Cause of tainted pet food found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Page 2

I agree with p59teitel, that the reason companies are purchasing the wheat from China is $$$$. I work for a food company in the USA (not pet food). We traditionally outsourced our blending requirements to toll companies within the US and purchase our own raw materials so we can peform quality checks on products going in and coming out. Our company recently decided to outsource our blending to China and to reduce costs, provide our recipes and buy a finished good from the producers in China. This means that the Chineese manufacuter will have control of what products go in and will provide us testing on what is produced only. The costs are significantly cheaper, but at what costs if a recall becomes necessary (or loss of life) - something that we have never had to do with the product produced in the US since I joined the company 18 years ago. Cheryl

Okay, I've been watching this thread and I just have to add my two cents, for what it's worth. Blitzen, it's not that the farmers don't/can't/won't produce enough grain. The problem is..........the USA Gov't and "the" people are putting the farmers out of business. The product has to be price so high that a dog food business is not going to pay them what they want when they can buy the same product from China, Chile or somewhere else for half the price. We've priced ourselves right out of the equation with taxes, restrictions, etc. I'm a farmer, we grow cranberries and it's hard to keep up with countries that have no regulations on sprays,taxes are cheap, help is cheap the land is cheap. Try buying an acre in the Northeast! It's hard to find people to help work when they think they're worth more than the farmer can afford, and it's also hard to get a hard days work out of people. I just put my order in for bee's (we "rent" them every year to pollinate) and they've gone up 10 dollars a hive. Doesn't sound like much until you figure, we use 36 hives @ 70.00 per hive. The farmers in this country do not have it easy. Donna

Peter Canada is very lax with their rules and regulations on pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. That's why there are hundreds of acres of cranberries going in up there! D

Well Im glad they found the cause of all the troubles with the pet food. My dad used to raise dobermans and still has a couple of them now. I was talkin to him today, and he thought at first it might be terrorist related. I wouldent be suprised if it was to tell you the truth. I mean, I know a thread came up awhile ago about raw food that could be contaminated, why not regular kibble?

Donna, Coming from a ranching family, same problems...... Support Country of Origan Labeling (COOL) for all foods, human and animal. For producing and processing. You all would be surprised at where your food really comes from.

This is but another example of Globalism (ie "free trade") gone mad. When Canada and the US signed these free trade agreements, it became legal through a technicality to import cheaper, lower grade wheat from China that is grown, handled and processed under less restrictive standards, in this case allowing wheat treated with a banned rat poison. It was only the concentration of the rat poison that was "the problem" and not its presence which is normally within acceptable Chinese levels (and only poses a direct health risk longer term). One can only imagine what human food products this tainted wheat is also used which are imported into the USA and Canada (Europe too) as "pasta". Food packaging under this regime in power in the USA does not have to be labelled as to the country of origin of its components. It's starting to sound like all these folks who have been advocating natural and home made dog food are on the mark and should be taken seriously.

Donna, you can always sell out to A.D. Makepeace if it becomes too much hassle. I'm sure they'd love to stick 1500 houses...err, umm...I mean grow cranberries on your land. :)

Something to Ponder: How MUCH rat poison does it take to contaminate the massive amount of manufactured product affected to the extent that it actually killed so many pets??? A 55 gallon drum fell? -not likely. A pick-up truck load? -probably not. A boxcar load??? I don't think we're talking small oversight or easily corrected management practices here. The fact that the contamination occurred at more than one facility scares the crap out of me. SS

From what I have read the diamond problem (past recall) with the corn, the corn was grown here in the USA. Has to do with a drought season/to much heat. The corn that was being used was fit for human consumption. It kills the animals and long term gives humans cancer. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10807001