Here's the Snopes.com comment on this story

Here is a link that might be useful: Snopes on same story

Ever see pictures from the inside of a Tyson chicken processing plant? or a hormel pork processing plant?

I just really didn't need to see that at breakfast - or any time for that matter.

As LindaC pointed out, things are not really any better, or much better, here for the animals people choose to eat.

Sally

That's why we need to buy local. If you get your food from local farmers whether meat or produce (or farm/grow your own for those of you capable and able) then you are supporting your local economy, supporting your local farmer, reducing the energy required to get the food to your table and eating more healthily. A win-win situation all around, except for the fact that it may cost you more.

Read "Fast Food Nation" if you really want to know what goes on in chicken and meat processing plants in the USA!!

You're preaching to the choir, Lou. We've had threads here about the contaminated pet food from China, the lead based paint on the children's toys from China, the contaminated toothpaste from China, the bad honey from China and nearly everything else.

However the latest salmonella scares have been from U.S. companies and although people rely on the government for inspection the truth is only a handful of food processors ever get inspected. Plus, as I've mentioned before, food processors are allowed a certain percentage of "particulate matter" in their packaged foods. That can be animal hair, rodent droppings, fingernails, bandaids, sticks, twigs, stones, insects, whatever. And it's allowed up to a certain percentage.

As lovestocook mentioned, buy locally. Find a farmer's market that you know grows their own produce, buy eggs from the lady down the road, plant a garden, find a local farmer that will sell you beef or pork. It's a lot safer than the stockyard/feedlot animals and their products.

I've taken the responsibility of ensuring the safety of my own food supply and I'm not counting on anyone else to do it for me.

Annie

I hate alarmist emails like this. They come with no corroboration, no sources, and with nobody willing to sign their name to them.

These photos have been circulating for a long time, but the bit about WalMart has been added since the first time I saw them. I suspect someone who buys into the whole "WalMartBad" mentality added that to take another jab at the "corporate devil".

We in America have the access to clean, safe, inexpensive food that many the world over would LOVE to have, and yet we are told daily that we're in danger of food poisoning, cancer, and God knows what else because of our food.
We have the access to inexpensive, good quality clothing, drugs, appliances, all manner of things that make our lives enjoyable that many around the world can't even dream of, but we demonize the companies that bring these goods to us.

Honestly, as Americans, I think we are so prosperous, so comfortable and so blase about our blessings that we have almost look for things to worry about. We get these internet alarms and pass them on without having the least bit of evidence that they are factual or wondering what agenda the original source might have had for sending it in the first place.

I'm not picking on Hawk, I think we all have a tendency to forget that the internet is open and available to all and we must be extremely skeptical of information gleaned from it.

Hi Everyone:
I thought I was doing something good.

I knew about all the other things that are going on in China and here.
That you don't see on the News Channel

Just thought you might liked to be informed on the latest.

Didn't know everyone was already, so well informed.

Maybe " who ever " can Delete this Post from the CF.

Lou

Don't worry about it, Lou. No big thing...

Nancy

Lou.....it' OK and it's always good to be reminded about the situation in China. This place is meant to encourage dialog so when you do it's a good thing...not a bad thing.

I refuse to buy anything from China but won't go so far as to say I will only buy local. I buy, Pacific wild salmon and halibut , Florida oranges etc. If I bought only local food we would have no fruit and veggies 8-9 months of the year.

I'm coming back to this as I want to comment on rachelellen's post:

"We in America have the access to clean, safe, inexpensive food that many the world over would LOVE to have, and yet we are told daily that we're in danger of food poisoning, cancer, and God knows what else because of our food."

Food and what I feed my family are of paramount importance to me. While I agree that access to inexpensive food is available in America, I think cooking from scratch has pretty much gone out the window. So many of my friends are too busy to cook. Our old neighbour sold her house after living there for 15 years. SHE HAD NEVER USED HER OVEN OR STOVE - not once!!! They ate out every single meal - breakfast included or ate food that could be nuked.

If by clean, safe and inexpensive you are referring to fast food, think again. Or as I mentioned previously, read "Fast Food Nation"

I wonder about the obesity levels in our country, the amount of money we spend on healthcare relative to other countries, the higher incidences of some cancers vs other countries.

And when our fast food franchises start popping up in other countries, the obesity levels start to rise there too.

Fresh produce is not cheap. Here in the MidWest for most of the year our produce is imported. We can buy clementines from South Africa, bananas from South America and asparagus from Mexico and not one of those countries may have the same stringent policies we have in the USA. We get apples from Washington and oranges from Florida but it all comes with a price either $$$ or environmental impact or health wise if you're concerned about genetically enhanced/altered food, pesticides etc. Fresh locally caught fish is not an option being so far from the sea either. Whole Foods is not known as Whole Paycheck for nothing.

I do shop at Walmart but not often and very rarely for food.

I wish I could be like annie and be self sufficient when it comes to food. So far I've had black thumbs when it comes to growing any plants, but this summer my dh and I are committed to starting a small vegetable garden with our kids.

I'll say it again, buy locally from farmers willing to discuss their farming practices and support your community. For some of us that's easier than for others, but supply will meet demand. We need to get back to grass roots farming. I also get an weekly delivery of an organic produce basket. Not cheap but locally grown and worth it and as soon as the farmer's markets start up next month you kow where to find me on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, early!

BTW, a local farm has a large roadside farmstand. A LOT of what they sell they don't even grow. They buy it from the produce market in Chicago. It ticks me off, I tell everyone who is interested but most people don't seem to care.

loves2cook, I'm far from self sufficient as far as food goes. I still buy cheese, butter, milk, but I get them from a locally owned hormone and antibiotic free certified dairy. I do buy some imported produce, although I try to buy what's closest in terms of having it shipped because the quality is so much better. I made some mango/lime sorbet for Easter dessert and neither of those things are grown anywhere near here, although I did use Pioneer sugar from here in Michigan. I refuse to buy store tomatoes anymore since reading the latest article in Gourmet (or was it Bon Appetit?) about the slave labor used in the tomato industry. However, if I only bought what was grown locally I'd never have a salad from September to May unless I build myself a greenhouse. Hmmmm.......anyway, I digress.

I don't grow dried beans or lentils, they are too labor intensive for the crop I get. I haven't yet grown my own grains for grinding into flour and nearly all my mustard comes from Canada (thanks, Chase!).

However, I dn't expect the government to keep me safe and I don't believe in better living through chemicals. I do what it's possible for me to do, take a little extra time and effort, and I have a lot more control over what I'm eating and what I'm feeding to my grandkids.

Lou, don't worry about having the thread pulled, I don't think anyone minds at all. That's why we all jumped in on this.

As for China, if I pick anything up on the shelf, from a bowl to a bottle of honey, and look at the label and it's from China, I put it back. I've saved a lot of money and found that I don't really need a lot of the things I've considered buying! So, in the end, that's a good thing. (grin)

Annie

If I posted every alarmist fw:fw:fw...etc...email that I got, these forums would quickly over load their bandwidth and become boring places to hang out.
Do you know that deodorant causes breast cancer and that you can get fatally bitten from bugs hiding in toilet seats? Do you know that you can lose all your money by calling a toll free phone number, that you can get an email virus that will destroy all your hard drive in a second and then send itself on to everyone in your address book?

You don't even know where those pictures were taken, nor why and by whom.
And it's one thing to pass on alarmist sensational schlock by email....but quite another to post it on an internet board.

I was taught very early on to "consider the source"...what does the source of a news item have to gain by many people knowing of this? is it to gain attention for themselves? To make their own beliefs or actions look good? To make the beliefs or actions of another look bad? to make you buy the magazine when waiting in line at the checkout coun ter....or is it a pure desire to pass on information.

Perhaps I should look through my deleted email file and see what I can ressurect to post here.
Linda C

Lindac - LOL!!! I can sell you lots of stuff to make your peni$ bigger and I have tons of emails I too can share - lots of them get rich quick schemes.

Part of being a discerning consumer is to make decisions that meet both your moral choices and your packetbook's contents. And of course to stay skeptical of everything you read. It scares me to see how much my mom believes from all the internet content and junk mail she receives. Although she is in her 70's she is so naive when it comes to these schemes and could easily lose her life savings.

And to each his own as to where and what he or she purchases.

Annie, you're in Michigan? Whereabouts? I'm in the NW part of Illinois past Chicago. We drive to Michigan a few times in the spring and summer to get produce especially blueberries. I'd love to look up your dairy and every/any thing/body you can recommend. I am hoping to get back in touch with a farmer I found through the farmer's markets last year who had free range organic (not certified though) chickens. They were way more expensive even than Whole Foods but my, were they good!

Are you implying that LindaC.....has...a...

Oh nevermind. LOL!

I don't like a lot of what China is doing in China and what they are selling here.

However, boycotting Chinese (or any other countries') products is the first step in economic suicide. There is no way we can produce anything and be competitive against other countries that do without using Chinese components or products.

Buy Chinese; use the money you save to invest in new technologies, education, our future----. If you dont, wait until we have to compete against even more up and coming countries like Cuba, North Korea, India, etc.

This is a new world order of instant digital economy.

dcarch

I assume everyone is done venting their frustrations.

Can you imagine how frustrated you would be, if there wasn't any access to all the info.
to which we hear over and over.
I don't have the time to research all these things and I'm glad to receive it from friends,
through emails, over and over.

They should have deleted this Post, when I asked.

Siannara !!!!!
Lou

I love the internet just because of all the info available. Lou, I'm glad you reminded us about how food is or potentially is processed and handled. I have read Fast Food Nation, and also Michael Pollen's books about the food industry (I just can't remember the names of them right now.)

Frankly, we should be paying a lot more for our food. The processes that make our food cheap is one of the things that's wrong with our nation.

Sally

loves2cook, I sent you an email with lots of information!

We have local orchards where I can pick blueberries, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, sometimes apricots. I get asparagus in the next county right out of the field. My local farm market is family owned and operated and they only sell what they grow personally.

I'm in North/Western Michigan, about 40 miles inland from Lake Michigan, in a tiny little rural county where no road has more than two lanes. Not much "entertainment", but there's salmon fishing, lots of water sports, the National Forest. It's clean and quiet and green and full of wide open spaces. We have way too many deer and a thriving bear population, so you'll see lots of fenced in gardens.

Annie

When the Chinese knowingly send out contaminated baby formula to their own people, do you think they give a flaming rat's patoot what they send around the world, through Canada, to the US (which is how our pet food came into the country after being poisoned in China and packaged in Canada). You think you're buying a north American product, only to find out it originated in China. Don't WE make anything for ourselves in this country anymore? Our parents and grandparents managed to feed their families on seasonal produce. Our farm land has become foreclosed developments and corn for gas. Most often I put Chinese food products back on the shelf -- just because!

Add Chinese drywall to the list. Don't forget vitamins and medicines....