I went and looked at a bag of mixed salad greens that I had in the fridge. All it said was "distributed by______." Not a word about where the greens came from. Makes you wonder, doesn't it!! You would think that if if were grown in the USA, they would brag about it.

We watched a documentary on farm raised shrimp from Thailand. It was enough to turn the strongest stomach. Now I make sure that any shrimp that I buy are from local waters, or I do without. Sure, I know that cooking will kill bacteria. But I feel better knowing where food comes from.

Good for all of you for reading product labels. That's half of any battle. Now, the other half of the battle is good labeling law. Good also for the internet, because there are legitimate sources for information concerning what information must be included on labels and what can be omitted. For instance what can be omitted like trans fats if it is lower than a certain amount per serving. I am just making presumptions, but I would guess there is a certain amount of pressure from producers or distributors to influence what must be labeled.

I guess there's organic & then there's "organic." And IMO if you're shopping at a large chain, even one that is as touchy-feely as Whole Foods needs massive quantities of food to sell in all of their stores & guess what? In order to make money, that would mean that in all likelihood their produce isn't coming from Ma & Pa Kettle down the road.

We've gone back to what could be termed the 19th Century way of eating. We grow as much of our own produce as possible & only eat in-season produce (and yes, it makes us sort of crazy in January). To supplement we buy at the local farmers market or at the local farmer's stand.

If I have to go the the grocery store's produce aisle, I make an absolute pest of myself button-holing the produce people reading labels & asking lots & LOTS of questions.

And this, I know, is xenophobic, but I don't want to eat ANYTHING that comes from China.

Didn't the law get changed recently, to state the country of origen? Anybody know? It matters to me, A LOT !

I'd really like to know, which state or province, in large countries too.
Some countries, seem more careful than others do.
Knowing growing conditions and,the mindset on fungicides, etc., matters.

Linked is a nice little summary of the subject.

However, of more to concern to me is not the country of origin -- because ALL countries produce both safe and unsafe foods -- but the pesticidal content. For instance, one would assume that an apple labeled as being "organic" is "safe", but I've read a number of reports which mention that even "organically grown" apples contain traces of DDT. Not because of the method of growing, but because of past applications of DDT to the soil. So, is the apple safe or unsafe? You can't depend on the label, because at present, NO company is going to declare its product pesticide-free.

And of importance is the fact that country-of-origin really hasn't anything to do with the potential of a disease such as salmonella. Those diseases can infect any food during harvest or packing or shipment or storage, and that has little to do with the country of origin and a lot to do with being sure that basic food safety regs are adhered to -- and the regs are as likely to be ignored in the corner store as in a non-American country. Don't forget the recent spinach scare, where it was found that infection came from watering the "organic" plants with local river water, in the USA.

Here is a link that might be useful: summary for country of origin

My issues with food from China or any other country is more concerned with trade deficits, fuel used for transporting goods we can produce locally, and putting the local farmers out of work to save a few cents and lining a few other pockets.

As to food safety and USA produced goods, yes there are violations or perhaps not so much violations as we are still learning what we can and can't do to make foods safe and sometimes find out after the fact that what we think is a safe method......isn't. We still have regulations (laxer than some countries, and stiffer than others) and inspection. I do disagree that country of origin hasn't much to do with it. I work with the aphis laws in my trade and know we have tighter pesticide laws and inspections than many, many other places except perhaps Western Europe. I also know that not all countries allow our inspectors in at ports of departure or in production facilities from which we buy on foreign soil. We depend on them for self-monitoring. That's sort of like letting the wolf shepherd the flock.

So, that means we pick up on violations by spot checking goods after arrival. You can't think that everything coming in gets inspected. Not with the amount of material we are now importing. The budgets to provide these inspections at the same time are shrinking. So, the consumer should empower themselves to making informed choices and sit on their legislators to demand adequate safeguards.

I think the most bizarre case of produce causing an E.Coli outbreak is from apples. Soft ciders and juices now are required in my state to be pasteurized or irradiated because of it. How do you get fecal contamination of a fruit on a tree?

Now, Suzi, you know as well as I do that sort of contamination occurrs after the apple is *off* the tree. Which is right back to the cleanliness issue.

I suspect the cost of fuel is going to make a great many changes in the final cost of the product. For all products, and in the near future. Capitalism will have its way, and monetarily that way is going to favor whoever uses the least fuel to get to market. And I say that even though I really like getting melons from Georgia in May...