Your chicken nuggets: Made in China

The USDA has lifted its long-time ban on imports of processed chicken from China, so those chicken nuggets, chicken strips and breaded chicken fingers on restaurant menus will be coming from you-know-where. Don't worry, their safety wil be certified - by Chinese inspectors!

The Progressive Farmer brings us the nauseating details (emphasis added):

In the world of expanded global trade and food production, USDA is allowing companies to export raw chickens raised in the U.S. or Canada to be sent to China. Those chickens would then be processed into food such as chicken strips, nuggets and the like and then be exported back from China into the U.S. So the average round-trip U.S.-to-China chicken nugget would have roughly 11,000 frequent-flier miles just crossing the Pacific Ocean before it lands on your kid's plate at lunch. ...

As part of this important trade development, Chinese chicken facilities will be responsible for providing American importers with the source verification that guarantees all processed chickens would be of American or Canadian origin. It would be inappropriate to imply at this time that possibly significant errors could enter into the source-verification process.

The decision by the USDA came just before another government panel, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States approved the sale of Smithfield Foods to Shuanghui International.

Now, America's largest pork producer will be owned by a Chinese conglomerate with a spotty record of food safety. And the USDA is opening the gates to food imports from China.

What could possibly go wrong here?

These developments come as the corporatist food processors want to ban Country of Origin labels on food. Why should we want to know where our food comes from?

Here's our recommendation:

Protect your health, your family and your country: Support your local farmer.