How Safe Is Your Food?
Food from abroad can be dangerous to your health!
A recent Toronto Star article entitled, “The Trouble on the World’s Farm” by Andrew Chung frankly scared me into attention this past weekend. In it, the article discusses how produce from China- which has been dubbed “the world’s factory,” is cheaper and often more plentiful than other countries. Chung sites the example of a case of garlic from Mexico that arrives to the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto. That Mexican case of garlic will cost $55 Canadian (wholesale price). A case with just as many garlic from China? That will cost a mere $13 Canadian- significantly less that its Mexican counterpart. The same can be said for much of the produce grown in China and shipped over to North America and Europe.
Why? In large part, Chung posits that China is known to “overuse highly toxic pesticides and fertilizers to boost [crop] yields,” and adds that the improper use of animal drugs as well as fraud and corruption are leading to a spate of problems within the Chinese food chain. Chung adds, “And as Western countries are finding out – from fish pumped full of antibiotics to filthy seafood – China is exporting these problems abroad.”
Indeed, the amount of food arriving on the world’s doorstep from China is growing exponentially- at an astounding rate. How big has the industry grown exactly? According to a China Today piece published in 2005, in 2004 the Chinese food industry generated income of US $193.4 billion, a 300 percent increase over 1997! Those numbers are even larger today!
Fruits, vegetables, food additives and ingredients from China are landing on our plates, in our prepared foods and even in our pet food. The recent dog and cat food debacle here in Canada, where melamine (a plastics-related chemical) was found in Chinese wheat gluten used in the manufacturing of pet food, highlights the potential problems. Sixteen cats and dogs died, thousands more got sick. While these aren’t people- as a consumer, this fact raises huge red flags.
Another worrying fact is that there are nine separate ministries governing food regulatory matters, but no unified standard when it comes to food safety in such a large country. After the pet food scandal, China, according to Chung, sought help from the World Health Organization in order to fix its haphazard system. A system which includes a lack of consistent monitoring or farm certification. I’m delighted to hear that China is seeking help because the pet food scandal isn’t the first the giant nation has had to face down.
In 2005, the “UK Food Standards Agency announced the recall of food contaminated with the carcinogenic dye Sudan Red I. The “Sudan Red I” incident, however, has sparked skepticism among Chinese consumers, and a recent survey released by the Ministry of Commerce shows that less than 50 percent of those questioned have full confidence in foodstuffs, either Chinese or foreign,” cited Qiao Tianbi of China Today.
I commend China for trying to fix their food industry problems; it’s necessary and long overdue. But from where I sit, there are a lot of serious problems the nation has to tackle before I start buying any food stuff grown/made in China. Until I’m convinced that what I put on my fork doesn’t have the potential of wreaking havoc on my family’s health, I’ll stick to locally, sustainably, preferably organically grown food that I know didn’t log thousands of petro miles in order to get to my kitchen. And that’s a choice any consumer can make with his/her wallet!
