I’m not a hunter, but according to the state of South Carolina, my dog is.

http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/pubsweb/symbols/sy-plott.htm

Unfortunately, there’s no wild boar, or 500 pound bears in Los Angeles, unless you count Griffith Park Zoo

Seriously, since most cats hate water, would they really eat fish in the wild? They’re not miniature grizzly bears.

Our vet was the one who diagnosed the fish allergy on a hunch, so it is a known phenomenon in cats. Similarly, many adult cats cannot have dairy because it causes diarrhea. I honestly don’t see how this can be claimed to be “healthy” food for all animals.

It’s as bad as the advice given to humans to “eat wheat because it’s healthy” when wheat and other forms of gluten are actually deadly to a percentage of the population.

Meanwhile, I have to keep on buying Nutro and Science Diet because they have formulations for different pet needs, and hoping that the gluten in _this_ bag is okay.

You asked me to let you know what TJ said in response to my question
asking about the origin of “wheat ingredients” in my so-called
organic whole wheat pasta. Avoided the issue it seems. —-

Hello Candice,

Thank you bringing your concerns to our attention.

At Trader Joe’s, we have been dealing with standards and practices in
many different countries for over 49 years, and our buyers are diligent
about making sure our suppliers and the products they provide are not
below standards set in the United States. Certainly some companies in
China, and other parts of the world, are far behind the times when it
comes to organics, etc; however we do not do business with those
companies. As always, we allow our customers to vote with their
dollars. If nobody wants vegetables from China, those products
certainly won’t be in our stores for long.

We require FDA regulated GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) and HACCP
(Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) program of our vendors.
HACCP is a systematic approach to identifying, evaluating and
controlling food safety hazards. In addition, our Quality Assurance Team
audits our vendors to monitor their facilities and practices.

Thank you for your inquiry and thank you for shopping at Trader Joe’s .

Kellye
Trader Joe’s
Customer Relations

And then my response, which bounced back: Whoops! This email was
sent to an address that cannot accept incoming emails. We hope we
were able to properly answer your questions. However, much as we
try, sometimes we miss the boat. As always, your local Trader Joe’s
is your very best source of information. So, we encourage you to go
visit them with any questions or concerns. Thank you.

Hi Kellye,

I love Trader Joe’s but there is no way that I can tell if the “wheat
ingredients” in my TJ pasta came from China without Country of Origin
labeling on packaging. I can’t imagine that anything that derived
from China could be organic, honestly, unless it was produced by a
community farm that wasn’t using human waste. Lead in soils,
polluted water, and polluted air are pervasive.

How can I vote with my pocketbook when I don’t know what is inside a
package? I’ll just have to avoid buying anything that might derive
from a country whose products can be easily adulterated (and who has
a history of doing so–even resulting in deadly medicine through fake
ingredients or poison–see the front story in last Sunday’s “New York
Times”). Since adding melamine to increase protein content in wheat
gluten was an “open secret” in China, it could be that the wheat
gluten menu foods used was more concentrated than we have been
getting on a regular basis. Silly me, I didn’t know we were importing
food from China. From what I’ve read, they can’t even feed their own
people and are importing soy (a basic crop for them) from Brazil
(bye, bye rain forest). The fact that most of our supplement/vitamin
industry has been off-shored there is shocking. I’ve stopped using
any that I can’t guarantee do not contain ingredients from China (and
have passed the word).

Of course, it is hard for manufacturers to know if what they are
buying from China is really what it says it is…shifting things
through middlemen importers hides the trail. Menu Foods probably
won’t survive, but then they knew that their test cats were dying
long before they admitted the problem. I hope that Trader Joe’s
doesn’t get a bad batch of ingredients from China that are throughout
their products, esp. when the consumer thinks he or she is buying
“organic” and American.

Sincerely,

Candice

“I was scanning the FDA website for information regarding the ever expanding pet food recall and food safety crisis, when I noticed a press release advising manufacturers to be especially vigilant in assuring that glycerin, a sweetener commonly used worldwide in liquid over-the-counter and prescription drug products, is not contaminated with diethylene glycol. The press release states no reason why they would issue such a warning at this time.”

They have no stated reason for the warning?

Since the White House sends buyers out to shop for food anonymously in local stores, do George and Laura and their dog understand they’re just as vulnerable as the rest of us?

At the same time, I hope everyone understands that there are other sources for poison in animals. RE: diethylene glycol, and it’s relative propolene glycol – also used in anti-freeze, and another internal organ killer with a sweet taste: vets have commented to me for years, don’t let your pet drink out of the gutter. Get it? Leaky cars drip into the gutter.

To think Bush is still proposing to shrink the FDA is unconscionable, but about what we’d expect

Btw, here’s a new diary that was very well researched and thought out, and brings up a new concern about human food contamination:
“The ominous silence about eggs from gluten-fed chickens”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/3/23927/23258

When my neighbor was freaking out worried if her dog ate any of the tainted food, I said you can’t thank the President for this. He’s the one that is hiring loonies to run our federal government agencies.

The kitties are doing well, even my 18 year old with kidney problems. Now I’m wondering if all those bladder problems she had for years were connected to some sort of contamination – some times they were infections but other times there was no infections, just mystery crystals. And of course you are supposed to try and feed them the Science Diet kidney food. She would eat some of the dry but I stopped using that and she never liked the wet.

I’m feeling fortunate about that.

I pity any pet whose owners buy pet food at WalMart or even any supermarket. They all use the cheapest low-grade grains as protein substitute, which is not good for dogs and especially bad for cats (who are “obligate carnivores” and can’t utilize protein other than meat).

To cut costs, Purina has built a pet food plant in China, and is building another.

These days, after finally educating myself about pet food (ahem), I’m down to two brands of wet food — Merrick’s and By Nature Organics — which have no grains, and use high-quality meat and vegetables. My cats love them too. Three dry food brands that have no grains are Orijen, Serengeti (for cats)/Timber Wolf (for dogs), and Raw Instinct. It costs a bit more, but I have peace of mind, and my cats are thriving.

The problem is there are huge areas in this country where Wal-mart has become the only choice, where there’s nothing else for miles around. I’m not sure what to suggest to people who don’t have much in the way of options. But here in CA, we’ve kept Wal-Mart out of LA and there are plenty of better choices (e.g., Costco).

I was talking about this to my mom today, and you know, I don’t really buy a lot of “stuff.” I go out to eat and I like to buy wine. I buy books. But stuff in general – not so much. How much of it do we really need? I just don’t see it.

If we all stopped shopping at WalMart, we’d hit China and the export madness where it hurts: in the pocketbook.

It’s the single most powerful step we could take to start curing this food crisis.

I already never shop at WalMart anyway. There isn’t a thing there that I need, let alone want.

Btw, Lou Dobbs did a great segment Fri. on a smart grandmother who noticed her grandchild chewing on a bib bought from WalMart. She bought a lead-testing kit, and found the bib loaded with lead. Too many products from China are dangerous. And Lou Dobbs said that Sen. Hillary Clinton and Dick Durbin have introduced legislation to screen imports for lead contamination. Current U.S. law only monitors lead content in paint — no other products (!).

How are you going to boycott a chip in your computer that was made in China? Or software that was written in China? Or car parts manufactured in China? Or medication made in China?

Since BushCo took over the USA, multinationals have been given rights and privileges that allow them to metastasize inside China (and India, and third-world countries), quietly infiltrating and building plants and campuses, even funding educational facilities. All the while, these corporations have been instilling–in American workers–the concepts of globalization, world economy, and diversity.

Diversity has come to mean accepting the cultures of the third-world countries which are being raped by the multi-nationals, NOT simply diversity at home. Think about that the next time your company wants you to embrace “globalization” in China, a communist country that has a horrible human rights track record.

I swear to God, the whole thing is obscene, and we have allowed it to happen.