this type I cook myself with the ingredients which I source, however I know what you mean, as it's very difficult to get round the "non-Chinese produced food" mantra which I try to stick with.

 

I did notice some very cheap tins of peeled tomatoes and also of baked beans in the shops and a quick look at the back label showed that they were produced in China, so I didn't buy.

 

I was told by a Thai Chinese person here that the reason the Chinese stock their trolleys full of very cheap produce, which is readily available back in China, is because they really don't trust much of the food sold in that country, their own country!

 

A Chinese lady I have known for many 25 years and who goes back to her country regularly has told me a similar story.

I somehow ended up on a LINE group for importers of wholesale food products. It is scary how much they bring in from China and once the original packaging is broke, you can't tell where it is from.

Lots of scallops, squid rings (calamaris), frozen fish, some kind of eatable worm and even prawns are all from China.

 

Edited October 17, 2017 by ExpatOilWorker

[xylophone]

13 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

I somehow ended up on a LINE group for importers of wholesale food products. It is scary how much they bring in from China and once the original packaging is broke, you can't tell where it is from.

Lots of scallops, squid rings (calamaris), frozen fish, some kind of eatable worm and even prawns are all from China.

 

Lucky I don't eat seafood then!!!