Koreans are Right to Protest US Beef Imports...

June 30, 2008 - PRLog -- ...not only because of the very valid fears coming from the mad cow syndrome, but because of the nightmarish accumulation of pesticides, antibiotics, steroids, bovine growth hormones manufacturer by that corporate monster Monsanto, and other nasty and entirely avoidable chemicals, which in the mainstream American cattle industry are numerous, too many to even begin to mention here....

These biochemical problems are not going to go away, with or without any new trade agreement between the USA and Korea. It defies my comprehension to see that Americans are not out in the streets protesting these chemical horrors
and such failed import policies, as so commendably are the Koreans, especially those protesting in Seoul. Americans have grown very fat and acquiescent, I regret to say.

Therefore, I strongly encourage Koreans not to "drop the ball" and give up
in their concerns and demands to not import American beef, but also please not to assume that beef from other nations is going to be any better, particularly if it is from China, with its dreadful recent record in terms of shoddy consumer protection, deadly chemicals, and substandard food production, in which chemicals are substituted solely because they can pass inspection and might save the producer a few fractions of a yuan!

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After World War II, U.S. farmers and food production rapidly devolved away from natural growing methods to entirely rely on chemicals to improve production yields. This was initially viewed as a positive move, but the long-range effects on the land and its fertility began to show up with accelerating alarm, including topsoil depletion, groundwater pollution, and the collapse of many family farms for reasons of lost fertility and failure to compete economically.

I am reminded strongly of how Monosodium Glutamate entered the US food supply. Japanese soldiers retreating from South Pacific islands left behind tins of rations, and American soldiers consumed them, not knowing that they had been heavily laced with Monosodium Glutamate, a chemical found in particular seaweeds used to enhance the flavor in soup, which was isolated at Tokyo Imperial University by Dr. Kikunae Ikeda in 1908 then manufactured heavily over the next 30 years in Japan.

These American soldiers raved about how wonderful and tasty was this "military food," perhaps tasting better than anything they got through the US Quartermaster, the official in charge of all American rations of military food, among other responsibilities. So after the War, the US Quartermaster in 1948 convened a meeting at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago with the top CEO's, Chairmen, and Presidents of the largest American food corporations, including Borden's Milk, Campbell's Soups, General Mills, General Foods, and Hershey's Chocolates.

The Quartermaster extolled the virtues of tasty foods samples prepared with MSG, served to the corporate representatives, none of whom had ever tried or used MSG in their products. They adopted it whole hog and enthusiastically, with almost no research or testing on its neurotoxic and neurodegenrative effects, all of which became extremely clear over the next few decades, yet still remain in most US manufactured food products, and still very present in most Japanese and Chinese food product exports.

The world's largest manufacturer of this neurotoxic and neurodegenerative food additive is Ajinomoto ('essence of taste') of Japan, which is also the world's largest manufacturer of another proven neurotoxin, the artificial sweetener, Aspartame. In order to deflect criticism and to further promote their products, this corporation and other related henchmen corporations using their additives, like Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola, have formed very powerful food lobbyist groups.

With clock-like predictability, these lobbyists fly into high gear when any consumer protection groups introduce legislation at the state level any where in the United States. The most powerful in the US is called the Glutamate Association of the United States, and another is called "Calorie Control Council," a cute catchy name for some of the more malevolent corporate spin doctors in the United States, in my opinion and in my experience.

I know all of this from personal experience here in New Mexico. If things
begin to look tough for them from an administrative or regulatory point of view, like when a Health Board or, as we have here in New Mexico, the Environmental Improvement Board, might begin to question or make rules prohibiting MSG or another proven carcinogen, Aspartame, they threaten the board with lawsuits, thus causing the mousy Board Members to roll over, play dead, and cancel the hearing permanently....

When the action in New Mexico then shifted to a legislative context and bills-to-ban were introduced, thanks to the most progressive member of the New Mexico Legislature, Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino, these corporations' lobbyists pulled out all of the stops, leaning on their legislative pals and cronies, making campaign contributions and giving them and their friends lavish parties, and at the same time, dumping on the opponents of their products by impugning what they called "Internet Junk Science."

(I am sure things just like this happen in Korea and in every single other nation! Kind of pathetic and nauseating, isn't it?)

They also did this in Hawaii in the 2008 Legislative session for just a
simple Resolution to simply ask the FDA Commissioner to rescind the approval for Aspartame, sponsored by the most consumer protection minded member of the Hawaii Legislature, Senator Suzanne Chun-Oakland and signed by 44% of the Hawaii Senators. Fortunately, both New Mexico Senator Ortiz y Pino and Hawaii Senator Chun-Oakland will resume their efforts in 2009, rather than abandon them due to pressure from mere corporate lobbyists.

On the national and international scale, many Americans are beginning to comprehend that President Barack Obama will appoint the next Commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration to replace the corporate-serving lackey presently there (Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach, an oncologist and cancer survivor himself, who should know better, or at least pretend to know better, who most certainly will be gone in less than four months). This FDA appointment will become one of the most important of Obama's appointments, excepting considerations of who will be appointed as the next Secretary of State and the next United States Attorney General, to hopefully begin to repair the damage done over the last 8 years....

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Concerning poisons found in American beef, in the mid 1960s, about the time Rachel Carson's influential book, Silent Spring,  began to have a massive impact on the popular consciousness, a tiny minority of Americans began to recognize harmful effects from industrialized agriculture policy, and a very few of this tiny minority decided to return to a healthier growing of food.

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Time will tell in all of this as the future of consumer protection efforts won't be revealed right away. It is a real shame that both many Koreans and what few Americans seems to be concerned have to spend so much energy, time, and money, in order to make what should be incontrovertibly clear points of logic and law about health, longevity, and foods which are not obviously harmful, instead of fighting with mega corporate interests that control the government officials and regulatory agencies which are supposed to be acting on our behalf.

Truly,

Stephen Fox
Managing Editor, Santa Fe Sun News

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Art Gallery, but primary purpose here is our consumer protection efforts, above all, getting aspartame banned