Oh please, sing me another song! It’s simply cheaper for US companies to outsource everything. If the borders were shut down today - nothing in and nothing out - we’d be going hungry mighty fast. Price supports of certain US industries - food, steel, etc. - are a method of insuring our country has a supply of necessary things. It has always been part of national defense. I want to know where that went. I’m sure some economist would try to tell me it doesn’t work quite like that any more - that all country’s economies are so intertwined that we’d all fall down if restrictive policies were put into place, but I’m just not buying that.

Congressman Tanner knew back in 2003 how much power China would have over us. Now we are in so deep there seems to be no end.

http://www.house.gov/tanner/press108-101.htm

Funding 2 wars is expensive. The U.S. Government talks tough but I doubt they will follow through with anything against China and it’s unsavory trading practices.

Found this yesterday:

Trade deficit sets record for fifth consecutive year

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit set a record for the fifth straight year in 2006, reflecting a huge jump in America’s foreign oil bill and a record imbalance with China. The year ended with the December deficit increasing more than had been expected.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the gap between what America sells abroad and what it imports rose to a record $763.6 billion last year, a 6.5 percent increase from the previous record of $716.7 billion set in 2005. For December, the deficit rose a bigger-than-expected 5.3 percent to $61.2 billion.

The Bush administration attributed the string of deficits to the United States outpacing other countries in terms of economic growth. Officials said that President Bush would continue to pursue a strategy of opening foreign markets to U.S. goods rather than erecting protectionist barriers to keep out imports.

It is true that many herbal supplements are grown in China, and I have always been told that they send the poorest quality stuff to us. Wonder if they use melamine as a fertilizer?

. . . my vitamins and supplements were safe :-/

actually, I have been ever since ChemNutro’s name was releaved and I looked at their product list. Took a little time, but I believe I found non-China Natural sources for everything I need. Some of it is already arriving on my doorstep. And once I’m more familiar with the different brands, I will be speaking with the shops around me that carry natural/organic products. I got lazy there thinking

Maybe. Maybe not.

1. The dietary supplements market is very possibly the only industry LESS regulated than pet food. A friend of mine who’s a toxicology professor says you would NOT believe what’s in that “vitamin capsule.”

2. The Dietary Supplements industry does NOT want to be regulated, because the required testing would raise their prices. Ergo, their PR spin is that the drug companies want to
“get rid of the competition.”

3. If we’re all jumping up and down (I sure as heck am) to get pet food companies to do more testing, don’t you think human supplements should at least have to adhere to the same standards? i.e., not harmful, at least, if not helpful? Right now, they don’t have to do that.Why? Because they’re unregulated.

4. Where do you think these supplement folks buy most of their ingredients? China.

I don’t like Big Pharma. But I also don’t like being played by their competitors. Make sure you’re asking the same questions about supplements you’re asking about food. You might be surprised to find out how non-holistic they actually are.

A Jack n’ Prozac may be just what we need about now . . . . ;)