Because of the tainted pet food fiasco and other issues with foods imported from China last year, China has recently agreed to follow the higher food safety standards of the US in several categories including pet food, fish, low-acid canned goods, and raw materials like wheat gluten.
This makes sense, right? Imported goods should follow the safety standards of the nation they are being brought into. Americans shouldn't have to worry about eating substandard food. Or buying harmful things from other nations. Nobody should.
So why does the US keep insisting that Japan lower its standards and import American beef that isn't acceptable here? In Japan all cows, 100% of them, are tested for BSE (mad cow disease). In America, not even 1% of cows are tested. Even if you want to test all your American cows, you can't. It is illegal.
This really annoys me. How dare the US insist that exporting countries following their standards, yet also insist that importing countries abandon any stricter standards. You can't have it both ways. That is hypocritical.
Barak Obama lost any chance at my vote today when I read he told ranchers that Japan should lower its standards:
"You can't get beef into Japan and Korea, even though, obviously, we have the highest safety standards of anybody," he told a town hall meeting in Watertown, South Dakota. "They don't want to have that competition from U.S. producers."
"Highest safety standards?" Helloooooo? Test all your cows and you can export as much as you like to Japan. "Don't want competition?" No. Don't want disease. Honestly, Mr. Obama, get your facts straight here. You are wrong.
The US really makes my blood boil sometimes (lots of times). Do you know that they force Japan to buy rice it doesn't need? That's another post in itself. Maybe tomorrow.
You are right and wrong...
right that we should not expect this, right to complain, right to raise your voice high and loud.
Wrong to not vote over it, and wrong to discount Obama on one issue. What would be better would be to write to the campaign, write to your congress people and senators and tell them how wrong headed this is.
any president and presidential candidate will make mistakes. It is up to voters to hold them to our standards. BUT if you want someone you aggree with 100% of the time then you should run for office. Because every political thinker I ever admired I have disagreed with at times.
The nice thing about Obama is that he is open to hearing new information, and unlike Bush or McCain he is not too proud to admit mistakes and change his thinking when new information is presented to him.
*Lauren
You are right, Lauren, I ought not condemn a candidate or any elected official on the weakness of one point, even one that I feel pretty strongly about. I know that I will never find a politician I agree with even half the time because I straddle the divisions among parties in such a way that I can't like anyone at all. Voting is a challenge and a dilemma no matter what way I vote.
Perhaps I will write to Mr. Obama's campaign and express my opinion on this topic. I suspect he doesn't read my blog. :-)
If it means getting more votes, a presidential candidate will listen and change his/her mind. How can you know whether it's genuine or not? You can't, but you can hope.
Greeting from Oakland, NJ,
My wife Caron and I have started a hyperlocal news source for the town and thought you might be interested.
http://theoaklandjournal.com/
We are planning an article on the good memories of Pleasureland, and would love for you to contribute if you have any.
Hope you enjoy seeing what's up in the town today. We are only three weeks online, but seems like people are into it.
Love your work.
-CM
While I agree that the U.S. is wrong on this (and there's a growing number of us who have this opinion) I believe that Obama is much better than McCain.
I agree that the U.S.'s position on the cow testing is disappointing, to say the least. This theme has been in the news here lately because of secret video footage released that showed downed cows being horribly abused in at least one slaughterhouse. It's shameful how the animals are treated, and shameful that the government appears to lack any serious motivation to make meaningful changes at any point in the production line. Although, it seems that some individual companies are motivated to make changes if only to salvage their reputation.
But regarding Obama, you need to remember *where* he was speaking. You said he was in South Dakota? Well, then, he was just being a good politician. In the end, I guess politics hasn't changed much since Julius Caesar was in office. Dang.