US to allow processed chicken (nuggets) to be imported from China

[Engineer]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dont-trust-chicken-nugget-thats-160339774.html

Just when I thought that this country couldn't get more stupid or greedy....bam.....we get this 'nugget'. It's bad enough that we are giving our jobs away (as well as the future of the middle class if not the country) but now we are importing processed food, with no point of origin printed, from a country that simply has a shitty record on food quality and safety.

On top of that, are we really going to slaughter the chickens, ship them to China, process them and ship it back? Are we really in such a 'profit' bind that we need to do this?

No onsite inspector either.....good job US...good job.

I guess it's time to stop eating any kind of chicken nuggets for me or my kids.

 

[ElFenix]

how the hell is it cheaper to ship chicken frozen all the way to china and back than to process it here in arkansas?

 

[Engineer]

how the hell is it cheaper to ship chicken frozen all the way to china and back than to process it here in arkansas?

I wonder the same thing. I just cannot believe it's cheaper.

Long term, it isn't. Even if it costs less now, it will cost more later (jobs and consumer purchasing).

 

[child of wonder]

I'm glad I have an organic farm only a mile and a half away. I'd rather give my neighbor $6/lb for his chickens than ship more of my money to China.

 

[JockoJohnson]

Hopefully, the packaging will be clearly labeled "Made in China" so I know not to buy it. I avoid any food that I know has had something to do with China -- except Chinese takeout food

 

[child of wonder]

Hopefully, the packaging will be clearly labeled "Made in China" so I know not to buy it. I avoid any food that I know has had something to do with China -- except Chinese takeout food

Nope. You'll have no way of knowing by looking at the package.

From the article:

"Even worse, because the birds will be processed, the USDA will not require point-of-origin labeling (under USDA rules, foods that have been cooked aren't subject to point-of-origin labeling). In other words: Consumers will have no way to tell if those chicken nuggets in the supermarket freezer were processed in the U.S. or in China."

 

[Londo_Jowo]

How else did you think McD's was going to be able to afford paying their employees $15/hr?

 

[nehalem256]

Are consumers really complaining about the cost of chicken nuggets?

 

[sactoking]

Hopefully, the packaging will be clearly labeled "Made in China" so I know not to buy it. I avoid any food that I know has had something to do with China -- except Chinese takeout food

Cue the elitist snobs: "Chinese takeout also has nothing to do with China!"

 

[TerryMathews]

My guess is this has nothing to do with "cost" and is intended to escape either some FDA guideline, or the negative publicity regarding slaughtering chickens.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Cue the elitist snobs: "Chinese takeout also has nothing to do with China!"

That doesn't make it less tasty.

I don't eat chicken nuggets often but I'm worried this will start a trend. I tend to avoid any foodstuffs from China simply because of their horrible safety record.
How long until someone over there pulls something like they did with the infant formula or dog food and then sicken or kill a bunch of school children who had tainted chicken nuggets for lunch?

 

[SlickSnake]

Oh goody, the feds completely abandon their sworn responsibility to safeguard the citizen's food supply yet again just to facilitate more corporate greed using slave wages and no usda oversight in China.

So, how many of these cheap Chinese nuggets are going to end up in schools and fed to students for lunch? Not to mention end up in cheap fast-food where the consumers have no clue where it comes from.

 

[bshole]

Send the rich to China and let the Chinese "process" them.

 

[Nintendesert]

WTF. I want labels for this or labels stating 100% not-Chinese.

 

[SlickSnake]

how the hell is it cheaper to ship chicken frozen all the way to china and back than to process it here in arkansas?

Not to mention the increased risk of the chicken being exposed to unsafe temperatures while being shipped back and forth around the world for literally weeks for no sane reason other than the slave wages in China.

 

[child of wonder]

WTF. I want labels for this or labels stating 100% not-Chinese.

That wouldn't help because companies would come up with ways around it. Like when McDonalds was called out for their beef to which they followed up with the ad campaign "Mmmm...beef." Yes, technically the patty is all beef because the asshole, lips, nostrils, and so on is "beef."

There needs to be a warning on the label if the chicken left the country for any reason.

 

[SlickSnake]

WTF. I want labels for this or labels stating 100% not-Chinese.

And they deliberately avoided this country of origin warning on the labels. So do you feel like Uncle Sam has your best interests at heart?

How about the biggest pork producer being bought out by the Chinese? Are you seeing a trend yet and even more jobs lost and the food supply possibly threatened with no usda oversight?

 

[Texashiker]

how the hell is it cheaper to ship chicken frozen all the way to china and back <snip>?

What makes you think they are sending chicken back?

 

[SpatiallyAware]

how the hell is it cheaper to ship chicken frozen all the way to china and back than to process it here in arkansas?

And this is what happens when these workers start boycotting to increase minimum wage.

Along with that, mcdonalds is facing massively increased healthcare costs as a direct result of our Dear Leader and his policies.


If you ran mcdonalds you would do the exact same thing. The American "labor market" is in shambles due to our current leadership. Who knows what it will look like in 5 or 10 years.

You simply can't make intelligent business moves while relying on our current leadership. It's toxic and unpredictable. Our Dear Leader is a friend to business one week and an enemy the next.

Expect to see other large corps continue to move these types of positions overseas to more stable environments.

And yes, it's incredibly sad that china has a much more steady physical labor market than we do.

 

[Pantoot]

Along with that, mcdonalds is facing massively increased healthcare costs as a direct result of our Dear Leader and his policies.

If you ran mcdonalds you would do the exact same thing.

To be fair, this has very little if anything to do with McDonalds, healthcare costs, or hourly wages, at least according to the article:

U.S. beef and poultry producers have long sought to have the restrictions lifted in hope of encouraging Beijing to reciprocate and open its huge market to more U.S. meat exports

 

[SpatiallyAware]

To be fair, this has very little if anything to do with McDonalds, healthcare costs, or hourly wages, at least according to the article:

I understand the FDA restrictions are on Chinese chicken, but it has absolutely everything to do with mcdonalds, and by extension healthcare costs and hourly wages.

Mcdonalds is our country's largest consumer of meat products. To say that they have little to do with this is naive.

If our market doesn't support their needs they will move it elsewhere. It's the global economy that our Dear Leader blindly loves so much.

 

[Tom]

I understand the FDA restrictions are on Chinese chicken, but it has absolutely everything to do with mcdonalds, and by extension healthcare costs and hourly wages.

Mcdonalds is our country's largest consumer of meat products. To say that they have little to do with this is naive.

If our market doesn't support their needs they will move it elsewhere. It's the global economy that our Dear Leader blindly loves so much.

I assume you're speaking about President Nixon ?

 

[Engineer]

I understand the FDA restrictions are on Chinese chicken, but it has absolutely everything to do with mcdonalds, and by extension healthcare costs and hourly wages.

Mcdonalds is our country's largest consumer of meat products. To say that they have little to do with this is naive.

If our market doesn't support their needs they will move it elsewhere. It's the global economy that our Dear Leader blindly loves so much.

Corporate profits are at an all time high? Check
Corporations have largest balance sheet of over $2.5 trillion in cash? Check

Corporations want more money and higher profits at any cost? Check

It's not that our market won't support their needs....their needs are 'wants' and they want more.

One of these days, the corporations are going to wake up and ask where did all of the consumers go........

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Corporate profits are at an all time high? Check
Corporations have largest balance sheet of over $2.5 trillion in cash? Check

Corporations want more money and higher profits at any cost? Check

It's not that our market won't support their needs....their needs are 'wants' and they want more.

One of these days, the corporations are going to wake up and ask where did all of the consumers go........

Gotcha, so if a company is profitable they should suffer at the expense of our Dear Leader and his global policies which benefit everyone except for our local US corporations.. And shit, they're making money, so we need to tax/enforce/spread the wealth around just to make things fair.....

 

[PingSpike]

One of these days, the corporations are going to wake up and ask where did all of the consumers go........

Naw, its food. They'll just use lobby power to strangle any new potential competitors in the crib and at most a handful of small organic operations and hobby farms will escape the culling leaving the majority of the population with little to no options. But with all the food label gaming consumers are sort of helpless to make any informed decisions already anyway.