They sent in Delta Force and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt

[kyburg]

Federal agents searched facilities of a dog and cat food manufacturer and one of its suppliers as part of an investigation into the widening recall of pet products, the companies disclosed Friday.

Yay whee clap paws squeal with glee -

What I can't get my head around is WHY we're importing agricultural goods - that's one of the few industries we could, yanno, actually still dominate in globally.

I guess we're just getting really good at getting old and dying providing health care, which is the only growth industry left in the USA.

"Government won't protect you" - BAH.

Big Business will kill you, if you and I and the guy over there (ie, WE THE PEOPLE*) don't take steps to protect ourselves.

REMEMBER THE PINTO.


*Uh, that's the government, folks.

I'm going to go read a book. Several of them.

Comments

[n6vfp.livejournal.com]

The import of agricultural goods isn't whats going on here. The Chinese import the wheat, then process the wheat glutten, that is where they excell, cheap labor. On NPR they said food processing was a big thing in China, as they had an edge on labor costs. They stated it was actually cheaper the ship the wheat to China foor processing and then bring back the finished product than do the processing here. American agribusiness at its best.

[poetpaladin.livejournal.com]

We'll have to wait til oil prices rise before we can really see a dent in Chinese processing. Right now they ship post-consumer paper to China for processing, too.

Importing Agriculture and water

[forestcats.livejournal.com]

This year I know that CA will be importing both grain and hays in bulk because there was no rain. Right now you may see beef prices dropping here because ranchers are culling herds that they know they won't be able to feed this year. Same and worse for the horse market.

Water rights are going to be the greatest issue in the next decade. Cities and human populations living in 'reclaimed' deserts are draining the Colorado to the extent that we have significantly hurt the agriclutural areas here and in Mexico where the river USED to flow.
Only Santa Barbara has bothered to get ahead of this by deslaination and claiming drinking water from the Ocean. Catalina as an island too does this.

To a lesser extent the brain drain from traditional bread belt states have shut down even more farms. People don't want to return to the country and run the family farm.

Re: Importing Agriculture and water

[poetpaladin.livejournal.com]

With these global changes, what's the weather/climate forecast like for the East Coast? New England?

Re: Importing Agriculture and water

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

There's good economic reasons why family farms across the country are in so much trouble that people can't stay on land they grew up on. The exception is for farms that can grow specialty crops that reach nearby niche markets, and of course if a fad dies or a law written for the benefit of a larger competitor or a distributor's benefit, then they're in trouble again.
In any case, CA ag is not family farms in any sense most people understand. Standard crops like rice out here take huge acreages, with huge capitol investments in irrigation, water rights agreements, and the equipment on the upper end of John Deere's ranges. This size bias was partly due to a bank fad in offering shaky credit to farmers during boom years, about 20 years ago, which in bad years afterward led to foreclosures and consolidation of land ownership in the hands of banks all over the country. Which, of course, led to larger fewer farms with corporate owners. If you've ever seen rippers and land planers (which use laser levels) capable of leveling a swath that's the width of a 4-lane highway, you get how much financial gambling is involved.

[ersatzinsomnia.livejournal.com]

Actually, it has more to do with crops purposing than anything else. In the US, most of our wheat crop goes into bread, for which the entire grain is used. No leftover wheat gluten. In China, a sizeable portion of their wheat production goes into starch production, for all the food purposes you need starch for. What's left over is wheat gluten, which they sell off for pet food and other products.

In the US, most of our starch production comes from corn, which, unsurprisingly, doesn't have wheat gluten. Mass quantities of corn grow well in the US, mass quantities of wheat grow well in China. It's in everyone's interests for China to sell their surplus wheat gluten, and it's in our interests not to overproduce our wheat just to get more of the "trash product" gluten.