Scores of Americans are in an uproar since Food Safety News revealed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will soon allow U.S. chickens to be sent to China for processing before being shipped back to the states for human consumption. chinachicken Bureau of Labor Statistics data estimates that American poultry processors are paid roughly $11 per hour on average. In China, reports have circulated that the country’s chicken workers can earn significantly less—$1 to 2 per hour.
This arrangement is especially disturbing given China’s subpar food safety record and the fact that there are no plans to station on-site USDA inspectors at Chinese plants. Also, American consumers won’t know which brands of chicken are processed in China because there’s no requirement to label it as such.
To ease concerns, lobbyists and chicken industry proponents argue no U.S. company will ever ship chicken to China for processing because it wouldn’t work economically.
“Economically, it doesn’t make much sense,” said Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, in a recent interview with the Houston Chronicle. “Think about it: A Chinese company would have to purchase frozen chicken in the U.S., pay to ship it 7,000 miles, unload it, transport it to a processing plant, unpack it, cut it up, process/cook it, freeze it, repack it, transport it back to a port, then ship it another 7,000 miles. I don’t know how anyone could make a profit doing that.”
Yet, a similar process is already being used for U.S. seafood.
According to the Seattle Times, domestically caught Pacific salmon and Dungeness crab are being processed in China and shipped back to the U.S. because of significant cost savings.
“There are 36 pin bones in a salmon and the best way to remove them is by hand,” said Charles Bundrant, founder of Trident, which ships about 30 million pounds of its 1.2 billion-pound annual harvest to China for processing. “Something that would cost us $1 per pound labor here, they get it done for 20 cents in China.”
Bureau of Labor Statistics data estimates that American poultry processors are paid roughly $11 per hour on average. In China, reports have circulated that the country’s chicken workers can earn significantly less—$1 to 2 per hour—which casts doubt on Super’s economic feasibility assessment.
China’s food safety system, which is said to be decades behind America’s, is highly questionable given some of the more recent food safety scandals that have surfaced in the country:
More than 300,000 Chinese children have suffered illness, and several have died, from melamine-tainted milk powder.
Dangerously high levels of mercury have been found in Chinese baby formula.
More than $1 million worth of rat and other small mammal meat has been sold to Chinese consumers as lamb.
Food Safety News aims to spread awareness of the pending USDA agreement and stop Chinese-processed chicken from ever reaching supermarkets or school lunchrooms
Well, I guess it is time to start raising my own chickens.
This is just one more reason to raise your own chickens. Not only the fresh eggs but fresh, you-know-how-its-been-raised-and-butchered chickens. How much more are we gonna take from this corrupt govt?
#1: Vicomte13 To: Stoner (#0)
Vicomte13 posted on 2016-05-17 15:03:26 Reply Private Reply
#2: Stoner To: Vicomte13 (#1)
Stoner posted on 2016-05-17 16:20:17 Reply Private Reply
#3: U don't know me To: Vicomte13 (#1)
I am sure our government will take care of this problem.
U don't know me posted on 2016-05-17 22:43:56 Reply Private Reply
#4: Vicomte13 To: U don't know me (#3)
Under Trump, yeah. Under either a regular Republican or Democrat, they'll "solve" it by making it illegal for the label to say anything about the work having been done in China.
Vicomte13 posted on 2016-05-17 23:48:33 Reply Private Reply
#5: Roscoe To: Vicomte13 (#4)
Bingo!
Roscoe posted on 2016-05-18 00:24:39 Reply Private Reply
#6: TheFireBert To: Vicomte13 (#1)
Agreed.
However, American towns are increasingly against having those processing plants near their borders. When stupid people avoid the inconvenient processes for a little comfort, businesses will try to find another place to create their product.
People want chicken, pork, and seafood, but not the unpleasant business that comes with processing it. Nor do they want to pay the price for having it processed here.
On the other hand, businesses who seek to offshore their product creation for the express benefit of increased profit should not benefit from relaxed food safety regulations. Want to play the game? Stay within the boundaries.
TheFireBert posted on 2016-05-18 13:53:08 Reply Private Reply
#7: Vicomte13 To: TheFireBert (#6)
People are not as stupid as you think.
What has happened in the past? These plants have come in, promising jobs. The jobs have been given to migrants and illegals. The towns have gotten mostly crime and grime, their communities have gotten worse, the tax base hasn't much improved (because of all of the concessions these business demand and generally get for a town to have the "privilege" of locating there. And local employment hasn't much improved: the people living in the town haven't gotten all the jobs. New migrants move in to take the low wage jobs.
This cycle has been repeated so often, with everything from WalMart to chicken factories that people have actually gotten quite smart. They see right through it.
Towns are beginning to say "No" to ANY special tax breaks for companies to move in. They refuse to engage in the "race to the bottom".
Also, all across the country, minimum wages are going up. The government has recklessly engaged in fantastically expensive foreign adventures, and run up a massive debt, with interest. It has printed money to pay it and keep the interest rates low, touch off inflation. Enough people are out of work and being paid too little - they have come together to extract wage concessions through minimum wage.
People probably would be willing to let such plants into their towns IF the places promised to employ all of the unemployed locals before bringing in other people, didn't hire illegals, didn't demand tax exemptions, and paid decent living wages.
Since they won't, people are turning to the political process to impose from above what businesses refuse to do from below.
That isn't stupid. It means that a frustrated people have had enough. Things will change. Business will adjust and give a fairer deal to the American people, or the American people will force the issue through government and laws.
In no country have private interests ever been able to stand for long against public power. The best governed countries are the ones where the businesses already know that, and provide good conditions for their countrymen without having to be coerced. American businessmen refuse to get that message and don't really care for their own countrymen all that much.
So they have to be coerced by government to do what, say, the Danes do naturally.
Vicomte13 posted on 2016-05-18 14:15:42 Reply Private Reply
#8: TheFireBert To: Vicomte13 (#7)
Very true.
Uncle Sam doesn't care, though. Free trade deals obviously trumps American (lobbyist) interests...
TheFireBert posted on 2016-05-18 16:03:50 Reply Private Reply