Pass on the catfish dinner.....

[Raider Bill]

Fishfarmer may have more to add but I just watched this. It reinforces why I only eat fish from the U.S.

[DanG]

I can't see the video, but I can still put in my two cents worth.  I refuse to eat anything that isn't from the USA if I have a way to tell.  I get downright disgusted when I find Chinese catfish for half the price of US catfish!  Got so mad one time, I left a whole cartful of groceries in the meat aisle and walked out of the store.  What really hurt me was that the grocery store chain is headquartered in S. Georgia, right in the middle of catfish country.  The way I see it, we need to take our food supply away from the greedy middlemen who drive the prices up so high.  There can be no other reason than greed for a slice of catfish to cost five dollars a pound, just like that is the only reason tomatoes cost what they do!  I have proof positive that we are being gouged at the stores.  I used to gripe to the managers at Piggly Wiggly about the price on their Fason's sausage.  They were pricing it at $4.99lb when the private meat market down the street was $3.50.  The reason I picked that item for my rant is that the stuff is made about 2 miles from the store.  I told the manager he could go down there and get it in a wheelbarrow if he wanted to save shipping costs!   The store has been converted to a "Grocery Outlet" where they price everything at cost and add 10% to the entire order at the register.  Fason's Sausage is now $2.10lb plus 10%!  Yesterday, I was in the Grocery Outlet in Bainbridge Ga, and bought freshly ground hamburger for $1.48lb +10%, and I stood there and watched the guy grinding my hamburger from some beautiful roasts!  The boxes behind him were from Iowa.

We don't have to have Government regulations and tariffs in order to control our own food supply.  All it would take is for all US producers to label their products as "Product of USA", and for consumers to only buy products labeled as such.  The foriegn meats and produce would disappear almost overnight!

[Raider Bill]

ww.vimeo.com/11817894
put another w in front to view.
Basically it shows the filth and how SE asia catfish are raised. Pretty nasty!

USA or none for me!

[sprucebunny]

I like that line :

USA or none for me !!!

I'd rather pay $3.49 a lb. to the farmer for tomatoes than $2 to the supermarket . Who knows where the supermarket ones  came from and they were bred to travel not to eat.  

[shinnlinger]

I can't see the video and have my concerns about imported food also, but I have a different perspective on food prices.  If you want safe food that is not raised inhumanly and jacked up with drugs in a way that endangers all who eat it then you have to be willing to pay a more.  If you only are willing to buy the cheapest food available, you open up markets to questionable food.

Compare it to chainsaws.  Why are you willing to pay more for a Stihl/Husky/Jonsered when a Poulan or Homelite  is available for less than half the price?  Like anything else, you get what you pay for, and something as important as what you put in your kids bodies probably should have more consideration than cheapest price.

One solution is to remove the middleman and buy direct from your local farmer BUT be willing to pay him full retail.  Keep your local folks  in business AND do something good for your family.

Dave

[DouginUtah]

ww.vimeo.com/11817894
put another w in front to view.
Basically it shows the filth and how SE asia catfish are raised. Pretty nasty!

USA or none for me!

All you have to do is click on the (Sorry) image and it takes you to the video.

[Woodhauler]

BEER AND BEEF FOR ME!

[DanG]

Shinnlinger, I'm afraid I must disagree, to a point.  The food items I was describing were the exact same high quality products that are being sold for twice the price or more.  Another example is our local tomato crop.  During the brief local season, this one locally owned store sells them for 69¢, and gets them from the same processing facility that yours come from at that time.  The big chain store down the street, only 2 blocks from that processor prices theirs at $1.99.  The farmer got exactly the same price per pound from both of them.  I would rather pay the farmer 50¢ for them and quadruple his current price, which would tickle him to death.  I'm pretty sure a catfish farmer would be proud to get $2.50 for fillets if he was allowed to sell them that way, too.

I'm not talking about cutting quality or compromising safety, just wanting to send the money where it belongs.

[SwampDonkey]

As far as the food supply, I agree we should buy our own first. But, as far as thinking there are no problems right at home in how it is processed at these corporations you might want to find out some more about how your food is processed and handled at home. Food,Inc tells a few stories and shows hidden camera footage. Most people just don't care, "I gotta go to the grocery store." Many alternatives I see on the TV and in the large cities like farm markets and such struggle in this area. Markets usually end up with people selling crafts and only operate 3 or 4 months a year. People want to go to one place for their stuff and no one has been able to organize this like a grocery store. Too much infighting and little clicks and complaining.

[Chris Burchfield]

Sorry, I couldn't resist.  Do Chinese catfish and shrimp have slanted eyes?      Just thought that would be one way of telling.  No I just picked up some US pond raised fillets from Kroger yesterday. Gona fry em up tonight. 

[gary]

No store bought fish for me. Go and catch it in the morning put it on the grill for dinner. Had channel catfish and walleye for dinner tonight.

[Raider Bill]

I haven't had Walleye since 1984. Used to drift fish using a dixie spinner and nightcrawler, 2 poles with 2 rigs each. Max'ed out the limit everytime.  Dang, Them were some tasty fish!

[Kansas]

The only out of this country food I will eat is grapes from Chili during the winter, plus the usual bananas, other tropical fruits, and some stuff from mexico. Meat all comes from the USA. I love country of origin labeling.

[DanG]

I don't shun all foriegn stuff, but I've declared war on Chinese products, especially catfish.  If that ain't got a US label, I simply don't buy it.  I can't usually know where a restaurant gets their stuff from, but I don't eat out very often anyway.  I don't hesitate to buy NZ, Canuckidadian, or Australian products, but I don't see a lot of it in the stores, except for lamb.

[gunman63]

OK, now hows this work, how would u label it, Living in minnesota u see pot load after potload of hogs coming  south from canada, and im sure cattle to, i think the mad cow deal is about over, but anyways, as far as labeling these,  are they labeled as canadian, but there coming in live, and butchered here, or are they labeled USA.

[Norm]

Everything you ever wanted to know and more about COOL labeling.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/cool

[SwampDonkey]

Take haddock, a fish a lot of people eat around here. Says product of Canada. Thing is, it comes from Taiwan now to a Canadian processing plant and gets labeled "Product of Canada". 

Local berries it will say at the supermarket. They come 300 miles away from NS. Local corn, 500 miles away from southern Ontario.

Lady comes into the farm market in the middle of May. Any fresh local corn? (Mom's friend tends the market and see's all kinds)

[fishpharmer]

Take haddock, a fish a lot of people eat around here. Says product of Canada. Thing is, it comes from Taiwan now to a Canadian processing plant and gets labeled "Product of Canada".  ::

That same sort of thing is what helped the foreign catfish infiltrate the US Markets.

A greedy catfish processor was importing the foreign fish and labeling it like the US product.  That actually helped bring about COOL legislation. 

[logwalker]

I read last year that in the US a meal travels an average of 1500 miles to where it is consumed and in Canada it is more like 5000 miles. Way too far of course.

Joe

[Patty]

What a same that is. This meal traveled about 100 feet from my garden to the kitchen!


 



Tonite's supper.