Thought For Food?

tim

tim

Moderator
Is the below story for real or just more internet foolishness?

Food for thought... look for USA
Smithfield Farms, the largest pork producing farm in the USA was sold in September to China with the unanimous support of its stockholders!! The hogs will still be raised here, but slaughtered and packaged for sale there before being sent back here. This includes labels of:
•• Morrell
•• Eckrich
•• Krakus
•• Cudahy
•• Premium Hams
•• Cook's
•• Gwaltney

The same with many chickens. They can now be shipped there, but when they come back all that needs to be labelled is that they WERE RAISED IN THE USA. Not that they were processed in China !!!
Our great FDA at work again. The chickens will be all processed and most sold to fast food restaurants for sandwiches, along with schools and supermarkets. The China slaughter and processing are not nearly equal to the requirements here.

*BAD FOOD.*
We recently learned that Starkist Tuna is now owned by Korea, and is in big conflict with the U.S.concerning quality, safety, and records, which Korea refuses to produce.
Read several articles on Google about this, and even one that was defending the eating of tilapia said to avoid the fish that came from China?
Also, I had just returned home from buying Albertson's 4-day special of 4 bags of frozen tilapia for the price of one? Sure enough, on the top of the bags, it read "farm raised", and on the bottom in small print it said, "China"
read all the way to the end.....

Recently a Food inspector on TV said he had lived overseas and he had seen the filthy conditions their foods are raised and processed in. It is enough to make you throw up. Some foreign workers have to wear masks as they work in these places, because the food is so rotten and filthy, it makes them want to throw up. Many of their fish on Fish Farms are fed raw sewage daily. He said he has seen so much filth throughout their food growing and processing that he would "never" eat any of it. They raise this filth, put some food colouring and some flavourings on it, then they ship it to the USA & Canada for YOU to consume and feed to YOUR families. They have no Food & Safety Inspectors. They ship it to you to buy and poison your families and friends.

Imported food we eat and the junk we buy:
•• Green Giant frozen vegetables are from China,
•• and so are most of Europe's Best.
•• Arctic Gardens are OK; so is
•• Birdseye.

*Never buy the grocery store garlic unless it is clearly marked from USA or Canada*, the other stuff is grown in people poop (even worse than chicken poop). China is the largest producer of garlic in the world; U.S. is next.
*Buy only local honey*, much honey is shipped in huge containers from China and re-packed here.
Cold-FX is grown and packed in China and is full of fecal bacteria. Doesn't work anyway, big scam.
If the country of origin is not clearly marked, beware.
If produce, ask an employee.

Watch out for packages which state "prepared for", "packed by" or "imported by". We don't understand the lack of mandatory labelling, especially the produce.
The country of origin should be clearly shown on the item in the store.
Go to the local farmers' markets in season and keep a wary eye open the rest of the year.
Please read this very carefully, and read to the very bottom. It's important for all of us.
How is it possible to ship food from China cheaper than having it produced in the U. S. or Canada?
FOR EXAMPLE THE "OUR FAMILY" BRAND OF MANDARIN ORANGES SAYS RIGHT ON THE CAN 'FROM CHINA '. - SO, for a FEW MORE CENTS, BUY THE *LIBERTY* BRAND.
*GOLD BRAND or DOLE is from CALIFORNIA*.

Beware, Costco sells canned peaches and pears in a plastic jar that come from China ..
ALL "HIGH LINER" AND MOST OTHER FROZEN FISH PRODUCTS COME FROM CHINA OR INDONESIA. THE PACKAGE MAY SAY "PACIFIC SALMON" ON THE FRONT, BUT LOOK FOR THE SMALL PRINT. MOST OF THESE PRODUCTS COME FROM FISH FARMS IN THE ORIENT WHERE THERE ARE NO REGULATIONS ON WHAT IS FED TO THESE FISH.
*Recently The Montreal Gazette had an article* by the Canadian Government on how Chinese feed the fish: They suspend chicken wire crates over the fish ponds, and the fish feed on chicken s..t.

If you search the internet about what the Chinese feed their fish, you'll be alarmed; eg: growth hormones, expired anti- biotic from humans? Never buy any type of fish or shellfish that comes from these countries:
•• Vietnam
•• China
•• Philippines
Check this out personally.
Steinfeld's Pickles are made in India - just as bad!

Another example is in canned mushrooms. No-Name brand came from Indonesia.
Also check those little fruit cups. They used to be made in Canada in the Niagara region until about 2 years ago. They are now packaged in China. Most sold in Aldi stores.
While the Chinese export inferior and even toxic products, dangerous toys, and goods to be sold in North American markets, the media wrings its hands! Yet, 70% of North Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended.
Well, duh ! Why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges?
SIMPLY DO IT YOURSELF, CANADA and the U.S.

Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says 'Made in China' or 'PRC' (and that now includes Hong Kong ), simply choose another product, or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, and you will be equally amazed at what you can do without.

THINK ABOUT THIS:

If 200 million North Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, thats a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favour ... fast! The downside? Some Canadian/American businesses will feel a temporary pinch from having foreign stockpiles of inventory.
Just one month of trading losses will hit the Chinese for 8% of their North American exports. Then they will at least have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness are worth it.

*START NOW and don't stop, and tell your friends*

Send this to everybody you know. Let's show them that we are intelligent, and NOBODY can take us for granted. *Start reading labels more closely and buy something else even if it cost a few cents more*.
 
good to read all this. However, I am truly grateful to MikeR for making me so aware of the deplorable food processing that goes on in other parts of the world. Read labels to the end before purchasing folks. You want USA or Canada as primary sources.
 
Smithfield has been China managed and subsequently owned for about 2 years now.....I would not go near their pork products ..I only buy pork from local farms...and chickens...and turkeys..and beef...grocery stores products are mostly toxic crap

eat fresh..eat local....
 
Did you know?.....Potato farmers do NOT eat the potatoes they grow for mass consumption, due to the way they have to grow them...they have separate potato fields for their personal consumption .....either buy potatoes from a small local farm or buy organic potatoes in the grocery store...some good organic potatoes (red bliss and Yukon gold) are coming out of Maine and finding their way into the big box grocery stores



Read on......


Why Don't Grocery Store Potatoes Sprout?



images
Why don’t grocery store potatoes sprout and then rot?

If you have ever grown a potato in your backyard garden, you know for sure that if potatoes are not stored in a cold, dark place, they immediately sprout -- huge, long sprouts. Sprouting soon turns them soft, and they begin to rot.

So here is the question: If homegrown potatoes sprout in light or warmth, why are the potatoes in the grocery store not sprouting the same giant sprouts? (Okay -- some grocery store potatoes do sometimes send out pathetic sprouts when they are old -- nothing like real garden potatoes sprouts, if you’ve ever seen them).

My research has shown two answers. First, grocery store potatoes are treated with a chemical called “Clorpropham”. This chemical is also sold under the names Beet-Kleen, Bud Nip, Chloro IPC, CIPC, Furloe, Sprout Nip, Spud-Nic, Taterpex, Triherbide-CIPC and Unicrop CIPC.

Second, the potatoes are exposed to so-called “low level” nuclear radiation. This is called irradiation.

Which leads to more questions. First, did you know your grocery store potatoes were treated with a chemical, or radiation, or both? Not likely -- because by federal law, potato sellers are not required to reveal this information. You read that right -- it is legal under federal law for potato growers and sellers to keep silent about the fact that the potatoes are treated with a chemical, or radiation, or both.

Is the chemical safe? A 1993 Cornell University study says this: “Chlorpropham is moderately toxic by ingestion. It may cause irritation of the eyes or skin. Symptoms of poisoning in laboratory animals have included listlessness, incoordination, nose bleeds, protruding eyes, bloody tears, difficulty in breathing, prostration, inability to urinate, high fevers, and death. Autopsies of animals have shown inflammation of the stomach and intestinal lining, congestion of the brain, lungs and other organs, and degenerative changes in the kidneys and liver. Chronic exposure of laboratory animals has caused retarded growth, increased liver, kidney and spleen weights, congestion of the spleen and death. Long-term exposure to chlorpropham may cause adverse reproductive effects. Chlorpropham may cross the placenta.”

Yum!










 
Various sites such as Snopes call various parts of the article false. In total, the entire article is likely false.

I'll keep eatingSmithfield Ham and my Green Giant vegetables when I can't get a better product locally. My fish are all from the North Atlantic, and my Shrimp are all from the Gulf. Mexico, not Tonkin.
 
KevinS said:
Various sites such as Snopes call various parts of the article false. In total, the entire article is likely false.

I'll keep eatingSmithfield Ham and my Green Giant vegetables when I can't get a better product locally. My fish are all from the North Atlantic, and my Shrimp are all from the Gulf. Mexico, not Tonkin.
Click to expand...


Kevn...Shuanghui International Holdings owns Smithfield ...paid 4.7 billion for it...pork is grown here processed there...as far as I know these are facts
 
[h=1]Chinese get OK to buy American pork producer[/h]by MICHAEL FELBERBAUM




Smithfield ham on sale at the Taste of Smithfield restaurant and gourmet market in Smithfield, Virginia in this file photo taken May 30, 2013. Shareholders of Smithfield Foods agreed to a $4.7 billion buyout by China's Shuanghui International Holdings RICH-JOSEPH FACUN
China is bringing home some serious American bacon.
Shareholders of Smithfield Foods approved a plan to sell the world's largest pork producer and processor to a Chinese company.

The Smithfield, Va.-based company said more than 96 percent of the votes cast during a special meeting in Richmond on Tuesday were in favor of Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd.'s $34 per-share offer, or $4.72 billion in cash.
The deal, which is expected to close on Thursday, will be the largest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm, valued at about $7.1 billion including debt. Its sale to Hong Kong-based Shuanghui comes at a time of serious food safety problems in China, some of which have involved Shuanghui, which owns food and logistics enterprises and is the largest shareholder of China's biggest meat processor.
"We will cease to be the company you saw in the past," Smithfield's CEO Larry Pope told shareholders. "This does not mean the company goes away, the company just enters into a new phase and a new era of its life."
Smithfield's shares rose one cent to $33.99 in morning trading Tuesday, just short of the buyout offer.
Smithfield Foods, whose brands include Armour, Farmland and its namesake, was founded in 1936 and has grown to annual sales of $13 billion and has about 46,000 employees.
Pork producers such as Smithfield have been caught in a tug of war with U.S. consumers. The company needs to raise prices to offset rising commodity costs, namely the corn it uses for feed. But shoppers are still extremely sensitive to price changes in the current economy. By raising prices, Smithfield risks cutting into its sales should consumers cut back or buy cheaper meats, such as chicken.
Pope noted that the industry has been stagnant and the ability to grow has been tough. The deal, he said, gives the whole industry an opportunity to grow.

"The times for this company and the future, I think are very bright," Pope said. "It's the same old Smithfield, but better."
Smithfield has said that the buyout and China's growing demand for pork will be a boon for American agriculture and an opportunity to export to new markets. Smithfield's existing management team will remain in place and Shuanghui also will honor labor agreements with Smithfield workers.
The acquisition highlights what could be growing interest in American food by Chinese consumers. Foreign food, such as milk powder from New Zealand and vegetables from neighboring Asian countries, is prized by Chinese consumers because of the frequent domestic food safety scandals.

Shuanghui's reputation was battered in 2011 when state broadcaster CCTV revealed its pork contained clenbuterol - a banned chemical that makes pork leaner but can be harmful to humans.
Earlier this month, a U.S. committee that reviews mergers between American and overseas companies for national-security implications cleared the deal.
Some U.S. lawmakers have questioned the sale, even convening a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing in July to discuss the deal.
At the time, Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the sale raised many questions, including the impact on food safety and security. She also said the precedent-setting transaction prompts reservations about the government review process of foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies.
"Smithfield might be the first acquisition of a major food and agricultural company, but I doubt it will be the last," said Stabenow.



 
[h=1]Starkist issue is true as well



Korean-Owned StarKist Tuna Says ‘No’ To FDA[/h]BY DAN FLYNN | MARCH 9, 2011After crossing 3,400 miles of the Pacific Ocean last year to inspect a tuna cannery on American Samoa, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspector asked for copies of some records from the StarKist Co.
“Charlie the Tuna,” the company’s half-century old cartoon character, might have shown the man some “good taste,” but nobody from StarKist Co. would show the FDA employee the records.
StarKist, once a unit of San Francisco-based Del Monte Foods, is now owned by South Korea’s Dongwon Industries. The title papers for Pittsburgh-based StarKist went to Dongwon two years ago for $363 million. Dongwon F&B was already the world’s largest canned tuna business, but it wanted StarKist as a vehicle to make inroads into the U.S. market.
For America Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States, the new owners of StarKist have been bad news. StarKist employment on the South Pacific Island has been cut in half since the takeover. There is also a nasty dispute going between StarKist and Samoa’s power company over some property.
At the cannery inspection last Nov. 1-4, FDA found “serious violations” involving StarKist’s seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan and its production of low-acid canned foods. FDA said both the canned tuna and pouched packed tuna being produced by StarKist on American Samoa are “adulterated.”
Asked by Food Safety News about the warning letter, StarKist spokeswoman Mary Sestric said: “All StarKist products are safe and no product withdrawals are being initiated.”
“The quality and safety of all StarKist products continues to be our highest priority. We are committed to providing high-quality, nutritious products to consumers and look for ways to continually improve our products and processes. StarKist continues to work closely with the FDA to that end,” she added.
During the November 2010 inspection, FDA personnel wanted to copy certain StarKist records, but the company declined.
FDA says that upon written demand during the course of an inspection, “the commercial processor shall permit the inspection and copying by such employee, all records of processing, deviations in processing, container closure inspections, and other records specified in part 113, to verify the adequacy of processing, the integrity of container closures, and the coding of the products.”
It sought without success, FDA said, to inspect and copy records covering the production of StarKist tuna in 3 oz. and 43 oz. pouches produced at the American Samoa processing plant between Aug. 1 and Nov. 1, 2010.
John A. Maxfield, director of quality assurance at StarKist Co. in Pittsburgh, wrote FDA after the inspection to argue that summary reports do not have to be produced by the company and are not part of the food safety program.
FDA said it wanted the records to determine StarKist’s actual percentage of defects under manufacturing conditions on certain of its lines.
“The information from these records is necessary to determine the capability of your filling and sealing equipment to consistently produce pouches of finished tuna fish with hermetic seals,” the warning letter says. Investigators were reacting to the number of pouch defects they found during the November 2010 inspection.
FDA said that if StarKist does not promptly correct the violations, it will take further actions, including seizing adulterated products and/or enjoining the company from operating. It could also refuse admission (to the U.S. mainland) of its tuna under “detention without physical examination.”
Under multiple HACCP violations, the FDA inspectors said they found several racks of thawed, pre-cooked loins still in their plastic vacuum packages staged in the processing room and stacked on production tables for further processing in air temperatures of 76 to 81 degrees.
The food safety hazard of Staphylococcus aureus can occur in temperatures of 70 degrees or more after three hours.
In comments about low acid canned foods, FDA says where double seams or glass containers are not used, detailed inspections and test intervals are required to ensure proper closure and hermetic seal production.
StarKist does not perform a meaningful destructive test on heat sealed pouches of tuna products at intervals of sufficient frequency under manufacturing conditions, FDA said.
Maxfield’s letter said StarKist uses both burst testing and tensile strength testing. He said the company was following an industry standard for visual double seam checks, but would take FDA’s advice into account.
FDA said destructive tensile strength testing is not appropriate because the pouches being tested are not first filled with tuna fish. Instead they are tested empty.
On the day FDA was sending its warning letter, Dongwon installed a new president at StarKist. In-Soo Cho, a graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with a management history with Proctor and Gamble and Yum Restaurants International, took over.
The 65-year old StarKist brand has two processing facilities in Ecuador in addition to the one just inspected in American Samoa.
Mercury content of canned tuna frequently comes up as a food safety issue. The problem is that mercury can accumulate in the body. Both FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say women of child-bearing age, and young children should avoid fish that are high in mercury.
Others may want to pace their tuna consumption along the lines suggestedhere by the National Resources Defense Council.
 
That's nice but the only whole or half hams I get are usually once/year but I do get slices for breakfast occasionally so I don't get excited for ham that much. When I was adventurous I use to get uncured hams from Smithfield and cure them myself. The result was wonderful but been there done that.
 
. When I was adventurous I use to get uncured hams from Smithfield and cure them myself. The result was wonderful but been there done that.
 
I much prefer getting a fresh unsmoked uncured ham and roasting it ....melt in your mouth good....with a nice Hunter Sauce
 
Interesting read. While I think most people would prefer to eat only food that is organic, locally sourced and humanely-raised, it is much easier to live this lifestyle if you live near large metropolitan areas or on the coast. Those of us who live in very small, Midwestern areas are forced to settle for lesser quality goods, unless you enjoy driving two hours to the nearest Trader Joes or Whole Foods every week.

While this is my choice to live in the middle of nowhere - it's not realistic in my world to eat only the most perfect food all of the time.

Just my .02! :)
 
MantyPam said:
Interesting read. While I think most people would prefer to eat only food that is organic, locally sourced and humanely-raised, it is much easier to live this lifestyle if you live near large metropolitan areas or on the coast. :)
Click to expand...


Not true at all.....I'm in rural northern NH and have full access to everything local and responsibly raised.....I am surrounded by small family local farms who collectively decided to only source the local population and not outsource at all...so it's all here...dairy....seasonal veggies...and meats.....and we re neither metropolitan or coastal .....and it's not just NH .....the same environment exists in Maine and Vermont and upstate NY...small family farms are making a comeback here and doing pretty well
 
Mike - I don't disagree with your experience, but I do think you have a lot more choices in your part of the country than we have in our surrounding areas in rural Wisconsin. It is a completely different income base that supports all of the options you have, compared to some areas in Wisconsin. There is a huge difference in the quality of life for those living in NH, VT, Maine, etc. vs. some areas in the Midwest. Granted, we have the Packers, so it's a win for me! ;)
 
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