Outsourcing Our Dairy Industry to China: Don’t Laugh, The Joke May Be On Us
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 11:35AM
Of all the crazy twists and turns in the dairy arena—and there have certainly been mmany over the last few years—the idea of importing milk from China to the U.S. would seem to be one of the craziest.
I actually use that idea as a throwaway line in an article I just wrote for The Nation, comparing the twin events of toxic loans and toxic food. In that article, I describe the campaign to change California’s arbitrary approach to regulating raw milk via AB 1735, culminating in the veto of SB 201 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger week before last. I raise the prospect that the state’s two raw milk dairies could be forced out of business, and joke that perhaps the regulators really would prefer to bring contaminated milk in from China.
And then I read today in USA Today about a Chinese-American who started a large dairy in China several years ago, and has as one of his goals to export milk to the U.S. Take a look at the second to last paragraph, about how this dairyman seeks to become the first Chinese dairy to be certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
That may sound like a harebrained scheme, but I think we’ve all learned to take seriously the aspirations of Chinese businesses…and the receptivity of American regulators to such craziness. American apple growers learned about that the hard way some years ago—now more than half our apple juice comes from China. (If you’re smart, you don’t drink ordinary commercial apple juice, since it almost certainly contains juice from China.)
I presume the Chinese milk would come to the U.S. in either ultrapasteurized or powder form. Of course, it would be cheaper than the American variety, making it a serious market threat. My main question for the California Department of Food and Agriculture is this: What are you going to do for a living when our milk is coming from China?
Reader Comments (50)
Thank god you can not outsource or import raw milk from China or anyplace else.....
I had a group of Chinese dairy people ( from Mongolia ) visit OPDC in 2002 wanting to know how to do UHT organic milk in China. They were so clueless and ignorant...it was scary. They were trying to achieve a higher protein diet so that Chinese could grow taller. They also said that had a big problem with Lactose Intolerance. They could not wrap their brains arround the basic biology of raw milk and how it does not cause lactose intolerance.
They appeared to me to be very selfish and profit oriented capitalists. Far from the caring socialist - Maoist communist with utopia preoccupying every last thought.
I suggest that China should worry about feeding itself and let America do the same. The way they are going they will be so malnutritioned in a few years....they will self destruct from emerging diseases just like the nutritionally unenlightened in America.
China is a not a threat unless you want to eat toxic dead food UHT garbage.
Real food comes from a local source birthed into life from biodiverse soils by coliform covered hands.
Many people have asked what they can do to support raw milk in CA now that SB 201 has been brutally vetoed....this is what you can do.
BUY RAW MILK....TO SAVE RAW MILK.
The financial strength of Claravale and OPDC is the one thing that will keep raw milk arround until 2009 when we can fight another day.
If we are not supported it is gone.
Then you can start dreaming nightmares of Chinese UHT milk. Only the dead milk will be available unless you milk your own cow....AND CDFA has recently pledged to stop any cow share found operating in CA....they are on the march to kill raw milk.
These actions by CDFA are worse than scare tactics these are reality tactics!!
BUY RAW MILK!!
Mark McAfee
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/council/policies/files5125/City%20Wrestles%20With%20Budget%20Cuts%20-%20Sac%20Bee%20-%201.23.08.pdf
Brown outs at fire stations occurs, reduction in police force, youbetcha. Yes indeedy, things are better... I would think that other cities are no better. Vallejo is in worse shape.
I think the continued contamination of foods and other mported things has opened the doors wider for "local". People are taking notice of additives and wanting to know where the food comes from. The farmers market has become more crowded over the last 6 months than I've ever seen it.
1) there is no scientific evidence that it significantly improves asthma, autism, the size of anyone's manhood, or other health claims
2) the number of individuals that drink raw milk and end-up with severe illness (ex, kidney failure, paralysis) or dead are relatively few
Conclusion: until there is more evidence of raw milk benefits, or more illnesses/deaths, the product is mostly irrelevant in discussions of health. It is currently a small, money-driven niche driven by the anti-establishment.
Gwen
I support everyones CHOISE for raw milk or boiled dead milk.
I am not anti-establishment unless they are poisoning the air we all breathe via chemtrails, or poisoning the water we drink, or poisoning our food and dictating what we eat, or poisoning our minds, or plundering and stealing our hard earned wealth to GIVE to the NEEDY Wall Street firms all the while stating that ALL this is for OUR good.
This reminds me of the all lyrics sung by the Phantom of the opera to deceive and seduce Christina one line being " CLOSE your EYES and listen to the music of the NIGHT " also "CLOSE your EYES for your EYES will only tell the TRUTH and the TRUTH isnt what you want to see".
Deception is extremely dangerous and perhaps our greatest enemy for if I am deceived I dont realize I am deceived. TRUTH is the only thing that matters.
Sorting out the truth from fiction is not an easy task but common sense is a very helpful tool.
http://www.realmilk.com/sitemap.html#health
I'm sure reader will dismiss it as propoganda.
Google "PARSIFAL study" and see about how raw milk dramatically reduced the indicence of asthma and allergies in 15000 EU kids studied over four years by top scientists. There are other studies that say the same thing.
No amount of data will ever convince a close minded person.
If Reader had been abandoned by western medicine and was sick and raw milk was suggested to heal his issues ( and it did ) he would prowdly use his or her name and change his position in support of food choices. Choices that heal. We see this all the time. It is funny how a case of cancer and possible death opens ones mind.
I will reserve my more colorful comments.
Mark McAfee
I'm pregnant and when I could not get the raw milk I went to the local Whole Foods and got whole, pasteurized, organic milk (baby really needs calcium as she grows, if the cravings are any indication). It tasted ... funny. And even after forcing down a third of a gallon, I still was craving milk like you would not believe. Once I had the raw and drank some, I felt fine.
Yes, I am taking a chance according to some people. So be it. I can drink the raw milk and my blood sugar doesn't go through the roof, it tastes good, I can smell it without getting nauseous, and I still have not had any allergy symptoms. This is a CHOICE that I have made, and it works for me. Not for anyone else. Just me.
Well, and my baby.
The choice is one that I am not forcing on anyone. However, if the government regulatory agencies have their way, I will, perhaps, not have that choice. This choice is a very small one in the grand scheme of things. But it is important to me - just like having a choice of who to vote for (although this year is not good for that), having a choice about what to do about my baby, having a choice on how to educate myself and family, having a choice about what we eat, drink, bring into the house, wear, listen to, watch, participate in, and otherwise do the things that mean we are alive.
This is simply a choice and I have made it for myself. If you choose not to drink raw milk, that's fine, too. It's a CHOICE that you make.
Be happy that you have a choice, no matter what that may be.
http://www.endotext.org/male/male14/ch01s10.html
Many of the Rx'd drugs do have that side effect (one of many effects).
I would either be milking my own cow or buying it from a local dairy person, under the table if need be.
LA FOX News just called and they will be at the dairy on Sunday for three hours of shooting and interviewing.
The message they are getting is this:
Americans are not trusting processed food from unknown countries of origin ie..Chinese milk products.
Americans are flocking to unprocessed whole foods of which raw milk is the champion.
Sales of OPDC raw milk continues to grow even when Wallstreet is tanking and organic UHT milk is dropping.
Consumers know what is real. There gut tells them the truth.
Mark McAfee
I hope the Fox News crew will produce a factual and truthful report. Let us know when it will be aired perhaps those of us out of area may see it on the innernet.
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