Tainted Chinese Vegetable Proteins Found in Pig Food

I'm trying to take back control of our family's food supply. Yet every day there's a new crisis -- every day there's something new and terrifying popping out of some other area of the food chain that makes me buggy.

This is not new, mind you. That's why the FDA went into business in the first place: the practice of adulterating foods (sometimes with toxic or nonedible substances that looked similiar and added weight to the scales) is as old as time itself. What I don't understand is why they've stopped doing their job.

I have my suspicions. Some of them are political, but setting those to the side, let's consider issues of scale. Is the monitorining of any country's food supply too large of a job for any one agency? Where does personal responsibility come into the picture? We assume that if the food is for sale in the grocery, it is safe for us. Is that any longer a valid assumption? If you look at the millions and millions of tons of imported food, how is it even feasible that it all be checked?

There are currently congressional hearings centering on this topic, but they are receiving little if any media coverage. I am becoming increasingly convinced that this is not a problem that can be fixed from the top down, but must instead come from the bottom up.

Thank you for the link to Local Harvest. I've bookmarked it and will defintely use it.
Vicky

I found out today that my dog's food has been recalled due to melamine contamination in the rice protein concentrate added to the food.

If you feed your dog or cat Dick VanPatten's Natural Balance, check here to see if the particular blend they are eating is in the recall. Not all of the product lines are contaminated. I've switched Jefe from the venison food to the fish.

I don't know how many other pet food brands have been affected. The best thing is for everyone to go online to their pet's food's homepage and see if their food has been recalled. The result of melamine poisioning is liver failure. If your pet has been eating one of the recalled foods and shows signs of *loss of appetite, lethargy, and vomiting* remove the food, make sure the animal has lots of water available, call your vet, save the food and contact the pet food company for instructions. They'll want to test the food.

Anhata
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