14 ms·

"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and China, they irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial efflu

by gnosis 14y ago

"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and China, they irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial effluent," he explained." ... "Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem." This is seriously scary! I had no idea that the delicious Indian and Pakistani basmati rice that I buy from my local asian grocery store might have been grown in sewage! They certainly don't advertise this at the grocery store. And this article mentions that high levels of arsenic in rice was a "well-known" problem, linking of FDA's advice on the matter:[1] I had no idea about this either. Why isn't there more publicity about this? What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals? If not an outright ban on products that fail to meet basic safety standards, at the very least the FDA could require clear labeling of these products, so the consumer at least has half a chance of avoiding them if they are concerned. And who wouldn't be concerened about accidentally poisoning themselves on sewage-grown rice? [1] - http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm319827.htm http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm319827.ht...

mikecane 14y ago
>>>What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? It was basically eviscerated in the 1980s. One example is the increased amount of fat and bone allowed in meats. And did you forget about the infamous pink slime? FDA Approved!
- mistercow 14y ago
  1. While use of ammonium hydroxide is FDA approved, approval of pink slime is really under USDA's jurisdiction. 2. Of all the failings of government regulation and the FDA in particular, pink slime is such a red herring that it's hardly even worth mentioning. If you want examples of the FDA screwing up, you can find way better examples than that.
  - mikecane 14y ago
    >>>pink slime is such a red herring So you think cast-off meat soaked in ammonia is a good thing? No, don't argue any science with me here. There is no way in hell this can be spun into anything good.
    - maxerickson 14y ago
      I think it is probably safe to eat (a pro meat propaganda website I was just looking at claimed that ammonia was present at much higher levels in other foods; given the prevalence of nitrogen in the environment, that isn't especially ridiculous). Products using it should be required to say as much though.
      - mikecane 14y ago
        >>>Products using it should be required to say as much though. Yes. But they don't want that, see? They don't want me and everyone else to be able to say No and spoil their payday.
    - mistercow 14y ago
      It's not soaked in ammonia. It's puffed with ammonia. And, no I don't think it's a good thing. I just don't think it's any worse than meat in general. The reason that pink slime caught the public imagination is that it sounds gross, but there's no scientific basis (and I will argue science because if you're going to go with your gut reaction, there's no point in discussing anything with you) for the hypothesis that adding pink slime to meat is harmful. And I find it pretty baffling that people can have no problem with raising an animal in bondage, shooting a metal slug through his or her brain, skinning the corpse, rending its flesh, and then shipping the chunks around the country to be eaten — but if any of it is slimy, they get squicked out.
      - mikecane 14y ago
        >>>because if you're going to go with your gut reaction, there's no point in discussing anything with you Well that's how people react, so get used to it. I also reacted that way when I saw "Human Placental Extract" in a list of a woman's cosmetic ingredients. Full disclosure means you don't always get the nice welcome you want. EDIT to fix clumsy sentence.
jcr 14y ago
> What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? The formal name is "Regulatory Capture" [1] but the common name is simply corruption. The interesting thing the article fails to mention is most of the countries which the US imports rice from actually ban rice imports from the US. The US, specifically California central valley, had and mostly still has a huge rice industry, but since so many countries ban our imports farming rice not as profitable as it could be. The countries which ban rice imports from the US are typically trying to protect their own rice farmers. NOTE: I'm using the term "ban" in loose manner, since in some case they just make importing rice from the US painfully difficult and expensive though endless and unfair regulation. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture
- hkmurakami 14y ago
  >The countries which ban rice imports from the US are typically trying to protect their own rice farmers. Japan's extremely inefficient agriculture sector (a model of corruption and government handouts, actually) is probably one of the most prominent offenders. (Their rice protectionism is both inefficient and corrupt)
- seanmcdirmid 14y ago
  Think how it must feel to be Thailand, who is the largest rice exporter in the world? The US comes in at number 4 after China and Vietnam and just before India.
  - jcr 14y ago
    I'm unfamiliar with rice imports/exports/production in Thailand, so your question makes a loud "woooshing" noise over my head --I'm obviously missing something. The only reason why I know about the California rice situation is due to living in the area for a while and making friends with some of the farmers. BTW, on a totally different note, I've downloaded your "usable live programming" stuff from LtU (thanks!) but I still need to read/watch it.
    - seanmcdirmid 14y ago
alex_doom 14y ago
"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and China, they irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial effluent," he explained." I guess that gives new meaning to rice that's "organic"
- aptwebapps 14y ago
  Except for the "untreated industrial effluent" part, which is the scarier bit and presumably how the lead would get in.
MichaelSalib 14y ago
What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals? You know why. Because that would be onerous government regulation. Americans are obsessed with the idea that the government overregulates everything. That's why Congress is unwilling to fund enforcement actions.
- anigbrowl 14y ago
  I can't upvote this hard enough.
- InclinedPlane 14y ago
  The government does overregulate damned near everything. Even worse, it fails to regulate the right things. You can't buy Kinder Eggs in the US because of FDA regulations, and yet the FDA lets in literally tons of rice that is tainted with lead or arsenic. Does that seem like a problem to you? It seems like a problem to me.
  - astrodust 14y ago
    Number of kids that've died from lead poisoned rice: Zero. Number of kids that've died from eating a Kinder Surprise, Darwin's Law notwithstanding: At least one? If you want to complain about regulation, you're really complaining about people who don't want to take personal responsibility for their own actions. Rather than not buy Kinder Surprise treats for infants, they'd rather ban them for everyone just in case. Regulations, in many cases, just reflect collective attitudes.
    - InclinedPlane 14y ago
      I'm not sure what sort of point you're trying to make. The major risk of lead poisoning isn't death it's the many other serious negative health effects, especially on children's development. Is there a particular reason why we should ignore lead exposure in children at levels several times higher than the current EPA limits? Moreover, if a simplistic analysis of deaths caused by "exposure" are to be used to guide policy then we should ban water first of all, along with buckets, gravity, and food.
grannyg00se 14y ago
That is not an India and China problem. It is an industrial farming and industrial policy problem. From which the USA also suffers. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/help-ban-sludge/ http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/help-ban-sludge/
beedogs 14y ago
> What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals? You can thank Republicans, specifically the Bush administration, for neutering the FDA and the USDA. Apparently profit is more important than whether or not Americans are consuming poison in their food.
DanBC 14y ago
> "Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem." The words "electronic waste" don't really convey the scale of the problem. I used to imagine piles of computers, with people able to strip out the copper, tin, lead, gold, aluminum, steel, etc for sale. I knew conditions would be a bit rougher than UK factories, but I imagined some kind of shack, and some kind of tools. Here's a snippet from a UK TV programme about the e-waste dump in Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana. It's pretty depressing. There's no kind of sensible plan to recovering useful stuff. Seeing a boy smashing polyester / polystyrene caps off an old PCB with a rock is just grim. (http://videobam.com/rcEUM http://videobam.com/rcEUM) Here's a link to the original programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sch78 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sch78)
nmz787 14y ago
"What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals?" 'FDA spokesman Noah Bartolucci told BBC News that the "FDA plans to review the new research on lead levels in imported rice released today".' Seems like they're just laggy... is there requirement in law to test one gram of every Xth ton of imported food?

by gnosis 14y ago

mikecane 14y ago

>>>What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? It was basically eviscerated in the 1980s. One example is the increased amount of fat and bone allowed in meats. And did you forget about the infamous pink slime? FDA Approved!

mistercow 14y ago
1. While use of ammonium hydroxide is FDA approved, approval of pink slime is really under USDA's jurisdiction. 2. Of all the failings of government regulation and the FDA in particular, pink slime is such a red herring that it's hardly even worth mentioning. If you want examples of the FDA screwing up, you can find way better examples than that.
- mikecane 14y ago
  >>>pink slime is such a red herring So you think cast-off meat soaked in ammonia is a good thing? No, don't argue any science with me here. There is no way in hell this can be spun into anything good.
  - maxerickson 14y ago
    I think it is probably safe to eat (a pro meat propaganda website I was just looking at claimed that ammonia was present at much higher levels in other foods; given the prevalence of nitrogen in the environment, that isn't especially ridiculous). Products using it should be required to say as much though.
    - mikecane 14y ago
      >>>Products using it should be required to say as much though. Yes. But they don't want that, see? They don't want me and everyone else to be able to say No and spoil their payday.
  - mistercow 14y ago
    It's not soaked in ammonia. It's puffed with ammonia. And, no I don't think it's a good thing. I just don't think it's any worse than meat in general. The reason that pink slime caught the public imagination is that it sounds gross, but there's no scientific basis (and I will argue science because if you're going to go with your gut reaction, there's no point in discussing anything with you) for the hypothesis that adding pink slime to meat is harmful. And I find it pretty baffling that people can have no problem with raising an animal in bondage, shooting a metal slug through his or her brain, skinning the corpse, rending its flesh, and then shipping the chunks around the country to be eaten — but if any of it is slimy, they get squicked out.
    - mikecane 14y ago
      >>>because if you're going to go with your gut reaction, there's no point in discussing anything with you Well that's how people react, so get used to it. I also reacted that way when I saw "Human Placental Extract" in a list of a woman's cosmetic ingredients. Full disclosure means you don't always get the nice welcome you want. EDIT to fix clumsy sentence.

jcr 14y ago

> What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? The formal name is "Regulatory Capture" [1] but the common name is simply corruption. The interesting thing the article fails to mention is most of the countries which the US imports rice from actually ban rice imports from the US. The US, specifically California central valley, had and mostly still has a huge rice industry, but since so many countries ban our imports farming rice not as profitable as it could be. The countries which ban rice imports from the US are typically trying to protect their own rice farmers. NOTE: I'm using the term "ban" in loose manner, since in some case they just make importing rice from the US painfully difficult and expensive though endless and unfair regulation. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

hkmurakami 14y ago
>The countries which ban rice imports from the US are typically trying to protect their own rice farmers. Japan's extremely inefficient agriculture sector (a model of corruption and government handouts, actually) is probably one of the most prominent offenders. (Their rice protectionism is both inefficient and corrupt)
seanmcdirmid 14y ago
Think how it must feel to be Thailand, who is the largest rice exporter in the world? The US comes in at number 4 after China and Vietnam and just before India.
- jcr 14y ago
  I'm unfamiliar with rice imports/exports/production in Thailand, so your question makes a loud "woooshing" noise over my head --I'm obviously missing something. The only reason why I know about the California rice situation is due to living in the area for a while and making friends with some of the farmers. BTW, on a totally different note, I've downloaded your "usable live programming" stuff from LtU (thanks!) but I still need to read/watch it.
  - seanmcdirmid 14y ago

alex_doom 14y ago

aptwebapps 14y ago
Except for the "untreated industrial effluent" part, which is the scarier bit and presumably how the lead would get in.

MichaelSalib 14y ago

What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals? You know why. Because that would be onerous government regulation. Americans are obsessed with the idea that the government overregulates everything. That's why Congress is unwilling to fund enforcement actions.

anigbrowl 14y ago
I can't upvote this hard enough.
InclinedPlane 14y ago
The government does overregulate damned near everything. Even worse, it fails to regulate the right things. You can't buy Kinder Eggs in the US because of FDA regulations, and yet the FDA lets in literally tons of rice that is tainted with lead or arsenic. Does that seem like a problem to you? It seems like a problem to me.
- astrodust 14y ago
  Number of kids that've died from lead poisoned rice: Zero. Number of kids that've died from eating a Kinder Surprise, Darwin's Law notwithstanding: At least one? If you want to complain about regulation, you're really complaining about people who don't want to take personal responsibility for their own actions. Rather than not buy Kinder Surprise treats for infants, they'd rather ban them for everyone just in case. Regulations, in many cases, just reflect collective attitudes.
  - InclinedPlane 14y ago
    I'm not sure what sort of point you're trying to make. The major risk of lead poisoning isn't death it's the many other serious negative health effects, especially on children's development. Is there a particular reason why we should ignore lead exposure in children at levels several times higher than the current EPA limits? Moreover, if a simplistic analysis of deaths caused by "exposure" are to be used to guide policy then we should ban water first of all, along with buckets, gravity, and food.

grannyg00se 14y ago

That is not an India and China problem. It is an industrial farming and industrial policy problem. From which the USA also suffers. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/help-ban-sludge/ http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/help-ban-sludge/

beedogs 14y ago

> What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals? You can thank Republicans, specifically the Bush administration, for neutering the FDA and the USDA. Apparently profit is more important than whether or not Americans are consuming poison in their food.

DanBC 14y ago

> "Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem." The words "electronic waste" don't really convey the scale of the problem. I used to imagine piles of computers, with people able to strip out the copper, tin, lead, gold, aluminum, steel, etc for sale. I knew conditions would be a bit rougher than UK factories, but I imagined some kind of shack, and some kind of tools. Here's a snippet from a UK TV programme about the e-waste dump in Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana. It's pretty depressing. There's no kind of sensible plan to recovering useful stuff. Seeing a boy smashing polyester / polystyrene caps off an old PCB with a rock is just grim. (http://videobam.com/rcEUM http://videobam.com/rcEUM) Here's a link to the original programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sch78 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sch78)

nmz787 14y ago

"What happened to the FDA's mission to protect the consumer? Why aren't rice imports tested for heavy metals?" 'FDA spokesman Noah Bartolucci told BBC News that the "FDA plans to review the new research on lead levels in imported rice released today".' Seems like they're just laggy... is there requirement in law to test one gram of every Xth ton of imported food?