POISONED PET FOOD: THE LATEST RECALLS, MORE NEWS AND A COMMENTARY:
The Royal Canin company has recalled two additional products from the Canadian market as of this weekend. These are, in addition to the previous recalls listed on this board, Feline Sensitivity RD and Canine Sensitivity RC. Molly challenges the anonymous commentator from St. Louis, presumably from the Royal Canin USA head office, to babble on as he did before about how "these products are only recalled in Canada". The US market awaits the latest news. Hopefully it won't be as bad as the South African situation. Meanwhile the American FDA is getting more serious about this matter and has released a press release on a Sunday concerning the latest recall information. For the latest list of recalled products on the FDA list go to http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/petfoodrecall .
Meanwhile an article in the Boston Globe tells more about the hogs who ate contaminated pet food from Wilbur-Ellis in California. The FDA has said that criminal charges could be laid over this matter according to an article in the Washington Post,especially as the final destination of some of the hogs from this finishing outfit/slaughter house has yet to accounted for.
Meanwhile the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association has posted a guideline for veterinarians dealing with suspect cases of possible renal failure from the foods implicated. It should also be noted that Ontario NDP MP Olivia Chow is part of a Canadian campaign in support of her private members bill for mandatory regulations and inspections to ensure the safety and quality of pet food sold in Canada. There is no government regulation of the pet food industry in Canada today. She has initiated a petition campaign for this which can be downloaded in a pdf format at http://www.oliviachow.ndp.ca/ndp-drupal/files/oliviachow/Petition%20-%20Pet%Food%20Regulation.pdf .
Molly would also like to note a couple of articles that say something about China's general laxity in terms of food safety and what it means in a world where we increasingly import many Chinese goods, some of which are agricultural products. The first, by Frank Ching appeared in the Globe and Mail on April 18th in their Comments section. I have been unable to access this on the internet. Its title is 'China's Hazardous Food', and the title says it all. Mr Ching is a Hong Kong based commentator, and he presented a litany of China's problems with food safety in the recent past. You can be assured that what he presented is the mere "tip of the iceberg". He comments on how the inefficient hangovers from Communist rule make China's transition to a new economy particularly difficult in a situation of world trade. China yearly records tens of thousands of cases of food poisoning, and the problem is more acute for the Chinese than it is for their foreign customers. There's also a report on the Associated Press about the same matter, this time accessible on the internet.
Finally one thing that has come up over and over in Molly's discussions with people about this event: What could have prevented this ? The answer is very simple. All food, pet food included, should be produced locally as much as is possible. this is not a magical solution that would eliminate all such problems as have occurred recently but what it would guarantee is that any problems that would develop would be localized rather than spanning continents. One of the guiding principles of anarchism as a political philosophy is that local communities should be as independent as possible. Political independence depends upon economic independence. Anarchists are in total support of initiatives such as those proposed by the 'Local Food Movement' (see also Eat Local for resources in the USA). Molly has previously reported on the "local foods" movement on this blog (see under 'Other Interesting Links': 'The Slow Food Movement' and 'The Institute for Local Self Reliance' as well as doing a search on this blog). She wishes to reemphasize that the desire to "eat locally" has little or nothing to do with the increasingly corporate dominated superstition about "natural" or "organic" foods. Local food feeds into a political program that favours local small scale producers while the "organic superstition" myth feeds into increasing corporate control of our food system. "Organic" is the banner of the transnationals while "local" is the banner of democracy. Anyways, enough rhetoric. Here are a couple more resources for those who want to explore the "eat local" options: 1)Local Harvest , an American resource- Molly will hopefully find an equivalent Canadian one later and 2) New American Dream, another American resource. In Canada there are usually provincial federations of local producers. Molly will report more on these later.
More later,
Molly

More From the Local Press:
Winnipeg Free Press reporter Lindsay Weibe continues her month long account of "eating locally" ie purchasing only Manitoba produced food in the Sunday, Nov. 26th edition of the Free Press. Her latest item is entitled 'A Crisis of Conscience' and it meanders around the similarities and differences between "organic foods" and the "buy local" movement. They are not the same thing. While many local food producers are indeed "organic" much of the food displayed in organic food markets is transshipped from across the world. Wiebe mentions how the David Suzuki Foundation did a study on this contrast and came down firmly on the side of "local supply", "organic" or not. The contrast in energy consumption is so great that the often illusionary value of the word "organic" take a distinct second place.
Wiebe has detailed her "journey through locality" on her blog at the local WFP site at http://www.winnipegfreepress.com . She has been compiling a list of retailers and other sources that would allow people who were interested to search out local products. The Province of Manitoba has also recently launched a "Buy Manitoba" campaign, and the website that lists local producers is at http://www.gov.mb.ca/residents/mbfood.html . For those who take their organic ideology seriously there is the 'Organic Producers Association of Manitoba' at http://www.opam.mb.ca .
Weibe's journey has been mentioned before on this blog, and a visit to her blog at the WFP is very interesting. What I found the most "grabbing" was one of the commentators who pointed out the 'Slow Food Movement'. This an international organization, founded in Italy in 1989, as their website (http://www.slowfood.com ) describes as,
"...a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world."
They go on to say,
"We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that makes this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy-a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.
Slow food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good;that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.
We consider ourselves co-producers , not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process."
The Slow Food site, once more http://www.slowfood.com , will be added to our 'Other Interesting Links section. It's a movement that goes beyond the trendy and subcultural navel-gazing of "nnnnnnnatural". It's much closer to the heart of the matter.
Molly