I'll buy it if it is from Costco - I wouldn't buy it from just anywhere though. If it isn't a brand I trust or store I trust I wouldn't buy it.

I don't think I've seen Chinese salmon.

I wont buy any FOOD from CHINA.

Shelley

It's from a chain of stores I trust......and frankly I am not really afraid of being poisoned by 4 oz of salmon eaten about once a week for maybe 4 weeks.
It's the principal of the thing!....and the scallops....and the tilapia....would be great to have pre portioned stuff in the freezer....

Nope. I wouldn't buy it.
But then, I can go to my local fish market and buy tuna, halibut, salmon, shrimp, etc. caught on their own boats off our coast just 50 miles away.
Or...walk to my freezer and pull out halibut caught by my brother-in-law.
Gee...I "MAY" be spoiled.

But even if I wasn't, I wouldn't buy Chinese fish just on principal and the fact that ONE time I bought some shrimp from China and it tasted really strange...bleach-y, sort of.
Never again.

JMO
Deanna

If it's the principle of the thing, then where do you draw the line? Are you planning on being a complete USA-only eater? Or a Locatarian?

I think you are correct in saying that an occasional serving will not hurt you. And I'd buy one portion and try it before stocking up.

But as long as I am willing to eat food prepared by other people, in restaurants or in homes or pot lucks, I guess I get some foods from China, or heavens even worse.

But it's a philosophical question that only you can answer, about buying food from China in general. As for small portions eaten once in a while, try before you buy more than one, and see how it is, but it's probably safe enough.

The world gets increasingly complicated, doesn't it?

Nope, I wouldn't buy it and I won't buy it. If it says it's from China anywhere on it, I won't buy it. That goes for food (most of which I grow myself or buy locally) but I went fishing and caught salmon this spring, so I'm also spoiled.

Too many bad foods, lead paints, poisoned pets and few or no controls, to say nothing of skewed trade practices. I saw that the WTO found against China today after hearings, saying that their trade practices did not conform with agreements. Of course, that's old news.

Now, if I could just get Elery to check the labels, I'd be happier, he pays little or no attention.

Annie

I'm kind of torn on the issue. I've been to China on business trips many times and once on a 3-week vacation including spending part of the time in agricultural areas and visits to a couple of farms. I've always had excellent food there especially on the visits to the two farms. Inside the country, there is a lot of eating what is local and in season. When I was there in the spring, almost every meal had baby bok choy. When I was there in summer, the watermelon was perfect and served at almost every meal. People in general are very hard working and pleasant to deal with and I feel that the population in a very large country gets a bad rap because of a few bad apples and a government that can be repressive.

I've brought home wonderful reminders of my trip including a silk comforter (where the stuffing is silk from the cocoons that weren't suitable for silk thread) which we sleep with all summer. It is better than down and now I wish I had bought a winter weight one too.

On the other hand, there are those bad apples and sometimes they affect the safety of the exported items in a way that is disproportionate to their number and very dangerous. And of course there is the whole trying to eat local thing though I care about that more the larger the bulk of the thing that I eat - I don't think shipping my tea or spice consumption for the year is an undue burden on the environment.

So I don't think you are being unreasonable. While I might eat the fish on occasion without worrying about it I probably wouldn't feed it to my grandchildren but I have some regret about the situation.

Let's be careful and be comprehensive in our views.

This is an international forum and read by members from all countries.

China alone bought over one million cars made by the US last year. If it weren't for China, there would have been no US car companies this year.

dcarch

perhaps, dcarch, but we buy far more Chinese stuff than they buy American, there's a big trade deficit. There are many things we can't sell there because of the unfair trade practices. Add the lead paint in children's toys, the melamine in the pet food, the poison toothpaste and even the baby formula that poisoned children right there in China, and I am distrustful of their business practices in far too many areas.

That's before we even get into the human rights issues, so international forum or not, I'm not buying Chinese anything until practices change a lot.

Perhaps the Chinese people as a whole are lovely and morally responsible, but they aren't in control of the quality, safety or financial issues that trouble me. Those are things that may or may not be resolved in part by the WTO, we'll see.

Annie

Don't get me wrong. I still only buy US cars.

But other things I buy whoever is the cheapest (assuming it's not poisonous). The money I saved I invest in basic US industries and education to keep us competitive. That's the only way to get us out of the deepening economic problem.

If you don't buy cheap, other countries will, and they will outsell us. Even China outsource to be even more competive.

Let face it, there are many ways of looking at things.
No country has ever lifted so many people out from poverty like China (500 million), and look at what China is doing in Africa that we are not doing.

China does not understand our human rights when we have many more people die from gun violence then they have and they have way more people than we do. Not to talk about the racial slums we have in this country and the many people we put in jails.

I am totally against many of their practices. However, I believe with this digital communications, the time has come for us to understand each other, where we are coming from, and to create a world that's good for everyone.

Peace.

dcarch

My reason for staying away from fresh seafood imported from China and certain Asian countries has nothing to do with where they're 'made' in/from (location), it is more due to their carelessness about contaminated seafood, etc., as in their way of processing fresh seafood.

As some of you know, I'm Asian and yet, I am very cautious about where the food comes from. The sanitization way of processing food it's just not there. It is there in individual family but when it comes to production food products, there are lots of question marks just because cost is involved.

I now live in Houston, Texas. Now and then, the media warn us about green tide, or other contaminated area in Galveston and to stay away from fishing or consuming seafood during those periods. In China and some other asian countries, they don't care about contaminated ocean areas.

As for farm raised fish/seafood (such as Tilapias and catfish) in China and certain Asian countries, they're not even safe to eat neither. You'd throw up if I tell you how they're being farmed.

So, my rule of thumb is, if I'm in doubt, just don't consume them. They're plenty of fish and seafood in nearby ocean. At least, to a degree, I know they're safe to eat.

So, no Linda, I don't think you're being paranoid and it doesn't hurt to be cautious. Our bodies and health are irreplaceable! My health is simply not negotiable.

No food from China, nothing that touches my food from China. The bad drywall, that is ruining so many families finances, because it will take years until the mess is resolved, is just one more in a long list of poisonous things brought to this country from China :-/

dcarch, you and I are going to have to agree to disagree on this one, and I'm especially not convinced of the safety of food products and items from China. Our inspectors only inspect about 1% of the imports coming in and if those toys had lead paint, why not the platter that I use to serve braciole or the pitcher that I use to serve apple juice. If the baby formula was tainted, what about the honey? Or the salmon? Or the apple juice? We sure can't rely on the government to keep us all safe, nor should we. We are adults and should be responsible for our own actions and the results of those actions. Until the safety of those items is demonstrated, I'm not buying them.

Although China is the discussion here, there are other practices I don't indulge in either. I won't buy bottled water because I refuse to pay a foreign company (Nestle) to pump our water out of the ground and sell it back to me at exorbitant prices when I can get the same thing out of my tap. There's also the issue of the plastic bottles filling up our landfills and the use of resources to make those bottles and truck them about the country. Yes, Ice Mountain is pumping water from the same aquafer as my tap water comes from, their plant is less than 15 miles away from the farm.

I won't buy sweet corn at Walmart that's been trucked in from Arkansas when I can pay 25 cents more a dozen and buy it across the street. The quality is better and the resources used to get it to me are much less. I won't buy grapes from Chile when I can get them locally or grow them myself and I don't buy beef from Argentina when I can get it right next door from Canada. (Well, I grow my own, but occasionally I'll buy a specific cut for some purpose).

So I buy what I can locally, and if I can't grow it myself or buy it here, then I start widening my circle. When Elery was looking for a new glass cake pan I found one that was made in China. For $2 more I also found one made in New York. I bought the one from New York for several reasons. (1) It was made here. (2) The shipping distance was significantly less, therefore creating less pollution and using fewer resources. (3) It would be coming into contact with my food and there we have those safety issues. Again.

And that's without even discussing politics or human rights!

Annie

And I still haven't bought any of that Chinese wild caught salmon.
But I am wondering which is worse...east coast farmed salmon, or west coast farmed salmon....or chinese wild caught?
I know US wild is best....but I can't often buy that
I'm getting frost bite from reading the labels on frozen food!
Linda C

Don't get me wrong. I still only buy US cars.

US cars - what does that mean?
- cars with a US mfg brand (parts made in other countries, possibly assembled in other countries)
- cars assembled in the US (includes many foreign companies' models, excludes some US brand models)
- cars with parts made only in the US -- That would be ZERO.

I wasn't going to post but this one really gets to me. US cars doesn't mean what it used to 30+ years ago.

I agree with ntt hou. I saw a special on shrimp and tilapia farming in China and Indonesia, and since then, will never buy either product from either place. The entire process curdled my blood. I also try to stay away from a lot of Chinese-made foods because of the lack of quality control. For instance, when there was the scandal about whatever it was in powdered milk/formula, I threw away all the creme-filled cakes I'd bought for the kids that I got at our local H-Mart, and double-checked the ingredients on anything else that might possibly be suspect.

So Linda, I think you were being wise, not overly cautious.

Ya know I usually avoid all mixes, spice blends, canned soups, flavor packets bottled salad dressings because I don't like the lists of ingredients.
But it's getting really bad when something as simple as a piece of frozen fish is suspect because of it's label that says "product of...."

"-----US cars - what does that mean? ----"

You are correct. There is no way not to buy Chinese (or Japanese, or Korea, or India, or -----)nowadays.

My car (USA brand), engine is Misubishi,70% of the design work was done in india and who knows how many parts in the car are made in China.

An Italian company is now part owner of one of the Big Three.
And guess who owns the Hummer?
China is exporting electric cars now.
India may export a small car that's less than $3,000.

But I am trying.

dcarch

I avoid things from China. They have poisoned & killed our pets with tainted pet food, and they poison their own children (tainted milk). Thankfully we don't buy pet food made or processed or anything in China, but it breaks my heart to read about the innocents (babies and pets alike) who were poisoned or killed.

Apologies if this sounds narrow-minded, but I freely admit I have a blatant prejudice against things from China. For me, it's what I call my social conscience. I'm not judging others who support, buy, whatever, but I will not.

Sooz

I promise this is my last post regarding buy/boycott China.

Without question China being in such explosive growth there will be many problems.
Without question China cannot afford not to have the USA doing well.
Without question USA will be in very deep trouble without ChinaÂs financial support.
Without question USA would have been in unmanageable inflation without importing products from China (and many other countries) the past few years.

And most importantly, without question, our problem is not China, look into the mirror, our problem is ourselves.

We are in very profound trouble for many generations to come. WE NEED TO WAKE UP SOON.

What do you see in your crystal ball when ---- ?

USA has one lawyer per 360 citizens, Japan 1/9,000 and China 1/100,000. We are still making more lawyers. What do lawyers produce that we can export to earn income?

USA graduates 70,000 engineers per year, India 360,000 and China 600,000. Guess what their engineers are going to do?

If you think our deficit is outrageous (and depraved to our children) wait until a couple more year when the real impact of our cleaver "Stimulus package" takes effect.

Our attitudes toward foreigners are so unfriendly that we are facing with a big problem of brain drain. Many of very senior engineers, scientists, etc. have left and returned to their own countries, making us even less competitive.

It will not be long when North Korea, India, Cuba, and many other countries copying ChinaÂs example. Try competing with those countries.

Now back to be on topic: food.

I have noticed many items in Chinese grocery stores tripling in prices. Now they have money they may not be cheap for long. I will be hearing the opposite complains about their prices soon.

Yes, the Cuisinart ice cream maker ($15.00) is made in China.

dcarch

Re: trade deficits, here's an old article that I remembered was good by John Stossel.

Re: "American" cars -- car parts manufacturers like Cosma and Dana are international, with plants all over the world. Cars are international products.

Re: "Chinese" Salmon. Things get curiouser and curiouser.

re: China's population explosion... I could have sworn it was within the last week or so that I read that the gov't is now allowing (or considering allowing) two children per couple, if they are both single children, because of concern of a shrinking future population that won't support the needed workforce. Am I wrong?

You aren't wrong. They have been considering such things for a while. They already have quite a few loopholes in the one child rules. For example, if a farm couple has a girl first, they can have a second child to try for a boy. There was a story on NPR a while ago that listed some other exceptions but I don't remember them. Various ethnic groups are exempted because of external pressure on China to treat ethnic groups properly. And those who are well off sometimes pay the fine and have an extra kid.

When one is over there and looks at people, it is apparent that the population balance is off the norm from what one sees elsewhere except perhaps in big retirement areas like parts of Florida.

But I thought the explosive growth that darch was talking was economic growth there rather than population growth. More energy used, more cars per capita, more consumption per capita in general.

I don't see any sign of the brain drain of foreign engineers from the US that darch mentioned. I work in a technical field with many senior engineers many of whom are immigrants to the US and I haven't seen any leaving.

"----I don't see any sign of the brain drain of foreign engineers from the US that darch mentioned. I work in a technical field with many senior engineers many of whom are immigrants to the US and I haven't seen any leaving. -----"

Google "Reverse brain drain, USA"
I personally know many in technical fields returned to India and China. Also I have friends in employment (headhunters in high-tech field)who have been having problems finding people from those areas.

Again, back on topic: I have found here in New York, the best chefs in Chinese restaurants many have returned to China.

dcarch

In high tech, there has been shortages of qualified tech staff for a while now - it's probably better with the recession but a big reason for the shortage was due to the govt reducing the number of H1 visas avIlable to companies per year.

Getting back to your question, Linda, someone suggested buying 1 package and trying it out. If you like it go buy a bunch more to stock up.

A post here a year or two ago about the china thing and farm raised fish/shrimp/seafood had me checking labels. I'm still in that mode as of late. However, reading the links that Gina posted is very interesting info for sure. I'm not sure what to make of anything anymore....it can be made here, touched by someone over there, and packaged in another place. OY!

What a tangled web we weave...

David

I would be suspicious of the validity of the salmon being "wild" because of an article I read a few years ago. I subscribe to Consumer Reports and two years ago, they had an article which basically said most salmon labelled "wild caught" was actually farmed. This was not a "China" problem.

Here is an out-take of the article:

When CR resumed purchasing in salmonÂs off-season (November, December and March), we discovered that 13 of 23 salmons labeled as wild turned out to be farm-raised. We also found that supermarkets were more likely to correctly label wild salmon than fish stores in November and December. The good news is thatÂin our samplingÂnone harbored malachite green, a potentially carcinogenic fungicide banned in the U.S. but occasionally found in salmon.

From a health standpoint, CR recommends consuming wild salmon as the best choice for most people, especially children and women who may bear children. HereÂs what to consider when buying salmon:

Go wild in the summer. The U.S. gets 90 percent of its fresh wild salmon from Alaska, where commercial harvest runs from May through September, the same period in which it is most abundant on the market and judging by CRÂs tests, most likely to be truthfully labeled.
Look for canned Alaska salmon. Alaska salmon is wild by definition. To protect its wild stock, the state has outlawed salmon farming. But some fresh fish sold to CR as Alaska salmon was farmed. Your surest bet for a salmon fix, especially in the winter, may be canned Alaska salmon. ItÂs fairly cheap, is sold year-round, and generally has "Alaska" stamped on the lid of the can.
Buy farmed Atlantic salmon from Chile, the U.S., or Canada. Salmon from these regions tend to have lower levels of PCBs and dioxins than salmon farmed in Europe.
Try other sources of omega-3 fats. Top-selling fish oil pills, which CR found are accurately labeled and free of contaminants, can be a good source of omega-3s as well as flaxseed, canola, olive, soybean, and walnut oils.
Consider taste. CRÂs expert tasters noted that wild salmon has a stronger flavor and firmer flesh than farmed.

I am including the link, but you might have to be a subscriber to read it. If you want, I can post the entire article, just let me know.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link

Hopefully folks won't look down on Chinese cars as our factory has some parts that go to China. The product my line produces goes in diesel engines that are sold around the world... far as I know we are still the only people making them. I make them with wonderful and expensive machines built in Japan with GE electronic controls. We took over the job from an English company that could not hold the tolerences required to make a functional product. My wages are a problem my employer is seeking to solve with wage cuts and asking me to work off the clock so they don't have to pay me at all.

I wish the world were different. Everything built in the USA. Fewer people to feed and pollute. No shoddy work or crooked people to be found here or there. While we can ask what lawyers produce we can also ask what investment bankers produce other then global economic meltdowns.

I do buy some fish from China. Had to check the salmon in my freezer to see... yup in fine print was a Produced in China tag. Checking out the links gina_w provided. As one might suspect labor costs are driving the work to China. As for poisons some idiot dumped enough poison in a local river to kill all the fish for 12 miles. Pregnant women and children are not supposed to eat the local salmon due to mercury content... I guess they are stuck with Chinese fish.

The world is changing and all I can do is shake my fist at the storm.

?
lyra

I used to buy my White Rice flour from China because it's less gritty than the Rice flour made here. I no longer buy any food products from China.

Bonnie

Regardless of the world economy and what's made where, I still am not convinced that food products from China are safe to consume.

Now, this morning's headlines trumpet that 600 children in a Chinese village are being treated for lead poisoning, that some villages are dubbed "cancer villages" because of the health risks and that the problems are related to "China's pollution and lax product safety standards".

Nope, we have enough risks to take at home, I don't need to import any from somewhere notorious for their "lax product safety standards".

Which was the real question in the original post, LOL.

Annie

As I understand it, wild salmon meat is naturally red, and farmed salmon meat is artificially made red.

dcarch

dcarch, you may be right, the wild King salmon I caught in Lake Michigan in May was not really red, it was pink. The commercial stuff is darker than the stuff I caught. See, I KNOW my stuff was wild caught, because I caught it, LOL.

If I had any commercial stuff, I'd do a comparison picture, I still have some wild caught in the freezer. I'll see if I have any of the stuff Elery bought at Meijer...

Annie

Just in case anyone blew by the links that Gina posted, I will repost this one. It is sad but it doesn't surprise me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Salmon story

Am I the only one who's almost too scared to buy fish save for once in a blue moon? FISH, the food that we're encouraged to eat more of!!! Seems ironic. So what's worse for us, NOT eating fish, or eating fish laden with PCBs, antibiotics, and God knows what else - regardless of claimed origin?

Look at the Japanese - they have the highest life expectancy in the modern world. They eat lots of fish and other seafood, seaweed, tofu, mushrooms, green veggies, rice and noodles, soups and very little red meat. Even though their country is pretty polluted, this diet has been pretty good for them. They eat very little processed foods, except for fishcakes and tofu. (They also don't pig out like we do - they consider being a glutton, well, gluttonous!)

Here's my favorite Japanese cooking video source: Cooking with Dog (not what you think).