IT LOOKS GOOD to ME

As I watch the news from time to time it never ceases to amaze me that we just keep making friends all over the world... that is with sarcasm included. Each day our Government Officials are meeting with one group concerning another group which in turn upsets a couple of other groups and there we are. Right in the middle of a mess we were trying to work out again.

Well I was searching through some old articles on line and came across one that still catches my attention as well as it did the first time I read it. In the USA Today edition on 4/16/2007 there was an article on what a bang up job our Government at the FDA is doing in regulating the great imported foods we eat everyday. If you ever wanted to go on a diet you might want to read on. Within this article were some pretty astonishing statistics that I will have to say pretty much reassured me that the American Farmer is no more.

One really big statistic that caught my eye was that the FDA inspects 1.3% of all imported food coming into the United States each year. Why is this one would ask?. Well lets see the big problem is lack of man power.
It's kinda funny in a way because at one time we grew much of our meat and produce right here in the good ol USA and we had local inspections along with those completed with the FDA before entering the consumer market. It was good times because we had JOBS in farming and grain mills as well as suppliers for farm equipment. Some how our super brains at the government thought it would be better to build foreign relations with other smaller countries and start importing most of our food instead of growing it. You know who they are the same who said let's bottle water so we can fill up our landfills 60% quicker with items which will stay in the ground for years. That's another story.

Anyway, the FDA has determined with the help of such people as Robert Brackett the Director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition that the average American will eat 260 pounds of imported food a year. Hold on Veggies your not out of this. This percentage includes processed, ready to eat, single ingredient foods as well as vegetables. With this it is determined that imported foods make up 13% of our daily diets.

Generally the FDA has a ready made list of countries to monitor one being China. In one month the FDA detained from China, frozen catfish for illegal veterinary drugs, fresh ginger polluted with pesticides and melon seeds contaminated with a cancer causing toxin. WOW! and we still keep buying. What do you think our own Government would have done to a farmer in this country for these violations?.
The list goes on though. In March of 2007 the FDA detained 850 shipments of grain, fish, vegetables, nuts and spices all ranging from filth to unsafe food coloring. Countries currently on a watch list include China, Belgium, Peru, Guatemala, Philippines and our friends to the North, Canada.

I guess I am missing the bigger picture here, but would it not make more sense in a recession to try and create more farms here and maybe export to other countries and see if they will eat what we raise. I mean beside cigarettes. I remember not to long ago in High School when the group FFA was a large group and had a promising future. Now we gamble our lives on the fact that some of the same International Governments we have upset will produce fine quality foods for us to ingest. We have to try to get back up on our own feet to feed ourselves and drive ourselves around.

I'm not against importing or international trade. I spent 5 years in Europe and seen first hand that buying and selling between countries gives economic structure as well as increased marketing for jobs. I just think we should quit selling our butts away in importing to the point we cannot survive as a country without it.