When you understand the scope of food export, and also the risks of food manufacturing, and when you understand the severity of quality control needed to produce food safely, you begin to understand why massive corporations are now overwhelming the independent farmer.
You’ll also discover why outbreaks of Listeria, E-Coli and other food processing illnesses are increasingly common.
These outsourced manufacturing and processing plants have far lower safety standards than U.S. manufacturing. Other than corporate actuarial analysts who calculate risks, ie. the value of human life and comparative risk from the outsourced manufacturing, no-one else ever talks about that cost.
Get sick from Listeria and try suing the manufacturing company. You’ll soon find yourself amid a multinational network of legality filled with “Hold Harmless” agreements where the manufacturing companies are shielded by the government of the nation doing the production. Good luck suing Mexico.
Remember all the Chinese pet food that killed hundreds of American cats, dogs? If you think these inherent risks are not real because you don’t eat fig newtons and don’t have a dog, well… where exactly are your pharmaceuticals coming from? You see, the risk doesn’t diminish.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce rails against C.O.O.L (Country Of Origin Labeling), and spends hundreds of millions lobbying congress to ensure the origin of ‘store processed’ raw material foodstuffs do not have to be identified to the consumer. Why is that?
Massive floating seafood factories operate for months at a time outside any nation’s jurisdiction. Floating vessels that capture fish, process fish, manufacture and package fish sticks, and deliver a frozen finished product by the time they reach the port. Who’s inspecting that process?
That’s just a few current food examples.
It’s not just “trade” of products within these trade deals, that’s why there are 6,000 pages to the summary version (the broad outline of commitment) of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal alone.
When the U.S. congress signs up to one of these deals they are giving away more than just American jobs, they are giving up American safety, sovereignty and caretaker custody of the supply chain.
