Friday Blog Round Up: Food Comes In, Jobs Go Out

BAD: CHINA SHUTS DOWN FOOD FACTORIES
Wal-Mart sources 70% of its products - including food - from China. Think that peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich looks good? Even the Chinese government had to admit that the food coming out of these factories was unfit to eat.

When Big Factories Are Better [Chow.com]

The scare over tainted food products from China keeps getting, um, scarier. As the nation’s government admitted Wednesday, inspectors encountered 23,000 instances of food contamination involving 180 plants around China in the six months from December through May. Why the officials waited this long to come forward is just one of many troubling questions raised by this whole affair, which started with tainted wheat gluten in pet food several months back.

This time around, the focus is on a wide array of products including flour, candy, biscuits, seafood, and bean curd, Forbes reports; those and other foods were found to contain dangerous chemical additives like petroleum by-products, formaldehyde, and a carcinogenic green fabric dye. “It was unclear whether any of the cases involved food made for export,” according to Forbes.

Investigations Lead to the Shutdown of 180 Chinese Food Factories [Sustainable Table]

Chinese officials reported yesterday that after six months of intensive investigations, 180 food were forced to shut down and 37 factories had their licenses revoked after investigators found illegal ingredients being added to food products. The ingredients included “mineral oils derived from the processing of petroleum, paraffin, formaldehyde and the carcinogenic malachite green, a synthetic dye used to color fabrics”...Readers will remember that China’s food trouble began back in March, when Chinese wheat gluten tainted with melamine was found to be the pet food ingredient culpable for killing pets around the US, and since then, country-of-origin labeling (COOL) has been in the news again. Also in March, Food & Water Watch released the results of a survey that revealed that 82% of American support mandatory country-of-origin labeling.

WORSE: FDA BANS SEAFOOD IMPORTS FROM CHINA
In a separate, food-from-China-is-dangerous turn of events, the FDA banned five types of fish from being imported to the U.S. from China. Shrimp, catfish, eel, basa and dace might not sound like everyday fare, but the U.S. bought $1.2 billion worth of seafood from China last year and these fish are among its top exports. Don’t worry - the fish already in the U.S. poses no imminent threat. Rather, the death you will experience from eating these fish will be long and painful.

FDA warning on Chinese fish highlights problems with inspections [Consumer Reports]

The FDA repeatedly found that farm-raised seafood from China contained antimicrobial agents not approved for use here: nitrofuran, malachite green, gentian violet and fluoroquinolone. The first three have been linked to cancer in laboratory animals; the last may increase antibiotic resistance.

Fish Imports banned from China...Surprise! [Eat Local Food]

I am really not worried about the seafood supply and whether our retailers are going to be losing money. I am more concerned that my children eat healthy fresh, unfarmed, untainted food.

Please know that it is the law right now for at least seafood to be labeled with country of origin and whether it is farm raised or fresh. Be very careful and buy what you think is safe.

Wal-Mart and another lawsuit [Wal-Mart Free NYC]

As we all know Wal-Mart is still currently involved in the largest gender discrimination suit in history, the company has always held male employees at a higher regard than females. Women employees who have been pregnant have been fired, and threatened by management. We expect more from the worlds largest employer. As Wal-Mart enters low-income areas and destroys all competition, stores close down and community members are forced to work at Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart knowingly takes advantage of all its employees whether it be pay, gender discrimination, hours, or simple mistreatment of workers, Wal-Mart takes every advantage they can to hold more power over its employees and the community it’s in.

WAL-MART COSTS AMERICA 40,000 JOBS A YEAR
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute this week examines what Wal-Mart’s reliance on foreign manufacturers means for American jobs.

Wal-Mart’s China Imports Cost Nearly 200,000 U.S. Jobs [AFL-CIO Blog]

Wal-Mart claims it creates jobs across America, but a new report shows a much different reality.

The giant retailer’s reliance on cheap goods made in China has cost this country nearly 200,000 jobs since 2001, says the report, The Wal-Mart Effect, by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

Wal-Mart Zaps 133,000 Jobs… [Writing on the Wal]

No, not jobs at Wal-Mart. Those low-paying, Mc Jobs are growing every day. No, the jobs zapped by Wal-Mart are the kinds of jobs people used to depend upon to buy cars and houses and college educations for their kids; manufacturing jobs.

LOOKING AT WAL-MART’S LOW SALES
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Wal-Mart’s sales decline can be attributed in part to their enormous stores. Customers come in, and, unable to find what they’re looking for, leave emptyhanded. BloggingStocks avers that the stores’ lack of selection also contributes to the Wal-Mart’s lagging sales:

This week, we’ll be making the rounds on how the various Wal-Mart departments combine into a cohesive shopping experience, but do not threaten some competitors at all. Why? Well, have you ever thought that Wal-Mart would be seen as lacking in product selection? It does, from this corner, and I’ll give you insight on why Wal-Mart will never be able to unseat some retailers at the same time it continues to grow its sales. Read on.

Rolling Stone magazine concurs, adding to the argument the while Wal-Mart may still dominated CD sales, it is no longer the be-all end-all of the music industry.

The idea was to let Napster’s 38 million users keep downloading for a monthly subscription fee—roughly $10—with revenues split between the service and the labels. But ultimately, despite a public offer of $1 billion from Napster, the companies never reached a settlement. “The record companies needed to jump off a cliff, and they couldn’t bring themselves to jump,” says Hilary Rosen, who was then CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America. “A lot of people say, ‘The labels were dinosaurs and idiots, and what was the matter with them?’ But they had retailers telling them, ‘You better not sell anything online cheaper than in a store,’ and they had artists saying, ‘Don’t screw up my Wal-Mart sales.’ “ Adds Jim Guerinot, who manages Nine Inch Nails and Gwen Stefani, “Innovation meant cannibalizing their core business.”

AMA BASHES IN-STORE CLINICS, CONSUMERIST IN HOT PURSUIT
Consumerist.com asks readers to report on any experiences with in-store clinics. If you have comments, visit their site and reply. We’ll let you know of any interesting developments from the survey.

American Medical Association goes after Wal-Mart-style clinics

The American Medical Association is going after in-store clinics being opened by retail giants such as Walmart and Walgreens, according to the Chicago Tribune. The AMA is concerned about potential conflicts of interest between the nurse-practitioners who prescribe the drugs and the pharmacists who fill them.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, June 29, 2007

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