As many of you know, in January of this year I, along with Nancy Huehnergarth and Barbara Kowalcyk, launched a Change.org petition seeking to keep Chinese-processed chicken out of school meals and to prevent China from eventually shipping to the United States its own raw, slaughtered poultry.
I became involved in this campaign last August, after stumbling upon a serious misrepresentation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture about this issue. After approving four plants in China for the processing of U.S.-raised chickens, the USDA’s website reassured parents that such chicken would not appear in school meals. But after my own investigation, taken at the behest of two Lunch Tray readers, it became clear that such chicken could easily be fed to our school children. (As a result of my post, USDA retracted its statement and modified its website.) In the process, I learned a great deal about the alarming food safety lapses in China, as well as the ways in which the terrible degradation of its environment could affect food grown and raised in that country, and I became motivated to take action.
Since the launch of the petition, over 323,000 people have joined our cause. (To put this in perspective, my 2012 Change.org petition regarding the use of lean, finely textured beef, aka “pink slime,” in school meals, also directed at USDA, succeeded after receiving around 200,000 signatures.)
Even more importantly, action is now being taken in Congress to protect school kids, consumers and pets against the potential hazards of Chinese-processed chicken.
Late last month, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a longtime food safety advocate and opponent of Chinese poultry imports, was able to get an amendment into the House appropriations bill, with no Republican opposition, banning the use Chinese-processed chicken in school meals. Indeed, Republican Rep. Robert Aderholt (AL), chairman of the House agricultural appropriations subcommittee, was quoted as saying at the time:
“This is something we all agree on, and, just to prove to you that I am not one to hurt our school kids, I accept it. I have the best intentions for our kids to eat healthy.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), is sounding the alarm about Chinese poultry in the Senate. Focusing primarily on the disturbing number of pet deaths and illnesses (including illnesses in three humans) from the consumption of Chinese pet treats, Brown is urging the Obama Administration to investigate Chinese food processing standards and plans to introduce an amendment the 2015 agriculture appropriations bill to “ensure Congress is given greater information on the Administration’s efforts to investigate the safety of China’s processing facilities.” You can read more about Brown’s efforts here.
In addition, Brown, along with Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), held a Congressional hearing earlier this week to further express their concern about the safety of processed chicken and pet treats imported from China. My co-petitioner Nancy Huehnergarth attended the hearing and has an excellent recap of the issues discussed.
Nancy has also been engaged for several weeks in a fascinating email exchange with a woman she calls “Susan,” an American ex-pat who has lived in China for the past fifteen years. Susan has been describing what day-to-day life is like in China from a food safety perspective, and this week Nancy shared her stomach-churning account in a post on The Hill blog (“Chinese Food Safety Is Worse Than You Think.”)
All of these developments are encouraging and your voices have helped to bring them about. So if you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to sign and share our petition. Thank you!
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Mary Huber says
Thank you for publishing this very important information and Thank heavens for people like you guys who are determined to protect people in this country when the USDA (ironically named the UNITED STATES Department of Agriculture) appears to be representing China, not the citizens who pay for their “protection and diligence.”
I have a sneaky suspicion that money is exchanging hands somewhere behind the scenes, and corruption is rampant when our own USDA officials care more for the Chinese factories and big-business chicken farmers than they care for those who live in the United States!
Sally Kuzemchak says
This is wonderful news. HUGE kudos to you three for taking on this issue and making lawmakers aware of the danger. I’m so proud of our Ohio senator Sherrod Brown for his attention to this matter and I look forward to hearing how this all progresses. Keep up the great work and thanks for helping to protect our kids!
Stuart Nelson says
Process our foods locally. Environmental costs to move this across the world is in unnecessary. Health risks are too high.
Debra Taylor says
How in the world can law makers see this as a good thing? As China was the sole maker of dog treats that killed many of our family pets! Is gread and money hunger so overwhelming that you as law makers put our kids now at risk? This is the worst example of law makers taking the money road rather than the right road to the welfare of the people they represent! Thank goodness I don’t have any children in schools to worry about but still I will be worrying about the rest. I never buy any food products from China weather they are for pets or human. I try to always buy made in USA! Why are we giving our money to them? We need to keep our people working not other countries!
Rhonda Weigandt says
I care about our food we deserve U.S.D.A
Inspected food.We also shouldn’t have to worry about being poisoned by chicken or any other food please do the right thing and see to it that our food and our children and Grandchildren are not poisoned just for a profit.Thank You
Rhonda Weigandt
Edward Harwood says
No Chinese chicken
Paula Berry says
China has a terrible health and safety record (not to mention its atrocious human rights violations record and unchallenged hostile takeover of Tibet and the genocide of its people and annihilation of its cultural history). Why would we trust such a country to supply us with healthy food? Is the US trying to assist Red China in its occupation of more of the world, and perhaps poison our citizens as its overture to buying this country?
Paula Berry says
I wrote a comment but unwarranted modification was demanded. I will not comment on a censored site. No profanity or libel was included.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Paula: I’m not sure what you’re referring to. There is always a delay to allow me to see the comment and approve it for posting, but all comments are cleared unless they violate the blog’s comments policy (but that’s rare).
Dave Blair says
I do not want to feed Chinese dog food to my dog and I CERTAINLY do not want to feed Chinese chicken to my kids.
Doris Buss says
What going on in America??? What’s wrong that congress doesn’t get it. We are tired of the garbage being forced upon us in our food in our health programs enough already Go back to the food regulated here in the USA. We are tied of stuff being crammed down our throats when we say NO. Leave the Chinese with their chicken not us we Don’t want it in our schools or in our markets!!! Stop congress stop
Mary Huber says
Doris, et al, Congress, the administration, and the USDA will “get it” when THEIR children and grandchildren are poisoned by chicken processed by China and sold here as “safe.” The government’s little kiddies will be eating this poison in their school lunches, in their chicken nugget things, in their chicken soup, in their frozen meals that contain chicken, and in their lunch meat. There will be NO LABELING to tell US citizens where this chicken is from. When the children and grandchildren of Congress, the administration, and the USDA start getting sick on chicken processed in China, then the screaming and gnashing of teeth will begin.
lisa says
Thank god I don’t hardly eat chicken. How could it possibly be cheaper to send US chicken to China & back. I know for a fact that frozen product sent to Africa who wouldn’t pay for it, the ship left port for US and immediately dumped cargo overboard as it was cheaper to do so than bring it back to the US. If our govt. was smart enough, they would double, triple or more, the import taxes on products like this so they can have more money to spend foolishly. TAX THE IMPORTS AND NOT THE U.S. CITIZENS THAT PAY THEIR SALARIES. And what is this about fair trade! Is China buying US products as much as they are shipping to US. DUH!!
Vicky Ledoux says
No Chinese chicken!!!
Steve nguyen says
Dont trust the chinese when it comes to food packaging, they will be adding all these harmful chemicals that has killed lots of peoples in the third world countries. You can look them up if u don’t trust me. Whatever it is, keep our food off the chinese hands.
Donovan Rankin says
This is a rddiculous and hurtful idea! Why would you take away MORE AMERICAN JOBS?! And why would you, as the USDA, jeopardize the guality of our food and the health of the people here?!
Scrap this STUPID AND HAZARDOUS plan!!!!
Geneva Vickers says
Chicken should be processed in the US.
Sundria says
Please stop sending the chicken to China for processing.