Anna....you went to Asia?  Did you take any pictures??  Thanks for the links, I found some really gross things out there too.

 I don't understand why China has a population issue.....between the food they eat (some of the stuff they eat willingly is pretty nasty) and all the pollution......they should all be dead or near dead by now!

China has lots of oil....so we have to be nice to the bully?

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-05/03/content_865419.htm

Major discovery increases oil reserve
(Xinhua/Chinadaily)
Updated: 2007-05-03 21:10

China's newly found oilfield in Bohai Bay has a reserve of one billion tons, or about 7.35 billion barrels, the largest discovery in the country over four decades, announced the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Thursday.
The oilfield lies in the Nanpu block of the CNPC's Jidong Oilfield in Caofeidian in Tangshan City, north China's Hebei Province, said the company.

The Nanpu block, partly offshore, covers an area of 1,300-1,500 square kilometers and is expected to produce light crude.

By 2004, the CNPC had discovered five onshore oil fields in the Jidong area with a total reserve of 735 million barrels and an annual output of 7.35 million barrels.

The company previously estimated that the reserve of the new oilfield was 2.2 billion barrels and the daily output would be 200,800 barrels in three years.

PetroChina, the CNPC's holding company, boasted Asia's highest profitability last year with 142.2 billion yuan (18.5 billion U.S. dollars) in annual net profit.

China's oil dependency, or net oil imports against oil consumption, went up 4.1 percentage points year on year to 47 percent in 2006, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Last year, the nation produced 183.68 million tons of crude oil, up 1.7 percent, and imported 138.84 million tons, up 16.9 percent. Its oil consumption (crude plus oil products) amounted to 346.55 million tons, up 9.3 percent.It is predicted that China's crude oil imports will reach 160 million tons.

Jia Chengzao, an academic and oil geologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, projected that new discoveries will be made in the area around the Bohai Sea following the Jidong Nanbao Oilfield, which will lead to a rapid growth of the corporation's oil production in the future.

In another development, a senior official said yesterday that China would seek to satisfy its energy needs using domestic resources.

Addressing the Second Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, yesterday, Chen Deming, vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that China has a huge potential to exploit its abundant domestic energy resources.

"China is not only a major energy consumer, but also a giant energy producer," said Chen, who is head of the Chinese delegation.

He said the country has abundant coal reserves and bright prospects to develop hydroelectricity, wind power, solar energy and bioenergy.

It also has the potential to increase its oil production and its exploration for natural gas, Chen said.

Chen also dismissed claims that the country had been a major factor in the increasing global oil price, although it did need to import a certain amount of oil and natural gas to supplement its energy supplies.

The unstable regional situation, fund speculation and natural disasters are the main factors behind the abnormal rise of the oil price, he said.

You have to ask Masterfoods....where the new Nutra will be.  Apparently there is a deal going on, Nutra will be a div of Masterfoods.  The Nutro mgmt team is going to stay with the deal too.  I wonder if Nuta was sold at a blue light special?

Does any one know the history behind the introduction of wheat gluten into consumer products? 
Other than being cheap, what is the purpose? 
When did this start?
What was used before this?
 I noticed today that it is in some jarred pasta sauces? Why?  When I make homemade I don't use that?  (By the way Wall-mart's house brand state gluten free on the label).
Other than Dog food what products is in?
Is wheat gluten really needed?

If we boycotted Chinese products....life as we know it will end.  For some reason I think there are very few American made products left.

Greed and labor cost, are usually the blame.  But, what is over looked is the tight control of production that the DEP/EPA, States and locals have set for production operations.  Not only is it tough to comply...it's not cheap.  Many companies has no choice but to either shut the doors or go overseas.  America has been left with fewer jobs (factory work is not very pleasant...with the way our culture has become there would labor shortages), Superfund Sites, and a cleaner environment.

I spent 20 years, as an accountant, in a family owned mfg'ing plant.  Even before the laws became really strict....we ran a clean plant.  Over the 20 years I was there, many things changed....some of which made operations very difficult.  The  day the DEP knock on our door......the owner almost shut the door for good.  But, he decided to comply to keep the operation running.  We had underground tanks for chemical storage, they did not leak.  We had to do soil tests....the further away from our site.....they picked up 'issues'....the trail lead to 2 Superfund Sites.  We had to retank.  This cost over a million.  We did not have the need for a stack, but we had exhaust...more testing.....nothing toxic was being release.....we had to install an afterburner and scrubbers to comply.....that was about 8-10 million.  The costs involved to keep this company open well exceeded 20 million.....I can tell you the 20 years I was there.....we lived day to day....we were not rolling in profits.  We retrofitted the entire plant.....that comes 'cheap' compared to building a new site that complies.  We had to keep detailed records for the DEP/EPA who had the legal right to knock on the door for an audit at anytime.....if we slipped up....we would have been shut down and fined.  Big Brother does watch.

Two of our competitors, shut down and walked away...they could not afford to comply.  A third competitor......we never found out what happened.....the Feds came in locked the place up.....threw a fence around it......it's a Superfund Site.  I sure the 'neigbors' wonder what's running off that property every time in rains.  The business we were in used several of the chemicals found at the Love Canal.....seriously, very few people would want this in their backyard.

For many years, we ONLY used raw material that was produced in America.  We would joke about being one of the few production companies that still made a product that was 100% American made.  We were proud that.  But, our suppliers had DEP/EPA issues too.....they started shutting down.  Due to availabilty at times we imported goods from Europe....even the janitor was disturbed that our product was no longer 100%.  But this is what production faces in America.

Most people, just think it's greed that sends companies overseas.  Yeah...maybe.  But it's tough in American to run production.  This is another no winner....there is public out cry due to job lost....I am willing to bet 3/4 of these people would pass out within 15 mins on a plant floor.  I was glad I sat in my comfortable chair in the office, I felt really bad for the people who worked in the plant.  Then there is the environmental issue.  The trade off was giving up the production jobs for a cleaner environment.

Go and look at the Superfund lists, look at the names of the companies. Some of these are big companies others are mom and pops. Most of these companies could not afford to comply.  Other were left with a mess, from the days 'we' did not know better....and they walked away instead of cleaning up.

Most people over look the DEP/EPA standards that help to shut down production in America.  In away these standards are a REAL good thing.....Take a look at China today is it one HUGE toxic waste pit.

China....Geez, it is a pollution pit....bad air, bad soil, bad water.  Toxic exhaust had been traced from China to New England.  China is operating wide open....lawless.  Apparently so are the American companies over there.  Tons of issues here.  Then they are used banned compounds...lead, red dyes, cancer drugs. and they have another bag of tricks....melamie in food products.  China is going though a boom, and the world is going to be paying for it. 

It seems so hopless.  Production in America will never see the glory it did decades ago.  This is what we are stuck with. 

The good thing is there still tons of farmland left in this country....we have to hope the Feds wake up and put our farmers back to work.  Our food would be safe.

This is just so depressing.

This is the last paragragh of the article:

Our chemical products are mostly used for additives, not for animal feed,” said Li Xiuping, manager at the Henan Xinxiang Huaxing Chemical Company in central Henan Province. “Melamine is mainly used in the chemical industry, but it can also be used in making cakes.”

MELAMINE can be used in MAKING CAKES?  That's WRONG!!!!!!!!!!  What are these people thinking??  This one is totally beyond me.