{"id":100127,"date":"2016-07-03T17:57:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T01:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=100127"},"modified":"2016-07-03T17:57:42","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T01:57:42","slug":"the-case-against-free-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=100127","title":{"rendered":"The Case Against Free Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Conservative Treehouse<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also discover why outbreaks of Listeria, E-Coli and other food processing illnesses are increasingly common.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Get sick from Listeria and try suing the manufacturing company. You\u2019ll soon find yourself amid a multinational network of legality filled with \u201cHold Harmless\u201d agreements where the manufacturing companies are shielded by the government of the nation doing the production. Good luck suing Mexico.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t eat fig newtons and don\u2019t have a dog, well\u2026 where exactly are your pharmaceuticals coming from? You see, the risk doesn\u2019t diminish.<\/p>\n

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 \u2018store processed\u2019 raw material foodstuffs do not have to be identified to the consumer. Why is that?<\/p>\n

Massive floating seafood factories operate for months at a time outside any nation\u2019s 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\u2019s inspecting that process?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just a few current food examples.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just \u201ctrade\u201d of products within these trade deals, that\u2019s why there are 6,000 pages to the summary version (the broad outline of commitment) of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal alone.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Conservative Treehouse: 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t