Arlena wrote:

> In My Personal Opinion:
>
>All Pet Food, Treats And Added Ingredianats, Manfactured In China,
>Should Be Boycotted. When Purchasing Pet Food And/Or Treats, Be Sure
>To Check The Package, For The Made In China Label And/Or Logo!

Arlena, that would not work. There are not labels saying where
additives are made for either pet or human consumption, and for a
number of years now there have been quite a number of supplements,
vitamins, and other food additives which are made primarily (and
in some cases only) in PRC (China) for world consumption.

Giving away essential manufacturing has created not only food concerns
but infrastructure ones. There are a number of absolutely critical
components, for instance large power turbines, which are no longer made
in the U.S. Globalization has its good points but I think that it would
make sense for the U.S. government in recent years to have found ways
to encourage essential industries to remain here. Not doing so creates
supply, health, infrastructure, economic, and security vulnerabilities
which could otherwise be avoided. Besides, creating products is one of
the backbones of any stable economy. Losing manufacturing and having
a shrinking middle class, both of which the U.S. has, are high
destabilizing. BTW, if memory serves on the actual numbers we are back
to having a similar percentage of the national income going to the
wealthiest 5% as the U.S. had just before the Depression, and some
areas of the country are beginning to repeat the kind of weather which
can set up Dust Bowl conditions in locations with thin soils which are
unprotected if things worsen, so hopefully things begin to change for
the better. Needed IMO: a return of essential product manufacturing to
the U.S. (even if that takes government subsidies), stricter taxes on
the most wealthy but better breaks for the emerging or struggling
portions of the middle class (the opposite of recent tax changes), a
new emphasis on soil conservation practices and related climate and
weather concerns, more education and training opportunities for the
poor, near-poor, and parts of the middle class. That's just my take,
though...

So, there is NO way to know if a food contains components made in any
specific location, but if ones made in the People's Republic of China
are desired to be avoided -- well, that is pretty much impossible given
the current globalization of supply for so very many food ingredients,
and there is no way for the consumer to know, just as many food labels
don't have to say things like starch sources which affects many
thousands of people with things like food intolerances, food allergies,
or problems like Ciliac Disease who must avoid certain grains or
vegetables.

First step for pet foods and human foods: Get the number of trained
USDA inspectors and funding back to the level that existed in 1990
before the repeated annual cuts partly crippled that agency. (There
are pile of consumer protection and environmental protection federal
agencies in the U.S. in that position right now -- heck we went from
something like 15 full time toy safety inspectors ot one half time
one at the CPSC -- as well as a number of military support federal
agencies, too. These days our taxes go into wars -- one based on
reasonable data, and one on trumped-up data -- instead of into things
which ultimately provide stability, protection and long term security.)

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5783]