Food Safety and Dangerous Food imports

Why Are We Importing Unsafe Food?...

With the recent imported pet food scares, now we are reading reports of the problem of unsafe food imports overall. See URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070416/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/imported_food_safety_8.

Based on this article, some of the food (wheat gluten) has been found to contain melamine. According to the hyperlinked article and the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), melamine is well-known to be harmful to animals and humans. This is from the Wikipedia article: "Animal studies have shown that ingestion of melamine may lead to kidney stones, cancer or reproductive damage.[5][6][7][8]". One of your editors is a chemist, and does not doubt the accuracy of the Wikipedia in this instance. According to the same article, imports of this suspected food source have now been blocked. Knowing the uses for melamine, its difficult to understand how this chemical could have contaminated a food product.

Unless the source is the Yangtze River, or other polluted water sources in China. Another article has recently appeared describing the Yangtze as being "permanently polluted". See URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/china_yangtze_pollution.

WHY are we doing this to our own country? WHY all the imports? Should the Homeland Security Agency be involved in the cases of unsafe food imports?

Here's something else that we learned by looking at the numbers. Of the $ 21 billion dollars (US) in food that are being imported, the FDA and USDA (combined) only have a dedicated budget of approximately $ 750 million. A budget, we feel, that should be more like $ 45 billion.

As impractical as it may sound, should America start relying on its internal sources and begin stopping the importation of all foodstuffs from China?

Write your congressman and/or senator.

Updated 4/17/07: And more chemical dangers from China...

As a chemical plant releases a "huge" cloud of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, thus sickening over a hundred nearby school children. URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_as/china_chemical_discharge.
Updated 4/28/07:

And now we're finding Perchlorate (a chemical in rocket fuel) in the food supply?
URL: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/228/popup/index.php?cl=2537747

Updated 5/05/07:

Chickens are being kept out of the market. See: melamine now found in chicken feed.