Where Does Food Come From?

     A lot of Americans (and citizens of other countries, too) are concerned about health, food safety, the humane treatment of animals, etc, etc. Throw in the occasional Facebook scare about food from China and people want to know where their food comes from...and with good reason!

     The Chinese are notorious for supplying fish raised on feces plus doing a lot of other nasty things to food. Seriously...in June troubles with tainted products from China reached the point that U.S. health officials halted the import of farmed seafood from China. The FDA is not allowing the import of Chinese farmed seafood products until the importers can prove that the seafood is free from harmful contaminants. 
     China is not the sole offender. Import alerts have been ordered for firms in the Philippines, Mexico and several other countries, but this is the first countrywide import alert. 
     According to the National Fisheries Institute more than 80 percent of the shrimp eaten in the United States is imported, including 7 percent from China. About 10 percent of catfish eaten in the United States comes from China. Tilapia’s rise in popularity in the United States over the past decade has been rapid, but the Trump administration has targeted Chinese seafood with a 10 per cent tariff and so tilapia’s popularity may come to an end. 

    More people want to know that their beef comes from cattle that have been fed grass (which makes it lower in bad fats and higher in omega-3 fatty acids) rather than animal by-products and corn. And before that chicken gave its life that we might live, they want to know that it lead a happy life roaming free and not shut up in cramped cages.
     The problem is labels like cage-free and organic may not always mean what they imply and you can’t always believe the labels. I have heard many people pray a blessing over their meals and some, in addition to asking that the food be nourishment for their bodies and asking a blessing on those that prepared it, also request that any impurities be removed from it. Or, as I once heard someone say, “...take all the nasty stuff out of it that would hurt people.” Seriously, these days this is probably the best thing we can do before we eat because who knows what kind of crap (literally) is in our food? 

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15 Health Foods That Are Really Junk Foods in Disguise 
12 Deceptive Words Food Manufacturers Are Using to Trick You 
Can You Determine a Product’s Country of Origin by Its Bar Code?