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A wary eye on the food supply
In 2006-2007, Americans’ pet cats and dogs began dying mysteriously from kidney failure. The mystery was not long-lived: authorities quickly discerned the cause to be pet foods laced with a chemical called melamine, or some combination of chemicals that likely included melamine and cyanuric acid. This was a tragic way for animals to die. The FDA reported more than 10,000 complaints about sickened pets. Thousands of cats and dogs were killed by the tainted pet foods.
Melamine is an industrial chemical not generally accepted as a food ingredient, so how did it end up in U.S. pet foods? The problem traces to China, where surplus melamine (and cyanuric acid) became widely used as adulterants in feedstock and baby formula to mislead quality testing that measures protein content by assessing nitrogen levels. In the case of human baby formula, infants in China began dying of kidney failure, leading eventually to court trials and the public executions of two culprits found to have deliberately adulterated Chinese baby formula.
Americans import more and more ultra-processed foods from China every year, but its track record on product safety is hardly comforting. The contamination of U.S. pets likely stemmed from wheat gluten and rice protein used to manufacture popular brand-name pet foods, including Purina’s Alpo brand and products under the healthy-sounding brand name “Natural Balance.” Contaminated corn gluten was blamed for a similar scourge of pet mortalities in South Africa.
The globalized food system is susceptible to potential abuses for profit, such as the tainting of pet foods with industrial chemicals. The more telling and alarming part of the pet food story, though, is what the mainstream media didn’t much discuss: subsequent contamination of human foods.
I dug into this food trail years ago because, as a farmer and business advisor, I immediately suspected something else would go awry. I investigated the pathway to pigs, and sure enough, that’s where some of the rejected dog and cat food ended up — corporations love to convert costly liabilities to salable assets! At least 6,000 pigs in six U.S. states were potentially fed melamine-tainted recalled pet foods. A poultry farm was also supplied with tainted pet food.
It appears that some of the tainted pigs entered the human food chain before the risk was discovered. One bizarre statement that pretty well sums up the U.S. human food supply ran like this:
“The California Department of Health Services is recommending that pigs in question not be consumed, but California State Public Health Officer Dr. Mark Horton considers the health risks minimal if the pork has already been eaten.”
Translation: “You shouldn’t eat this pork, but if you already did, no worries.” Much like the government hides evidence of adverse childhood reactions to vaccines because they might cause parents to become “vaccine hesitant,” fears that U.S. pork might be tainted with kidney-destroying feed additives could upset the price of pork bellies on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
This is the common refrain (and moral hazard) in U.S. food systems — cover up the risks so people keep buying and eating things they wouldn’t otherwise. This is what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has repeatedly warned Americans about, complaining of “captured regulatory agencies” that serve their corporate masters rather than the American people who pay their salaries.
Recall in the movie Jaws that the town of Amity Island’s mayor downplays the risk of shark attacks because the news would destroy summer tourist traffic and undermine local businesses. That reflects what the modern American food supply looks like — don’t tell people the risks of what they are munching on from their local fast-food drive-thru: it could hurt business!
If toxic pet food that kills dogs and cats is diverted to feed pigs and their meat is then fed to humans, what else is making its way through the increasingly industrialized international food system to Americans’ dinner plates?
The author is a Brookfield best-selling author, lawyer, farmer and pastor.
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Categories: Commentary, National/International News
Still going on? This was a huge issue about 20 years ago, even with the huge names selling tainted animal foods. My son in laws dog died from it.
That’s why we purchase a raw food product from an American made/sourced company… Darwin’s. Our dog a Blue Heeler, is 8 years old and is in excellent health. And now the ‘new’ rabies shots are using MRNA technology, so BEWARE folks. We also don’t vaccinate our dog as she got very ill after her first rabies shot and we had to treat her with homeopathic remedies.
I feed raw food as well. And the sourcing portion is key – those foods even years ago were largely manufactured in the USA, but they were buying grains used within the kibble, from China. Traditionally schooled vets tend to dislike and discourage raw diets (I heard that the course they undergo during their medical training re: nutrition in some veterinary colleges is “instructed” by the manufacturers of Science Diet!) unless you are fortunate enough to have a holistic or naturopathic vet in your area. My dog is also in great health despite being an older guy.
I use titers to discern if my dog(s) require revaccination…..it costs more – but no one should be revaccinating animals if their antibody levels are satisfactory. Rarely, if ever, have they required a booster. And I only ever gave them core vaccines as pups.
I remember a couple of decades ago when vets even in VT would attempt to get you to give your dogs & cats “annual” boosters when even the vaccine manufacturer stated right on the label that the immunity provided had a duration of minimally three years. Money. Money. Money. They bought the stuff in bulk for a buck or so a piece, charged you $35 or $45 to inject it (you can inject them yourself at a fraction of the cost buying the vaccines at places such as Tractor Supply) years later made tens of thousands treating your pets for autoimmune disorders and various cancers.
I’ve always wanted to avoid rabies shots for my dogs but the Vets take care of them unless they are up to date on rabies.
The tainted pet food was not the only time toxic and dangerous materials were incorporated into consumer products coming from that communist utopia. Anyone else remember the sheetrock that was laden with hydrogen sulfide? After installation, the corrosive vapors exuded inside the walls were powerful enough to corrode metallic plumbing and wiring. Communism kills and destroys in many ways, and yet so many Americans support it and vote for it’s core principles through the democrat and progressive parties.
https://theweek.com/articles/498611/made-china-seven-toxic-imports
Remember when the Communist-lovers were admiring & vocally commending their comrades over there for how they were “handling” the Covid crisis??? By barricading people in their homes until they expired, as but one methodology? And how about their imported children’s toys made of lead and the Chinese food that killed people, including babies, here a few years back?
You think they gave a damn about what they did to people’s dogs & cats here? They club those domestic, companion animals to death in the streets there when they’re not selling those tortured, abused poor souls from cages at their lovely open-air markets there.
Indeed, Communism is grand – we see it already transforming VT into a better locale than it ever was. Who needs maple syrup when you have Fido on the menu? Pathetic, appalling, cruel. GODLESS.
Read the labels folks. If it’s made in a country that has little value for its population how could you expect that it will be wholesome for you, your family or your pets. Just saying.
Please, please, PLEASE explain to me why we need to source anything outside of our own borders? We need to get back to made, grown, produced in America. My friend lost 3 cats to that pet food poisoning. Are we monitoring and checking human food that is being imported?