 |
US Needs to Import Less Food Products
Every year the United States imports more and more food goods. According to the Department of Agriculture, the number of imports will shortly surpass the number of exported foods. You may be wondering why this is such a big deal?
First, the more we import the more we hurt our economy and take away income from local farmers. There are many farmers whose livelihood depends on domestic sales. Also, this huge increase in imported food poses a big health risk. With only an infinitesimal percentage of shipments inspected, experts say the nation is vulnerable to harm from abroad, where rules and regulations governing food production are often more slack than they are at home. “FDA doesn’t have enough resources or control over this situation presently,” said Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety, which works with industry to improve safety.
Last month alone, the FDA detained nearly 850 shipments of grains, fish, vegetables, nuts, spice, oils and other imported foods for issues ranging from filth to unsafe food coloring to contamination with pesticides to salmonella. And this is what was found with only 1.3% of the imports inspected. As for the other 98.7%, it is not inspected, much less detained, and goes to feed the nation’s growing appetite for imported foods. Can you imagine how much would be found to be contaminated if they were to inspect a mere 5% of the shipments?
Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines — the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration stretches on. And, now we have the contaminated Chinese wheat gluten that poisoned cats and dogs nationwide and led to a massive pet food recall. Hopefully, this pet food recall will open the eyes of America and see that we cannot control all of these imports.
Each year, the average American eats about 260 pounds of imported foods, including processed, ready-to-eat products and single ingredients. Imports account for about 13 percent of the annual diet. There needs to be more of a priority in helping local farmers compete in this market and we need to ensure that the foods we and our pets are eating are safe. We need to focus on importing less food products.
Debate This Essay
|
|
|
|
 |
PicktheParty is a free online community that allows users to have fun with political discussions while debating everything from current topics to political jokes.
Once a registered member you can post comments, images and videos. Membership also grants our users vote tracking, a message inbox, chances to win prizes and access to various promotions.
PicktheParty does not sell or give away any information we receive.
So quit your filibustering and register! |
|
|
|
