Milk from China Purposely Laced with Deadly Chemicals

Do you remember learning last year that melamine had been widely used by the Chinese to fraudulently adulterate wheat and grain products to "stretch" the quantities and profits of Chinese grain producers? Do you remember that thousands of U.S. cats and dogs died last year as a result of being fed name-brand American and Canadian pet foods that had been laced with melamine? Is it really any surprise to any of us now when we are learned this week that the Chinese are adulterating their milk products with the same fake and poisonous ingredients?

Do you have dry milk in your kitchen? You'll find it in chocolate milk mixes, coffee creamers, cake mixes, cans of condensed milk. You may even have baby formula made from dry milk. In my kitchen, I actually have a big box of dry milk in my kitchen that I bought from Wal-Mart, carrying the generic label of "Great Value" or "GV" - the Wal-Mart store brand. I've examined the box carefully and have found no indication that the milk that was used in its manufacture came from American dairy cows. The manufacturer of this product does not tell me what continent produced my milk.

So, until proven otherwise, I have every reason to believe that the dry milk powder in my kitchen is from China - and, is possibly laced with a deadly chemical. How can I make this connection? How can I not? Let's look at some important facts.

First, the U.S. only inspects 1% of all the food that is imported into our country from China. It does not test milk products for melamine.

Asia is the world's largest milk producer, surpassing Europe in 2006.

Within the Asian region, China has more than doubled its output over the past five years with growth rates of over 20 percent. Now, China is the world's third largest producer and exporter of all milk products for world consumption. In 2007, there were 14.7 million milch cows in China, up 7.8 percent over 2006; and with a total milk yield of 36.5 million tons, up 10.5 percent over 2006.

The discovery this week of an industrial chemical in baby formula and milk is just one symptom, they say, of unbridled growth in the dairy industry, where poor hygiene reigns and safety standards often go unenforced. (Elaine Kurtenbach, AP)

Melamine has been found not only in powdered milk — used to make baby formula and other products — but also in dry milk, milk products and liquid milk sold by China's biggest dairies.

I know what you might be thinking, now. You might be saying to yourself, "Well, I don't buy Wal-Mart's food! And particularly, I don't buy the cheaper store brands! I buy only the best products with the best named brands, so, I'm relatively sure that my brands aren't made in China and aren't adulterated with poisons!"

I'm also old enough to remember when buying a so-called "American brand" meant that quality controls were in place and our public health and safety was mostly assured. I remember when we really had faith and confidence in the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those days are long gone, now. We've seen the demise of food safety in the last couple of decades.

I'm the bearer of bad news.

Let's take the brand "Nestlé" as just one example. Although we think of Nestlé as an American company, it's actually a Swiss company that sources it's milk all over the world. It's well known and should be safe, right?

If you or your pets have used these brands - Purina dog food, Nestlé chocolate products, or Carnation milk products, Lean Pockets, Gerber baby food, Nesquik, Dreyer's ice cream, Lean Cuisine, Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Kit Kat snacks, or even Friskies - you or your pets are likely to have ingested some of Nestlé's milk sourced from somewhere else around the world. So what, you ask?

Yesterday, Nestlé's dry milk and milk products were found to be purposely laced with melamine also. Melamine is used in making plastics and is high in nitrogen, which registers as protein in tests of milk. Farmers in China who sell milk to food companies are believed to have used melamine to disguise watered-down milk and fatten their profit margins. This is the same thing they were guilty of last year when they added the industrial chemical to grain products.

So, to learn more, this morning, I not only visited the Wal-Mart websites looking for answers, but I also found myself slogging through annual reports and promotional pieces put out by the Nestlé corporation.

I still don't know how many melamine-adulterated milk products I have in my kitchen, but, will tell you this - nothing I've read or learned yet has put any of my fears to rest.

(Note to Wal-Mart: While Nestlé has been formally accused of selling adulterated milk, I'm not accusing Wal-Mart of selling melamine-laced milk specifically, but what I am saying is this - unless you can tell your consumers where your milk comes from exactly, consumers cannot have confidence in your products. You need to start giving "country of origin" on your food products. With food, the prudent consumer must take the "guilty until proven innocent" approach. Since China produces so much of the world's milk, has it produced the milk for Wal-Mart too? Who knows?)

News reports tell us that Nestlé milk products, however, have been found to contain melamine.

Nestlé, like most multinational corporations, is big in China. Since as we've already established, China provides the third largest exports of milk, it's no surprise that Nestlé wanted in on that growth in the milk industry.

A year ago, Nestlé opened a huge new milk powder factory in Hailar, Inner Mongolia, China. Nestlé material states:

Nestlé’s state-of-the-art milk factory in Hailar, Inner Mongolia was opened in July 2007.... Since Nestlé began investing in China two decades ago, we have opened 21 factories and today employ about 13 000 people. Nestlé buys fresh milk from some 40,000 Chinese farmers and provides them with an overall regular income...

Nestlé buys CHF 8 billion of agricultural commodities from emerging economies every year – around two-thirds of the Company’s total expenditure on raw materials – and nearly 40% goes towards three key commodities: milk, coffee and cocoa. Over half a million farmers (610,000) supply Nestlé directly....

Nestlé is the world’s largest milk company, sourcing 11.8 million tonnes of milk... Nestlé’s approach includes the development of milk districts, which involves regular purchasing of milk from local farmers, regardless of how much or how little they produce...

Although Nestlé does not own the actual farms, land or agricultural operations, they do have extremely close relationships with their agricultural suppliers in China.They state,

By engaging closely with the communities that supply us with agricultural commodities, we benefit from a more secure supply of better quality raw materials, which lowers our procurement costs (due to fewer middlemen, fewer defects and reduced waste), and results in better end products, helping to ensure consumer preference and profitable growth for our brands.

And, of course, corporations like Nestlé are proud of how they are improving the quality of lives in the countries, like China, where they operate. Nestlé puts it this way,

The work that Nestlé is doing with farmers, especially in remote rural areas and in developing countries, not only results in better quality raw materials, and therefore better products, but also helps farmers. By providing them with regular and reliable income, Nestlé is able to contribute to improving their standard of living.

Meanwhile, what about us? What about our health and our safety? Have we just been thrown under the bus - all in the name of profits?

Imported food is not safe. There have been too many problems. It's too widespread. It's like the wild west - lawless and out-of-control.

If we lack the political will to inspect our imports or to make sure that all the food we import from Mexico or China is free of melamine or salmonella - we need to stop importing. Period.

Do we have any power left? Any political will at all? Will we do anything to protect ourselves?

This America is not the same America my grandparents knew. My grandparents are turning in their graves, I assure you.