We Are What We Eat
This story is similar to that of high fructose corn syrup in terms of how a waste or secondary product ends up becoming pervasive. How will a Wal-Mart society learn that the cheap way isn’t always the same as the right way? Probably the hard way.
Melamine, after all, points to the much larger relationship between industrial waste and American food production. Regulations might be lax when it comes to animal feed and fertilizer in China, but take a closer look at similar regulations in the United States and it becomes clear that they’re vague enough to allow industries to “recycle” much of their waste into fertilizer and other products that form the basis of our domestic food supply.
via Our Home-Grown Melamine Problem
update: I found the original story on High Fructose Corn Syrup that I was thinking about. This is a special Peter Jennings did for ABC new mostly on the relationship between government food subsidies and our food supply. The clip below is a 10 minute introduction to a one hour show. If you’re interested in this general topic, check out Food Politics by Marion Nestle, or you can see the entire show on the DVD, “The Peter Jennings Collection“.
