What I Learned in School

In my graduate environmental health class on Monday, I learned that 90-95% of all apple juice and apple cider contains apples imported from China.

To "test" this theory, on our break, I went to the Wawa across the street and two out of the three bottles of apple juice listed apples from China, Chile, the US and a variety of other countries on the label.

This is worrisome for many reasons, the two biggest being:

1) Lack of universal environmental standards when growing or producing food products
2) If individuals become ill due to drinking apple juice, how do you ever trace back where the apples came from? I suppose this is less of a problem if a few people become ill, but what about a "Mad Cow Disease" equivalent problem?

FYI- the Tom's Juice Company (0r whatever they are called) were the only brand sold at Wawa to not list where their apples came from.

Too bad we already opened our bottle of A&P Apple Cider, which of course, after we opened it, we noticed it contains "apple concentrate from China."

I didn't even know they grew apples in China!!

I also learned that most of the garlic sold in the US comes from China instead of California.

Apparently you can tell by looking at the bottom of the garlic bulb.

If the bulb is flat, without any stringy roots hanging off it, then it was grown in China.

If there are small, scraggly roots hanging off it, then it came from California.

One more thing...

Apparently China does not have to process/refine the toxins and chemicals in the fertilizer (read treated sewage sludge...what we flush down the toilet) before feeding it to the fish raised in the fish farms which are then imported all over the world, and duh! people are getting sick from eating this fish.

Who knew the grocery store was such a minefield?

On a positive (?) note, every Monday night my classmates tell me of another product I can't buy because it is made in China.

As far as I know, none of them have read my bog, but they are thinking about my boycott. That's a bittersweet victory.