I, like many of you, try to feed my family the best food possible. We can’t always afford organic, but I always read those little labels attached to tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and try to pay attention to where the fresh fruits and vegetables we eat originate. When it’s an exotic fruit or vegetable, or if I’m buying something completely out of season, I expect to see produce from Columbia, the Phillipines or Mexico.
However, imagine my surprise when I turned over a bag of frozen broccoli I purchased at Sam’s Club before steaming the broccoli and saw this: (Look above the UPC code)
That’s right, this frozen broccoli is a product of China. I’m sorry, but there is no reason that I can think of that Sam’s Club has to import broccoli from China. I tweeted about this, and Sam’s responded with a link to their “sustainability efforts.” The video indicated that they try to have their food travel as few miles as possible and utilize local suppliers when possible. Um, last I checked, China was really far from the United States. (It’s not just Sam’s either – one of my facebook friends checked her organic frozen broccoli she bought at Costco and it was also from China.)
How do you feel about produce from China? I don’t have anything against China, but their food safety standards have come under question. Heard of the exploding watermelons in China from farmers injected many chemicals in them, or do you remember the tainted baby formula from there? Do you really want to eat produce from China?
Am I overreacting? By the way, this broccoli bag went right back to Sam’s. Diane
Here’s the Tweet I did - if you are on Twitter and retweet it – Sam’s may actually change their policies if enough people tell them they want different options.
Its frightening isn’t it? I mean it’s broccoli. Can’t we grow it ourselves? Shouldn’t we be?
Ness at Drovers Run´s last fabulous musings ..Because I can’t resist…
I do agree with you. There is no reason as to why any country should import fresh produce at all.
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China also has been shown to add other sweeteners to their honey (like corn syrups) and not mark it on the label. AND look at this report about the dangers in Chinese honey:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says tainted honey from China is on top of its watch list and has been for six years–since the agency released the first of three “import alerts” targeted at banned substances in honey. FDA considers a food adulterated if, among other reasons, it contains an animal drug deemed unsafe for unapproved uses. Chloramphenicol certainly meets that definition.
In 2005, China’s Ministry of Agriculture outlawed the use of chloramphenicol in food production, but there are reports that Chinese beekeepers are ignoring the ban.
I got the above quote from http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-12-30/bay-area/17132908_1_honey-chloramphenicol-chinese
This week I am going a local grown produce co-op. Foods will have been grown locally, which can include other US states for items that are not grown locally but nothing if from outside the country and I can specify organic or not depending on the product.
Jane~
Keepingthepoundsoff.com
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This touches on a very complex problem that has been shaped by our modern world. We now live in a world where we can by fresh strawberries in December, have ample supplies of frozen veggies year round and we believe we need to consume these fresh or frozen veggies year round because it is healthy. We also believe that organic is best because it is free from harmful pesticides. The reality is that in order to eat organic frozen veggies year round we must import them from many sources to guarantee a constant supply. Places like Sam’s Club will state that they use sustainable policies, but what they really mean is that they take moves to be able to sustain large supplies for a long time and keep their price fairly stable- not any sort of practice that makes any degree of ecological sense. Truth of the matter is that organic anything can be the most ecologically damaging if it is not locally grown. There is a move by some to commit to eat only products that are grown within a 100 mile radius of where they live, and then choose those that are organic and so forth. Seems like a good plan, but when you come across the need for things like wheat, salt, sugar you come face to face with how we got to this place with food distribution. China is not the only problematic source- just the one that has made the news most often in recent times. The only way to insure the safety and sustainability of what you eat is to grow it yourself from seeds harvested by your own hands from a previous non GMO crop, preserve it yourself, raise and butcher your own chickens, keep and milk your own cows, tend your own orchard.It’s a move that some are actually able to make, and bless them . However, for the rest of us, we have to make intelligent compromises and trust. Exploding watermelons are one possibility ( learn to spot the signs of produce that has been grown with accelerated processes), produce tainted with e-coli is another, fish that have ingested red tide, another, eggs contaminated with salmonella and so on and so on. Still we need to eat and our children have grown rather used to the idea, so we simply have to make the best choices for our families based on all the factors we live with.
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China’s land use practices are scary– I stopped eating anything grown in China years ago.
Barb
Honestly Diane, after all the bad stuff we have heard coming out of China, that does bother me & I do try to not buy food from there. I best check my big bag of veggies from Costco. I usually check that but I am not sure I did – with money so tight, I am just trying to save right now… I agree with you though!
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Oh I never think to look!
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Hi Diane,
I just checked my freezer and our broccoli from Sams is from Mexico. I’m not sure if different areas get products from different manufacturers. We live in CO, so maybe that is why we have a different country of origin.
I did notice, however, that the dog chews at Sams are from China, Taiwan, South America, etc. I only buy American beef hide for my dogs since I don’t want them chewing up chemicals. The only place I can find American beef hide is at Target. It is more expensive, but our dogs are worth it.
I will be checking all my veggie labels from now on. Never thought that something I’d buy in the frozen food section of Sams would come from China.
You are not overreacting. You say you have nothing against China, but look at their human rights record – there’s plenty to hold against them. Thanks for the heads-up. I never think to look, but I will now.
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I don’t think you are over reacting at all. A large part of the societal problems such as our economy and obesity is that we don’t rely on our own country’s resources.
Outsourcing and sustainability DON’T mesh…
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My old roommate once went to Michael’s to buy some craft river stones and THEY WERE FROM CHINA. She was like, “WHAT? We don’t have rocks in the US?!”
Importing broccoli from anyplace when we live in a country with so many breadbaskets is disgusting. Sam’s should be ashamed of themselves.
Thank you for this Diane. I have that same bag of broccoli in my freezer-but mine has already been opened and partially used.:-( It never occurred to me to look at where that broccoli came from—I always check the fish, but never the frozen fruits/vegetables. I will be in the future.
It’s hard for us to make ends meet (like so many families), but I hate the thought of buying food from a foreign country who has such a bad track record when it comes to food safety.
We do have gardens and try to grow as much as we can, but in the city it’s impossible for us to grow everything that we consume. It’s unfortunate–as it appears that growing your own food is truly the only way to know where it came from!
You definitely didn’t overreact.
I bought their brand of Apple Juice ONE TIME and noticed a stamp on it that said from china / Argentina. Needless to say the juice went down the drain. Its all about the cheapest they can find – its not about quality, sustainability or any other smoke they want to try to blow up people’s-you-know-whats.
It takes me forever to go shopping now, and I freeze more of my own veggies now, too.
Its so hard for me to buy fish for the same reasons. I wish more people would support their local farms. Then it would become cheaper. I’m there with you totally!
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I’m with you on this, Diane. I’ve been struggling with the issue of where to buy meat, since I can’t afford the pricy grass-raised beef and would prefer to avoid the mass-market corporate-raised meat. I’ve found a Halal market not too far from me where I now buy chicken and beef. I noticed my Costco, where I used to buy fish from the US, Canada and Norway now has mostly third world farmed fish, which I won’t buy. To be honest, shopping has become difficult and time consuming in addition to more expensive. I still get most of my produce at Costco, and haven’t seen any Chinese produce there, just US and Mexico, but I haven’t checked the frozen stuff which I don’t use except the berries. I’d love to eat locally but am afraid around here the only thing available for much of the year would be….snow. Or ice. If you have a Costco near you, you might check it out. I switched a couple of years ago from Sam’s Club and think it’s much better for my needs.
You have to watch Costco produce too. My husband picked up some spring greens there for me one time; the country of origin was China. Seriously.
No reason for importing for crying out loud! I don’t get it.
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Personally I dont mind chinese produce. Freezing kills most bacteria, and produce form SA has been implicated in many more outbreaks than China!
Wow, where have I been? Hadn’t heard of the exploding watermelons.
‘Drea´s last fabulous musings ..Theres Nothing To Fear But
Food safety is a really scary topic – we have been having a cucumber scare here in Europe right now – 22 people in Germany died from what was thought to be E-coli contaminated cucumbers from Spain. Turned out the infection came from contaminated mung bean sprouts grown right in the neighborhood in Germany! I think unfortunately these contaminations can happen anywhere in the world…even right in our own back yard. Which means hygiene is even more important than ever before.
And be careful Diane – you don’t want to end up like Oprah did with the Texas beef farmers and a lawsuit on your hands!
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I have no idea where to ‘situate’ myself in this discussion. Growing food, and cost, and sustainibility and global food networks etc is just so complex. Why are you ok with food coming from the Philippines but not China? I think the Philippines are probably further away.
Does anyone know what the criteria are to be allowed to import food produce? Surely there are safety standards of some sort applied, or what would even be the point of having safety standards in the US? Its not like all US farmers are working in isolation of the crops and seeds from other countries.
Personally I try to buy local and organic, but its costly and complicated and definitely not an option for everyone. Washing your food is also so so important with organic produce.
I rarely think to check where my food is from. I agree that ideally it should be from somewhere closer. However, at the same time, I have to admit that I usually buy whatever is cheapest and don’t pay much attention to where it is from, so I guess in some ways I understand the situation that places like Sam’s are in. We really speak to them by what we are willing to pay for. I also think that frozen broccoli from China is still much better than junk food from America. But I still think that our food should not come from China, so I don’t think you are overreacting. I’m off to check my frozen broccoli from Aldi.
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I don’t trust anything that is ingestible, is used with eating, put to the mouth or on the skin from China. This includes dinnerware, toys from China (since kids tend to chew or suck in them), coffee mugs, lotions, jewelry, and all food.
Mattel had toys made in China with too high of lead. Jewelry from China has had too high of lead. The dinnerware and other types of pottery with glaze often has dangerous lead levels. Certain candy from China has dangerous lead levels. I’m certainly not going to put Chinese lotion on to experiment on myself to see if my skin soaks in lead.
I don’t know if you know this but lead from the growing soil can soak into fruits and vegetables.
By the way–Everyone with an old house should only use cold water for cooking and drinking because hot water is more likely to have lead in it from the lead pipes.
Diane, you are right to question Sam’s Club and make your own decision–not on the store’s packaging promises.
Whoops! I never thought of checking frozen veggie labels, especially since I do the frozen spinach thing for work. Now about that exploding watermelon thing. That’s just ridiculous, as in, I believe it and it’s dang ridiculous that it even happened.
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In response to your concern regarding China broccoli I would like to point out a few facts about your rant. There are only five regions in the world that have the proper growing environment that is conducive to growing Broccoli. They are USA, Equador, Mexico, Guatemala, and China. These areas have temperatures and high humidity levels that this vegetable needs in order to flourish.
First lets consider the United States. Over 90% of the Broccoli that is grown in the US is in California, of that almost all of this Broccoli is sold as fresh not frozen to retail and foodservice outlets. Guatemala, is probably the most unstable in terms of political unrest and laxed control of quality control of all of the growing regions. Mexico, has been caught using non approved pesticides on various plants and vegetables over the last several years. As you can see with the limited areas of the world to procure Broccoli you have to make choices. Almost all retail outlets will have Broccoli from one of these regions not just Sam’s or Costco. China has had the Melamine scare that was in dog food and baby formula in the past. However it was determined these were isolated issues by rouge executives within some companies. But let’s consider USA food and drug issues. Do you use Tylenol? This USA company has had 5 recalls in the past year and still cannot identify were the problem originated. Let’s consider food, go to the United States Food and Drug recall site http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/default.htm
and you will see that in the past month alone there have been over 10 recalls of USA produced food products with Listeria to undeclared ingredients and foreign debris. These are SERIOUS infractions that could have SERIOUS medical implications. For the record if you preview the recall list Kashi is Kellogg’s Foods all natural better for you products that has “possible plastic fragments” contained in its pizza.
My point is we live in a global economy which requires that we source products around the world in order to meet supply and demand. No longer is any society able to grow and harvest their needs within there own country. So you as the consumer has to pick who you support or what you will and not consume. If you want frozen Broccoli who will it be, China-Equador-Mexico-Guatemala? But not the USA as it is available only fresh from California……
I m happy to report that the giant package of organic baby greens I get at BJ’s is a product of the USA. One product down, 49,999 to go.
Jane~
Keepingthepoundsoff.com
Jane C´s last fabulous musings ..Even a Food Addict has a right to Choos
I try to buy all my produce from my farmers market, ensuring it to be CA grown. I don’t want ANYTHING from China, that exploding watermelon story really was the last straw for me. Melamine in cat food, plasticizers in milk, vice versa, whathaveyou, I think the culture is based on skimming corners to maximize profits, and I want no part of it.
julie´s last fabulous musings ..I guess I should say something
I think that one of the problems here could be the fact that most of the agricultural land in the USA is used to raise food for animals… so you have to import produce. I certainly wouldn’t eat produce from China!
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