I really like this part:

"Thousands of greenhouse and field studies, as well as widespread commercialization in more than a dozen advanced countries, have shown the risks of gene-spliced plants and foods are minimal, their benefits proven and their future potential is extraordinary"

sez who?

This actually did come out earlier, but I remember it was in the midst of the latest round of recalls & no one paid any attention to it.  They sold these in a pet store I go to a lot where I live & had quite a long story to tell about it. 

"The inspection also revealed that it is a practice of your firm to allow pizzles to [redacted], then to submerge them in [redacted] of water containing [redacted] bleach for [redacted] hours. Household bleach is not approved for use in animal feeds."

I'm trying to piece together that redacted info--do you think the first word is 'mold', or 'dry' or what?  Bleach??  Yuck--I didn't know they used that on these chews, but I guess they weren't supposed to.  I give these bully sticks to my dogs occasionally for teeth cleaning (another brand).

Makes me think of all the stories people were telling on one thread about grocery stores dipping out-of-date beef in bleach water & rewrapping to put out for sale again. 

That's a great idea CodyBear.  Do you have any favorite links to good news outlets over there?  I didn't think about how Japan, being right next door to China, would have a much better perspective on all this.  The fake drugs is a real concern.  A few people were mentioning cheap flea meds that usually cost a lot turning out to be fake formulations.  That's scary if they are substituting other toxins for the standard formula!

Oh, good, then if you haven't seen this chart, you'll just love seeing how everyone we thought of as good has sold out:

http://www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca/rcbtoa/services/corporate-ownership.html

The image that shows when you put the cursor on the pic is Jan 07 aquisitions, the other is Nov 06.  Scary stuff for those of us trying to buy responsibly produced, 'safe' goods.

db seems to be MIA today--anyone hear from him?  (i'm such a worrier, but without my tin hat it's even worse)

I think it was actually a retailer & not a distributor, but I will check again & maybe even if it's a retailer, they could ship it to me from there for cheaper.  Thanks for the tip.  I might also see if some of the local stores might be interested in carrying it or ordering it for me.

Here's a good case in point that China free labels may not be enough:

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=125&art_id=nw20070708150534539C470530

""A shipment of South African-grown pineapples has been rejected by the European Union, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.

The party said the EU detected excessively high levels of cadmium - a carcinogenic - apparently derived from fertilisers imported from China.

It claimed similar cans were on shelves in local shops.

"It is completely unacceptable that we should have to rely on European Union testing to have the dangers lurking in our own food pointed out to us," the party said in a statement.""

Sheba food seems to be a good one.  It is made in Thailand but I read that they have a good plant & it's been safe so far.  The ingredients are very simple with no vit/min supplements, so it is not considered a complete food.  You would need to either feed other complete foods or add supplements to the Sheba to make if work.  I hope your cat is doing as well as she can & you have been able to find a safe food.  Keep reading the forums, lots of good info here, & changes every day.

Great idea!  Work within the system instead of against it! 

Course this kind of 'subversion' is what some of the PF companies are suggesting we are doing in a round-about way--if it's from an unopened package, it was tainted 'after production'!  How would we have known it's poison until we opened it, fed it & sickened or killed our poor pets?  And WHY would we do this, what is in it for us?  We're not making a profit on falsely accusing companies, so what would be the point? 

We have Jason's here, will have to check into that one.  I was using Tom's of Maine but just found out they were bought out by the big guys.  I'm sure all of them use China ingredients, which is what I'd like to get away from if I can find something more natural to use.

Laure - there is one Feline Pride retailer about 100 miles away, closest distributor is CA, I'm in NW WA.  I couldn't see if there was a cheaper way to order from them vs. just through the main ordering format.  It's probably the same cost no matter where it's shipped from since it's heavy with ice & has to be shipped quickly.  Too bad, looks like good food. 

I tried to see if there was a BC, Canada retailer since I'm close to the border, but only saw Ontario on there.  Crossing the border with raw meat would probably be a problem anyway, even if it was made in the US originally.

Yes, good point about ordering a small amount.  I've done that before, ordering a big batch of something the pets wouldn't eat, then got stuck with it!

I love to see a cat that lays froggie style!

Yes my4, that's the key.  If they are laying that way AND not responding in usual manner, that's when we need to be concerned.

I'm not sure about the other toxins, but I think with the 'melamine' sickness & deaths, the only way to determine the toxin was to do post-mortem tissue samples of kidneys, or to actually see the crystals in the urine.  I don't think it showed up in bloodwork & I don't think a lot of vets were up on crystal ID at the time.  Hopefully that has changed.

The acetaminophin I think will show up in bloodwork, not sure how they test for CA--does anyone know more about all this?

here's a clip from that seattle pi article Klondike & I posted above:

"Pharma crops are supposed to be rigorously regulated. But the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not review biopharmaceutical crops before planting, even though many of them have toxic or anti-nutritional effects on human health or the environment.

A recent audit by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Inspector General found the USDA failed to inspect field trial sites as promised and didn't even know where some experiments were planted. The Inspector General also found that USDA didn't follow up to find out what happened to the biopharm harvests. Two tons of a drug-laden crop was stored for more than a year at two sites without USDA's knowledge or inspection.

What's the risk of cross-contamination from these experiments? State legislators at least should order a thorough risk assessment and allow public comment.

Washington's Barley Commission is aware that WSU is biopharming barley and is strongly opposed. Administrator Mary Sullivan says, "Once those genetically altered genes are out there, there'll be GMOs in the beer."

Everyone should look at that PIP docket posted by DMS--we should all put submit our comments on this.  This is NOT OK to pass!!  Scary thing is so much of this just goes right under everyone's nose because either it isn't given good media coverage (gee I wonder why) or people just can't bother to get involved, or don't know how.

Donna, thanks for the reg.gov links!  Access to info like that & continued input into forums like this will help us stay informed & let us voice our concerns.  At least we can then feel like we've done as much as we can.