PRACTICAL PARSIMONY: China pollution

Showing posts with label China pollution. Show all posts

Friday, June 15, 2012

Are You Eating Chicken Grown in China's Pollution?

You very well could be.

I picked up garlic in the grocery store and casually read the information on the package. It was garlic from China. Yes, I put it back. I have always feared food produced in China, even before the dog food and baby formula fiascoes.

Even more recently, the US had approved the importation of chicken from China. It will be in supermarkets soon if it is not already on the shelve. This scares me.

This article Don't Eat the Broccoli in China is frightening. It is frightening to think of a whole nation (China) that can be poisoned with arsenic-tainted food. It is even more frightening that our laws deem is okay to serve these same foods to our families. Granted, we may not be importing broccoli from China, yet.

From the People's Daily Online in 2010: (English version of Chinese newspaper)

"BEIJING - The nation has notched up a victory against the United States (my italics) after a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel ruled in China's favor in a dispute over the ban on imports of Chinese chicken, sources with the Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday."

Read the rest of the story in the Chinese newspaper in the link below.

Since when does the WTO get to force polluted poultry on the US? A Chinese "victory against the US"? That does not sound friendly at all.

Suddenly $8/lb for chicken does not sound too expensive!

Does anyone have any information on where this polluted chicken is sold. The very fact that China has the world's highest cancer rate and the most polluted soil concerns me. I won't give up chicken at this time, but I could eat less in order to afford safe chicken. My lot won't support hens for slaughter. Otherwise, I would be in the poultry business.

Your turn
How much does this concern you? Are you growing your own food for consumption to avoid danger as well as to reduce your food bills? What other concerns about your food from China are on your mind? So, you grow your own food. You are safe? How much of an obligation do you feel for the children who go to school with your children, grandchildren, your adult relatives, strangers on the street? Doesn't everyone deserve to know?

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The Cast

Fancy is my favorite hen. She is one of the three youngest hens I adopted. Because she is so gentle and friendly, she may be the one I rescued when she was being pecked to death after she could no longer stand. She got to live in the house in a box. Sometimes, I let her sit in my lap while she was convalescing. Now, she comes to sit in the swing with me, cuddling up to my body like a cat or dog. She died in February 2012.

Fancy follows me begging, complaining, needing me to do for her. She talks to me in various voices. She allows me to pick her up and carry her. When she became an adult, her head was a darker red and her body was light brown. Around her neck were tips of black feathers. It appeared she had a necklace of jet around her neck. When I showed this characteristic to a friend, he said, "Oh, you have fancy chickens and plain chickens."

Chessie has a broken toe. I broke it! She had a habit of jumping really high and almost sticking. A raccoon ate her in October 2009.

Thelma is the blonde. She is also the largest hen and the alpha hen. I suspect the gigantic eggs are from her. She often squats and presents herself to me. She is top hen, but I suspect she knows she had better be deferent to top feeder of the flock--me.

Louise is the auburn-feathered hen. She looks like the true Rhode Island Reds in pictures. She is almost as large as Thelma. Some days I suspect she is trying to be top chicken. When I got Pepper, I found out Louise is the Alpha hen.

Pepper came here from the same home as the first four. We were discussing putting red pepper on their food, wondering if it really would increase egg production. Pepper is the only name we agreed on. She is terrorized each day by Louise. Even after the worst was over, she was and is still filled with terror and very wary.

Linda is owned by four hens. They allow her to fetch for them. She loves them dearly, so she allows them to boss her around. Linda comes out in the rain to perform chores for them and make sure they have food and water. She begs scraps from all sorts of places to make sure they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

Parsimony is not a vegetable

Parsimony is extreme care in spending money. Stick around and learn about my random thoughts on accomplishing goals economically--dumpster diving aka safari, gleaning, do-it-yourself, sewing tips, recipes, and whatever is happening in my life.

Okay so maybe "parsimony" is not your thing. How about thrift, frugality or just plain saving money? I try not to go the tightwad route as that seems to imply others will suffer from my habits.

Some of my not-spending habits have very much been a part of my lifelong habits. Other habits are newly acquired and are an extension of my lifelong not-spending habits.

I am very imaginative when it comes to substituting or making instead of buying. I will tell you about making a heater for the chickens' water. Not one dime was spent since I had everything I needed right in my basement.

Practicality must rear its head alongside parsimony. For example, I will use the dryer in bad weather or because of allergies in the spring. But, I will not wash clothes in a tub as long as I have a washing machine or can find one.

You may hear more about my four Rhode Island Red hens than you care to hear. They lay delicious brown eggs.

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Friday, June 15, 2012

Are You Eating Chicken Grown in China's Pollution?