It has recently been unearthed that United States-raised chicken has been being sent to be made in China and then re-entered into North America for over a year now. Controversially, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has vowed to not label the Chinese-imported chicken with a “Made In” label per grocery sales, leaving shoppers unaware of their purchases’ true origin.

Since 2014, many have become weary after multiple reports, particularly stemming from a “Complete Health and Happiness” article, releasing coverage of the alleged “money-saving tactics” USDA had been “green-lighting” for “quite some time.”

According to “Reuters,” the no-stranger-to-controversy federal branch enacted on the incentive to distribute live poultry-stock to Chinese plants, initiating this as early as January 2014. USDA has since then been entangled in a firestorm of controversies, especially when additional details highlighted the potential absences of health inspectors in the foreign plants.

The unearthed information has met negative reception, with regard to the Chinese units already being notorious for their insanitary food safety regulation issues and high rates of food-borne illnesses.

As noted in accompanying media, poultry is not the only item on the menu for foreign procession. Livestock such as cattle and beef are already considerable contenders.

For some everyday American citizens, USDA’s proposal does not seem the least bit shocking, given the string of negative events that have seen minimal, yet significant media coverage, which exposed the adding of horrendous chemicals in several grocery items.

In the Spring of 2012, outrage sparked the nation when “ABC News” broadcasted a segment that exposed grocery beef as actually being a “pink-slime” substitute, which USDA failed to notify the public of. Although USDA claimed it was safe for human consumption, the American public did not buy into the gimmick.

Immense backlash would soon result in USDA taking the substitute beef off the cold-cut shelves and national school lunch menus, and also shutting down three of four Beef Products, Inc. plants that were responsible for the matter.

However, less than two years later, the pink-slime muck was restocked to grocery shelves, after BPI reopened one of the defunct plants and cited the substitute meat as “lean finely textured beef,” adding claims that 70 percent of U.S.-sold ground beef contains similar material, hence the gradual restocking of the pink-slime beef at a “cheap rate.” Further claims by the BPI indicate that a drought crisis allegedly caused American manufacturers to resort to the pink slime.

Even with frustration imposed on American beef sales, other problems have been brought to the forefront. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s 2014 findings outlined a Chinese manufacturing unit that held ties to 500 deaths in canine pets due to the unit’s production of chemically-hazardous dog treats.

With all beef and accompanying commodities aside, tension of the chicken matter would briefly decline, when on January 8, 2015, Chinese officials placed a ban on U.S. poultry goods, due to an avian influenza scare affecting North American birds. Negative reception immediately rose once a USDA secretary urged Chinese officials to lift the ban, by inviting officials over to inspect East Coast states to ensure the flu was not infecting selective livestock, and to furthermore meet profitable demands.

One week following China’s initial ban, MSN and Parent Society shared medical data conducted by the FDA that signified over 70 percent of poultry being sold in the U.S. contained an arsenic-induced drug that triggers cancerous diseases.

However, even with these findings, problems still continue to surface.

Recently, National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson requested congressional leaders to vote against a passed bill “to repeal country-of-origin labeling” due to the bill never specifying the nature of foreign chicken entering U.S. grounds unlabeled, despite the National Chicken Council’s conflicting response that claims U.S. companies had no such plans, according to “AGWeek.com.”

With problematic notes of 240 million pounds of chicken and 56 million pounds of turkey being processed in Chinese plants since January of 2014, alongside recent reports noting South Korea, Canada and Mexico serving as other foreign poultry-processing plants, USDA likely has no desire in stopping their controversial operations.

In a money-making industry, where profit comes before health, it seems unlikely a change will be met unless the American nation decides to speak up in a massively-collective manner to cease further production that could potentially harm unsuspecting lives.

– Jefferson Varner IV

Sources: Complete Health and Happiness, Reuters, Agweek, Time, MSN, Reuters
Photo: NPR