FOOD FROM CHINA: UNSAFE AT ANY COST

Sam, if there is a Trader Joe's near you, they have been my lifeline.

Thank you. I loved Trader Joe's when my wife lived in Cali. We have one about 45 minutes away and I will definitely have to get by there more often. For the most part we eat what we grow. The meat we eat is locally raised. We are very lucky in that regard.

When we first moved to Santa Barbara, the nearest Trader Joe's was about an hour away, in Oxnard.

We would get another couple to join us and go on a TJ's run. We'd take ice chests, of course. The hardest part was not eating all the snacky stuff before we got home!

At that time, there was only a couple of vegetarian-friendly stores in SB and they were both very, every expensive. One was called "Follow Your Heart," and we used to call it "Follow Your Wallet."

So TJs was good for us in a lot of ways, but having some vegetarian food items at a reasonable price was the best.

My favorite TJ non-cookie (have to be honest, lol) item ever was the mushroom burgers they used to carry about 15 years ago. They were the bomb.

I miss the TJ Raspberry Creme Brulee - I think it was discontinued

Good for you! Test the soil first. Also, if you are going to use potting soil or soil amendments for anything, see if you can get testing results for it. Some are pretty high in lead, but then homes that are near roads have lead in the soil, too (from the vehicle exhaust).

I've seen really good results with straw bale gardening for food products. Less water is used, and the amount of vegetables returned is awesome! You can have more control of what the food is grown in, as well. One set-up I saw in college was made of two large plots of straw-bales. One is used for growing one season. The other is used as a giant compost bin.

Once a year they switch from the plot that they grew vegetables, etc. to the plot that had been composting, where is where they grew the next year's crop. Usually some repair or addition of the hay bales was needed. Growing in a straw/hay-bale set up produces a very healthy, thriving soil with microorganisms so it composts stuff really quickly.

They didn't grow the vegetables year round, but used a green-manure crop during the winter for the compost plot. As students, we did the calculations based on the amount of green manure material that grew there and the amount of nitrogen it will put into the soil, and were surprised to see that there was actually MORE nitrogen, and of a more complex, organic form, than if we had added commercial fertilizer.

It's good to allow the soil to go fallow once a year. In California, because of the cost of farming area acreage is so expensive, that is something in some places you can't do.

Of course, if you wanted to complete the circle, you could raise laying hens and recycle the manure into the composting plot.

What is cool about the straw bale gardening is you can raise the growing surface of the garden up where it doesn't kill your back to work the shorter crops, like lettuce (as you get older, your back condition becomes an issue--just look at old farmers who worked row crops). Also, you can put the bales into geometric designs with paths between them, which not only looks cool, you don't have to reach too far in to harvest.

Anyway, GOOD LUCK!

Great and imformatice post. Although I heard of and seen elevated gardens and even considered it myself, this is the first I've heard of straw bale gardens. I'll have to "google" it and find out more. As for allowing soil to go fallow for a year, though I lived in California for some twenty five years, I've since been in Georgia an equal amout of time and not up on today's taxing practices, though when I was there the trend was toward taxing property at its "higest and best use." Thus, if farm land would have a "highest and best best use" as a shopping mall, the property would be taxed at that higher rate--the death knell for most for most small farmers. As for U.S. regulators being more proactive in assuring the quality and purity of food products imported from China, aside from the fact that the Chinese are so reluctant to allow FDA inspectors on site at their production facilities, we are so indebted to China that we are want to scrutinize their products too closely for fear that they will call in our notes. It galls me to hear politicians call the U.S. the "richest country in the world" when we "owe out souls to the company store."

PA - excellent info!!! This property is amazing since its in the middle of Scottsdale and a half acre backyard with absolutely NO landscaping or structures! I have a blank canvas to work with. I had planned on elevated growing areas using solid block to help control insects and rodents, water usage, drainage, and soil content - never even thought of the ergonomic effects.

I was also looking into creating an area to build a pyrolysis oven that I can use to create my own bio char, which is an AMAZINGLY green product and one incredible fertilizer!!! Not to mention I'll be creating my own bio fuel as well. Given the fantastic results you get with bio char, I think I can skip the whole manure requirement! The cool thing with building several growing runs will be in the fact that I'll be able to conduct my own experiments to see which one works best.

I am also researching the perfect blend of fruit and nut trees to ensure I have tons of organic goodies to enjoy year round!

Good stuff! Thank you, PoliticalAmazon!

How exciting! Be sure to take photos and keep us updated. You ARE going to do a blog, right?

My garden is hydrephonic, there is no dirt, only uses water and special liquid fertilizer. The garden is planted in a 4 inch pvc pipe. Water & fertilizer is pumped from a 50 gal tank to the pipe then the water flows with gravity the length of the pipe ( 50 feet and back 100 feet total with a hole every foot ) and back to the barrel. I give away 400 plus tomatoes, many cucumbers, squash, broccoli & peppers. The pipe is off the ground ( which helps because I have trouble bending ) there are no weeds, the water is kept full with a float valve in the tank. I add fertilizer every Monday and check the PH. This garden is no work at all, very simple, I spend about $60 dollars for enough fertilizer to last one season. This is the only garden that I have and I live on about 9 acre's with a fish pond.

PA - I am thinking that would be a cool thing to blog about - especially setting up my own bio fuel / bio char facility.

We looked into hydroponics a year or so ago - very cool stuff!!!

It does use a lot of water, but it sure is a lot easier when you get older like me. No grass too pull. I clean the pipe and tank and plant it in one day, then I add fert every week, then I pick it. It's that simple. Prior to adding the float valve I had to add 15 to 20 gal of water every day.

Great resources and thank you for the courtesy and effort to point me in the right direction as a starting point. As a result, I've downloaded from Amazon e-books "The One Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming" by Fukuoka, Mansanobu et al. to my Creative Viio and look forward to reading it as time allows. Best wishes.

You sound a lot like my brother in Arkansas except, in addition to what you have growing, he has a medicinal herb growing, as well.

Is your fish pond natural or did you construct it? Any issues or problems? If you have the space, I think aquaculture (i.e., having a pond) is the way to go, but I am sure there are a lot of issues that I would think of and I'd just cry if, two weeks into the project, all of my fish died.

Whenever we vacation, I visit the local growers. They have a great hydroponic commercial tomato growing operation in Waimea, Hawaii. They used to grow roses but the market bottomed out thanks to the airlines helping South American rose growers get control of the U.S. market. I had not seen hydroponics done on such a large scale before. Trippy.

How many crops do you run a year? or how many times a year do you change out plants?

You are welcome. If you remember, and have the time, let me know how it goes.

The pond was dug when I-95 was built, they needed the sand, the deepest spot is 26 feet, it's full of real big Bass and Bream.

In early April I plant 30 Tomato's 6 or 8 cucumbers, 6 or 8 Squash, sometimes I plant Broccoli, Bell Peppers & Hot Peppers. I can plant 96 plants total. I used to fill it full of plants now I just plant 1/2 of it and one season. I have planted twice in one year. I give every thing away. Now I use it to root other plants. It works good for rooting. By July 10 th I have gave away 400 plus Tomato's, two farmers 1 1/2 miles from here copied my system after they saw my Tomato's. Once I had beautiful cabbage but they froze.

You know, I'm thinking about our local Chinese restaurants....although we don't eat out much anymore. It is just too difficult to know what you're eating.

Nothing like a little paranoia to ensure you stay on a good, healthy diet, no?

just great now you have me freaked out about eating at my local Chinese restaurant an I just love Chinese food.

Other than not having my computer and the internet I think the way of the Amish is the only way to go!

Yes!! that's the way it'll come to be....I say..why wait start now learning the ways...everything will fail..computerized systems...everything that we know is computerized..power / water / manufacturing food / products / clothing..I mean everything..it'll all come to a screaming halt one day...then what?...If we are uneducated in having nothing..or how to survive with out having nothing..where will we be?....The day that happens..The poor and homeless will become Rich...you'll have to pay for alot of information on how to survive..........

Actually, that's not a bad idea. We can all have a kitchen sill garden, or a balcony or patio garden, if we don't have room for a bigger garden. The more we can grow our own food, the healthier we'll all be.

We had a huge garden and plenty of food, fresh, organic and were never ever hungry, growing up in Kansas. Now those small farms are all abandoned. Everyone buys their food from supermarkets, genetically modified, filled with chemicals, hormones, pesticides, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, salt, etc. - and a lot of it is carcinogenic.

Several years ago when I visited my Mom's family in Arkansas, I brought my Foxfire book with me. My Aunt Colleen and I sat down one morning to look at the book--she grew up like my Mom did, WAY rural. They didn't have electricity when they were young and kept food in a "spring house," etc. Anyway, at midnight that night we finally called it a day and said goodnight. We had talked fro morning to midnight--she talked mostly, telling me details about how she grew up, how they made soap, how to make sure you have a good possum for Christmas dinner (you have to catch it ahead of time and give it cornmeal and good vegetables to "clean it out"--like 3 weeks before. Hell, if I kept a possum 3 weeks, it would have a name and there is no way it would go into a roaster!)

Anyway, she had never heard of the Foxfire book, and that Christmas she bought one for each of her daughters.

So if you don't have a reference manual for survival, my Aunt Colleen would recommend Foxfire would be a good place to start!

There is another one called "The Guide to Self Sufficiency." I have a xeroxed copy of it from the early 70s. I will dig it out to find the author's name. It shows one how to set up an acre to five acres to live completely off the grid and entirely in self-sufficiency. It covers crops, animal husbandry, canning, preserving, spinning wool, energy production etc.

Just checked amazon and they have them, used, as cheap as under $12.00! I'm going to order one right now. Thanks for the advice!

Unfortunately the FDA cannot be trusted either, especially if it interrupts them turning a profit. Best to buy locally grown food, or at the very least USA grown food, nothing packaged or processed and in a perfect world, grow your own. Rememeber, the FDA is responsible for such classics as fast-track medications and immunizations that have resulted in hundreds of thousands of consumer deaths and illnesses... allegedly... But we all gotta die somehow, right?

AGREED I saw a documentary of the FDA and how it is staffed, just like the oil inspectors, there are all on the take. Phantom CEO’s and executive officers of the companies they are supposed to be inspecting, makes me feel real safe.

The FDA sold out long ago.

EXactly The repugs never met a dictator they didn't like, fact is they would like to emulate.

We see this here all the time. Obama is deporting 1000 illegal immigrants a day, but where are the prosecutions of the people that have been paying to work here. The law provides for criminal penalties of fines and imprisonment for hiring illegal aliens, but when is the last time you heard of someone going to jail for that.

Why is it that the company that imports this crap is not criminally and civilly responsible for the harm that it causes Americans. We can stop jobs from being sent overseas, and crap from being imported, if the importing company is responsible for any harm caused to Americans from those products. It should be the importers responsibility to prove that 1. the products are safe, and 2. that the products meet minimum US standards for the ingredients and materials used in those products. Once they are record that the products are safe, they become liable for any harm caused by them. Importers should also have to set up an escrow fund to cover the costs of harm caused by the use of their imports.

That is similar to the attack on teachers for us not properly funding public education ....

Exactly so. While you can't improve education by simply throwing money at it, at the least you have so spend enough to have adequate schools and teachers paid a decent wage commensurate withe their education and classroom performance. Here in rural Georgia, most if not all of the teachers have to buy classroom supplies for the children with their own money because of state and local budgeting constraints. Yet, we can't tax the ultra rich or corporations. Go figure!

Well, at least your hand won't get cancer. ;)

Seriously, it is difficult to find non-Chinese materials and food products. I buy my shrimp at Trader Joe's--they are pretty good about clearly marking their products. I don't purchase farm-raised fish or shell-fish, although when I was in the sustainable ag classes at college, we did learn of some farms that were done without pollution, antibiotics, etc.

Friends have sent me a couple of e-mails recently with links to videos (probably Youtube) relating to Chinese food. One depicted Chinese catfish being raised in what could best be described as sewage water; the other related to how chickens that died of who knows what and how they are transported and left to languish unrefrigerated for hours if not days before they are "processed" for human consumption. This latter correspondent advised against buying chicken products from Walmart since they are a primary purchaser of the Chinese chicken food goods. I don't know if the writer's information re: Walmart was correct or not. However, I make it a practice not to buy processed foods no matter what the source due to the additives and preservatives, though even that is no assurance that fresh meat hasn't been pumped full of antibiotics and who knows what else.

MMMM, Trader Joe's is about as close as you can get to legit- it is the only place I shop. And I would rather eat scavanged rats and roadkill than buy food at Walmart.

Keep trying ! if we all do it , it cannot hurt us as much ...

That is a very good point.

I try to avoid any product from China. I had not heard about the dishes and flatware. Thanks for mentioning that, makes me want to research it a bit.

We dumped all of our cups and dishes that were made in China and replaced it with Fiesta-ware! All American made and reasonably priced. Fiesta-ware is great stuff!

The best thing to eat or drink with is glass - pyrex or anchor-hocking, made here in U.S.

Say, do you know what the content is of depression glass? Every time I visit family in Arkansas, I hit the local depression-glass oriented second-hand shops. I take my trusty ID books with me so I know I'm getting the real deal and not a knock-off from Indonesia. Anyway, now that I'm reconsidering utensils, etc., since we eat mostly off of the depression glass plates, I'm curious what is in them.