China has been an up and coming superpower for quite some time. As Americans, we buy a lot of products with the label “MADE IN CHINA” firmly plastered on them. What we don’t see as Americans is the terrifying food crisis that the Chinese government is currently trying to tackle.
Unlike “normal” food crises, where there just isn’t enough food to feed everyone, the Chinese food crisis is deadly and disturbing on a whole ‘nother level. This crisis is one where there is so many toxic chemicals and bacteria in the food that it is no longer safe to eat. Some of it is due to the fact that many parts of China are highly polluted. However, much of it is due to the fact that farmers are using illegal hormones, pesticides, and chemicals to grow the food, and there is not enough regulation happening to make it stop. The death toll from this food crisis easily is in the thousands, and measures have been taken to ensure that as little information about the crisis gets out as possible.
Scarier still, this crisis has been going strong for over a decade.
Deadly Green Beans
Among US health gurus, there are fewer things that are more diet-friendly than a heaping serving of beans. How can you go wrong with beans? Well, imagine how healthy green beans are if they are so mutated, so completely warped in their growth patterns that they reach over 3 feet in length PER BEAN POD. 3.5 tons of green beans that were treated with an illegal growth hormone were seized in Sanya and Wuhan in early 2010. Another 40 tons of beans that were treated with nitrites, urea, and a banned hormone linked to cancer were also seized in 2011.
Metallic Rice
Rice is one of those foods that has always been susceptible to contamination (as are all grains) , but recently, China’s rice and flour contamination has gotten to dangerous levels. In a 2011 study, 1/3 of all foods containing rice and flour produced in China contained dangerous levels of aluminum and heavy metals. 10% of all rice grown in China also contained scarily high levels of cadmium, lead, and other similar heavy metals. High levels of aluminum have been linked to increased risk of Alzheimer’s, neurological issues, and blood problems.
Scientists have found that peasants who eat low-grade rice, also known as “old rice,” are much more likely to die from heart attack, stroke, or cancer. Bleached flour from certain regions have also been linked to amnesia, fatigue, dizzyness, and neuroasthenia.
Pork That Glows…And Stops Hearts
You may have heard about the reports of pork that was so contaminated with bacteria that it began to glow in the dark. However, that isn’t too bad. As long as the pork is well-cooked, it should be safe to eat. (That’s only if you believe the Shanghai Health Supervision Department!)
A larger problem with pork and other meat offerings in China is the widespread use of Clenbuterol (or, as it’s known in China, “lean meat powder”) . Clenbuterol, for those not in the know, is a steroid that causes fat loss at an extreme rate in both humans and animals, and is normally only used on large mammals like horses. When humans eat animals treated with Clen, they can get dizzy, diahrrea, vomiting, and appetite loss. In more serious cases, it can cause heart murmurs, palpitations, stroke, asthma attacks, heart attacks, and sudden death. No one knows how many heart attacks were caused due to contaminated pork and beef in China.
Scarier still, you can’t even be sure what you are eating is what the label says it is. Chinese officials have caught people selling mule meat as Pingyao Beef.
Baby Killing Milk
Imagine buying infant formula from your local grocery store, only to find out that it sickened your child. In 2008, over 300,000 babies were sickened due to melamine contaminated infant formula. Officially, only 6 infant deaths were directly connected to the tainted milk. Off books, no one knows how many children died because of this food scandal. Doctors even said that babies who were given water were more likely to stay healthy than those who had ingested the contaminated milk. To this day, one of the most popular items on the Chinese black market is baby formula from foreign countries.
Poisoned Apples That Would Scare Snow White
The latest food scandal to grip China are the poison apples from the Yantai section of China. The pesticide bags that were used to protect the apples from parasites have been found to contain arsenic, banned hormones, and worse. Several tons of apples were seized.
Exploding Watermelons
Have you ever eaten so much that you felt like you were going to explode? In China, that really did happen. Farmers pumped watermelons with so many hormones that the outside shell could not keep up with the growth of the interior of the melon. Needless to say, they were shocked to discover that the melons exploded before they could be shipped out.
Farmers Feeling Helpless
The worst part about this is that many of the famers and food sellers know that the vegetables, fruits, and meat that they prepare aren’t safe for consumption, but they have to sell massive quantities of these foods anyway. They have no other way of providing for their families, and they don’t know what to do. With over 1 billion people in the country, China needs as much food as they can get. Demand for food will always be there. Many of these farmers feel helpless in their situation. They want to do something, but can’t. They cannot let their families starve, but they have no means of standing up to the impossible demands of industrialization and population boom.
Is there even a way to make things better without forcing people to starve? Better to know still – why don’t more Americans know about this disaster?