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Re: [RC] This just in: RAT POISON was in the dog/cat food - SusanVery well said Diane. I came from a food industry and you are right on target. What appalls me with this whole thing is Menu Foods once learning of the problems tested LIVE animals killing 7 of them and NOT discovering the problem. It looks like NY only had to test in a lab (less live animals) to find out that is was rat poison. Susan -----Original Message----- From: Diane Trefethen <tref@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Mar 23, 2007 11:05 AM To: Ridecamp <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: [RC] This just in: RAT POISON was in the dog/cat food Please do not let this become a diatribe against either China or expanding US trade policies. First, a political discussion belongs on a political forum, not an Endurance forum and second, just like in our AERC preamble where we place the responsibility for the well being of our horses squarely on their riders, we should likewise not even REMOTELY suggest that a nation thousands of miles away or a trade policy that has expanded the availability of goods and services to American citizens of every economic strata is responsible here AND NOT THE COMPANY THAT MANUFACTURED THE FOOD. Especially if this disaster turns out to be as simple as suggested this morning, that the wheat used in the products was from China and that said wheat had been treated with aminopterin (a rat poison ?), an apparently legal and acceptable practice in China, then the responsibility here is CLEARLY on Menu Foods. It is THEIR responsibility to KNOW the regulations that exist governing the processing of foodstuffs in EVERY country from whom they obtain ingredients for ALL the food products they manufacture. Knowing what may be permissible in that other country, it is then THEIR responsibility to first ORDER only those ingredients that meet US standards and not just the standards of the other country an then to FOLLOW UP by having IN PLACE a testing regime to verify that they have indeed been sold what they paid for. To bury their heads in the proverbial sand, trusting that an emerging country's bureaucrats and/or business executives will never screw up and always do the right thing, is the height of irresponsibility. Again, if the insecticide story is true, the responsibility for this disaster falls ENTIRELY on the shoulders of those at Menu Foods who failed to protect the integrity of their products. Someone earlier made a remark about US wheat being too expensive. Well, if you make a corporate decision to eschew an expensive local product in favor of a cheaper, 3rd World lookalike, you know or should know that the cheaper product cannot be exactly the same as the expensive one. You KNOW that one of the reasons it is cheaper is that it is not subject to all the controls in place for the local product and that YOUR COMPANY needs to TEST THE CHEAPER PRODUCT ACCORDINGLY. Such testing will add to the cost of the ingredients perhaps so much so that cheaper turns out to be not cheaper but that again is a CORPORATE decision. It is no different than when Cosco has recalled cribs assembled in a foreign country. It is Cosco, not Korea or China, that is responsible for being sure that the products sold under their label meet US health and safety standards. It is not the obtaining or use of a cheaper product that is wrong. What is wrong is turning a blind eye to any possibility that the cheaper product is also inferior, possibly to the point of being dangerously inferior. And THAT is the responsibility of the American manufacturer, or in this case the Canadian company, NOT the responsibility of either the US Government or any foreign country of origin. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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