We haven't had one of these yet, well not since the dog food, or was it the tooth paste?
Anyway, I have seen several reports about capitalism gone wild where to save a buck or two million short cuts were taken in the preparation of food products that were dangerous.
According to NPR articles I've listened too, Baby Formula was sold that turned out to be just weekened powdered milk. The result was that several babies died.
Also, the new leader of the Chinese version of the FDA announced that Chinese food is actually not that bad. Doing a study across thousands of different foods, they discovered that 85% of it met all the standards.
They didn't mention that 15% did not.
Of course that is what resulted in the previous leader of their FDA equivalent to being arrested, tried, and executed. And we think that impeachment is too extreme.
Some people find this surprising. This country so safe from "Frivolous law suits" is producing sub-standard products. Of course, only a small percentage of the sub-standard products get exported. Most of the international companies double check their stuff.
That's how they caught the LEAD painted Big-Bird toys now being recalled.
I was not surprised. When I went to college I took one of those odd courses that my parents said would have no practical future use--"The History of the Chinese Detective Story."
Yes, well before Sherlock Holmes, and even before Poe wrote "Murder on the Rue Morgue" the Chinese invented and proliferated the Detective Story.
These stories usually involved a Judge deciding the fate of an accused criminal, who swears their innocent. Only with the help of Solomon-like wisdom, and some supernatural aid, does the judge unravel the mystery.
The interesting point is, in many of those cases, the crime is the turning of some individual into ground meat for the local food industry. The sold a lot of Han Sandwiches. Poor Han.
I am not being bigoted. I do not mean to imply that all, most, many, or even a few of the Chinese people are greedy, uncaring, profit-mongers unwilling to let a few dead bodies get in the way of their profits. I am saying there is a history of such people rising up in the Chinese food chain.
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
"Most of the international companies double check their stuff. That's how they caught the LEAD painted Big-Bird toys now being recalled."
Unlikely, or Mattel wouldn't have sold those million Fisher-Price toys being recalled in the first place. What probably occurred is that a Mattel employee independently started testing outside of normal procedure after the Thomas the Tank Engine incident. And probably killed her*career in the process. And if Mattel's tale is true, then none of its retailers have any procedure in place to check the safety of the products they sell.
So "greedy, uncaring, profit-mongers...rising up in the...food chain" is also descriptive of American corporate history. Heck, most of the products being imported would still be made in the US if American corporations hadn't exported US jobs in expectation of governments abroad turning a blind eye toward practices that are clearly illegal in the US.
* When it comes to reporting scandals, men-who-should-know have been mostly "go along to get along".
[ August 03, 2007, 12:03 PM: Message edited by: aspectre ]
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
*shrug* China is still a developing country. In our terms, we'd say that they were in an "Industrial Revolution." While China (obviously) has access to modern technology such as cell phones and computers, their disregard for human health is to be entirely expected given their level of development especially given their large population.
Wait until they reach a "post-industrial revolution" state for them to be worried about their long term health as much as ours. You can just look at their smoking rates compared to ours, their pollution standards, etc. The key is that they aren't treating us (or products destined for us) any worse than they're treating themselves, so if we want our products to be up to "our" standards it should really be "our" companies that bear the responsibility of checking standards, safety, etc.
In some sense, you get what you pay for.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Mucus pretty much covered what I was going to say.
Omega M: I'd wager you'd find worse in Chinese history. Also remember the workers were not hauled off to reeducation camps if they talk back to the foreman. Not to mention that the events in The Jungle took place at the beginning of the 20th century. Thats over 100 years ago.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:When I went to college I took one of those odd courses that my parents said would have no practical future use--"The History of the Chinese Detective Story."
Did you ever find a practical future use for it?
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
were obviously talking about it in a forum so thus practical use.
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
Blayne, I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything, but that's kind of stretching things a bit, in my book.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: were obviously talking about it in a forum so thus practical use.
![[Monkeys]](graemlins/monkeys.gif)
"go along to get along".