I don't know why the USDA would change its rules to allow something that wasn't going to occur. An attempt to require labeling was recently defeated, so I am thinking there's a reason for concern.
It is my understanding (and we all know that accuracy ratio ) that the COOL laws were put into effect for the primary purpose of tracking the origin of possible tainted product, such as the case of cattle with Mad Cow disease. My label reading is to make sure that I am buying the best quality food for my family and to avoid anything processed in China. This is not only because I don't trust Chinese processing to be wholesome, but also because I agree with @Craig Swanson and don't want to support the Chinese effort to take over the world. The USA has stringent laws and inspections of our food chain, so my preference is to buy everything I can that is grown and processed here. I realize that a huge portion of our produce comes from Mexico and other countries, and it's hard to tell the origin of a bunch of grapes... so I roll the dice because I like grapes. Also I have no problem supporting most other countries; I just don't want Chinese foods. (@Thomas Stearn -- I have a box of corn flakes that were made in Germany.) Our HEB grocery stores (Texas owned) promote local brands and their packaging clearly indicates beef and other meats that are produced in Texas, as well as shrimp and seafood from the Gulf. We have placed ourselves in a position of being dependent on China for too many things, from our pharmaceuticals to electronics. I hope that we can begin to turn this around since the CV-19 mess has brought this back to the attention of the American people. I hope they don't forget it when the virus hysteria fades.
This is an older article about chicken being raised here, shipped to China, processed, and then shipped back here as the ready to eat product. This would include things like canned chicken, chicken broth and soup, as well as the frozen chicken fingers, and probably just about anything except for the plain old fresh chicken. https://www.ecowatch.com/usda-to-al...pped-to-china-for-processing--1881870191.html Since this article came out several years ago, this is not something new that is happening, or might happen, it is what has been happening for years, and this is only about chicken. The same thing happens with seafood and other meats. Companies like Tyson and Smithfield have factories in China, as well as several other countries, so who knows where the meat originally was raised or butchered , unless it is a fresh cut of meat.
Hopefully those containers of prepared foods have some sort of identifier on them. Seems like I read someplace how to decipher stock numbers on products to see where it came from...?? I'll have to look that up.
Well, I was wrong. https://www.politifact.com/factchec...code-wont-tell-you-if-product-was-made-china/ One viral image from Facebook reads: "Pick up a product. Look at the barcode. If the first 3 numbers are 690 or 691 or 692, the product was made in China. Put it down and buy from any other country." The post misrepresents what the numbers that accompany a barcode indicate; they do not tell consumers where a product was made.
Interestingly, an episode of Forensic Files, or maybe it was another of those investigative shows, said that they could determine, from the product code, which store sold the item, the time that the sale was made and, if a credit or debit card was used, who made the purchase. Of course, they aren't getting that strictly from the product code. They can gain access to the manufacturer's and retailer's records, which we can't.
I suppose I'll just continue to scrutinize food labels in search of "product of USA" and buy meat from the "Texas local" section. The grapes will continue to be a crapshoot and I'm still going to buy a Chinese iPhone. Dang.
That makes sense. The USDA does not ban them from putting that information on the label, so I would think that those who take pride in selling US-grown meat and produce would want to do that, especially if people are asking for it.
Let there be no misunderstanding: I'm not interested in China "taking over the world", as you put it, either. My point was that, in contrast to Craig, I think that, given the fundamental economic framework conditions as there are and which nobody wants to change, it will be extremely hard to prevent that. Nonetheless, I'll do whatever I possibly can to try and stop them. I won't buy another Chinese smartphone and I'd never buy a Chinese car for sure. Their image is poor anyway. Ironically, no one talks about Japanese cars anymore which were also considered a threat back in the 90s. Anyway, I've always taken pleasure in supporting the US but for the best part of my life I couldn't buy any US products no matter how much I desired them. I wrote about Levi's jeans, US-Army clothes and other US-American apparel I was longing for as a teen and twenty-year-old. Clearly, they would have boosted my reputation in my peer group temendously and I'd have gotten the girls. Yet I'd have needed a generous donor to send me them or US dollars or at least a freely convertible currency but no one wanted to provided me with that. Thus, no clothes, no girls. Now, in my old age, I have to be content with a smaller contribution to the US economy like shoes I presented some time ago or peanuts which I bought the other day making sure they were US produce. ;-))). Since I'm not particularly fond of Chinese food anyway I can also do without foods produced there. I agree, an effort has to be made to become less dependent on China. In today's times of crisis you can hear the usual soapbox speeches of getting production back but I wonder if that will be remembered once the crisis is over. There are too many people profiting from global supply chains.
My younger brother has lived in Germany and the Netherlands for about 30 or so years now and says that the only time he can buy good jeans is when he takes his small trips back to the U.S. I have noticed too that when he is here, he gorges himself on steaks, hamburgers and the like because he says that he can’t get any good beef unless it comes from Australia or New Zealand. So far as the Chinese connection, he isn’t too anxious to buy products from there but they are the most prevalent and since he’s into electronics and tech, the Chinese are the largest and less expensive exporters of those products he needs.
Hope you don't mind a question Bobby - what has happened to Japan ? They are or were hi tech too - do they leave it to China now... haha - maybe you don't know - just curious
The last I heard, Japan was manufacturing more cars in the United States than American companies were.
I wonder how many people realize that Volvo was bought by the Chinese about 10 years ago? I always wanted a Volvo but that 'put the brakes' on my purchase you might say. As far as the price of American goods... we Americans agree with you. With the decimation of the middle class, most Americans shop the discount stores to purchase Chinese clothing, etc. because American manufacturing is expensive. (And who is getting that $$ since the middle class obviously is not?) Also, most Levis haven't been made here in decades... the irony. I wonder if your peanuts are from Georgia? My nephew is a peanut farmer (among other things.)
Bobby and I have been talking about this for a while now, and because Walmart is the closest shopping place to where we live, and is pretty much the least expensive, that is where we usually shop. We had a Kroger that was closer to us, but they closed it. We do have an Aldi’s that is close, and sometimes shop there; but whenever Bobby needs some sort of small tool or gadget for the project that he is working on, we usually make a run to Walmart for parts. Since we are there anyway, I buy whatever groceries we need. We can go to the local hardware store (and do when it has the thing that Bobby needs), or all the way downtown to Home Depot when necessary. We actually do not spend much money except on necessities anyway, and the food is from the fresh produce, or fresh meat and dairy; so none of it should have been shipped from China. But when we can shop somewhere besides Walmart, we are going to do that more often.