We're kowtowing to the Chinese...

for foul chickens. Well, I'm not included in that "we're"--I'm no nugget fan. I also try, as often as possible, to buy food that is organic, and better yet, locally produced. It seems absurd to me to import foodstuffs when we have the same stuff here. (Mangoes, maybe--but the decaying carcasses of once sentient beings? Huh.) Plus, and I could be wrong here, but isn't China HUGE? Don't they have a population of oh, say, over 1.3 billion people, or 1/5 of the world's total population? With 200 million of those people living on less than $1 a day, in absolute poverty, I'm sure they need all of the poultry they can get their hands on.

So where does the kowtowing come in? According to this article (and Robert B. Cassidy, a former assistant U.S. trade representative for China): "So many U.S. companies are directly or indirectly involved in China now, the commercial interest of the United States these days has become to allow imports to come in as quickly and smoothly as possible." This means there is less regulation on what enters our borders, even if it's meant for human consumption. Supposedly, the Chinese cannot export meat to the US unless it is processed in spiffy USDA-approved slaughterhouses like the kind we have here--the kind with efficient head deboning lines that allow the processing of up to 800 carcasses an hour, y'know--with robots that automatically remove the "skull mask" (aka face) of the animals and efficiently drill out their eyes. Mmmm. But not having such "sanitary" facilities doesn't stop exporters from shipping over thousands of pounds of meat.

Of course the FDA is on top of COOL--Country of Origin Labeling, right? And their inspections are up to par. They'll protect us from rancid, carcinogenic meat from foreign countries! Well, maybe...not, considering that they are only able to inspect less than 1% of regulated imports--which says nothing for the unregulated ones.

And this is what's really scary: some Chinese exporters are sneaky. They'll ship over a box marked "dried persimmons," that really contains a bunch of dried game hen gizzards coated in some weird radioactive substance. Hell--they're probably poor and looking to make some yuan any way they can. Can you blame them? Many a United Statesian would do the same. It's all about the green--and I don't mean grass. Any logical person knows that grass is worthless unless it can be sold.

But I digress. Back to fowl--and poisoned prunes. As it turns out, carnivores aren't the only ones who need to worry about where their food comes from. Prunes and fruit juice from China have also been found to contain toxic substances. I guess us vegetarians need to keep in mind that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" only if it hasn't fallen far from the tree--and it's organic.

And for those of you who do enjoy a wing or a giblet now and again, make sure you know where your chickens once roosted--or don't be surprised when a side of flu de avian with a nitrofuran demi-glace shows up next to your Scaloppine di Pollo.