Just when it seemed that the melamine scare couldn’t get any worse  – we find out that the problem may be far deeper than we imagined. Eggs sold in Hong Kong, imported from mainland China, have been found to have twice the FDA’s supposed “safe limit” of melamine.

How did it get there? Apparently through contaminated feed – which means that beef, chicken, pork, and fish may also be at risk. However, U.S. and European agencies have yet to do something about it.

While Hong Kong authorities are responding by expanding their testing of products to include pork, fish, and offal products, the same sort of initiative has yet to be seen in the U.S.. And in Europe, while authorities admit to being aware of the situation, they still have not issued any sort of alert to consumers. In this they are showing an astonishing degree of willful irresponsibility, shockingly similar to FDA’s backdated (and long overdue) recall of the contaminated Koala’s March cookies. 

It gets worse. The Taiwanese government found recently that ammonium bicarbonate – used in the manufacture of cookies, bread, and some Chinese snacks – had melamine levels between 70 and 300 parts per million – when Taiwan’s legal limit is only 2.5 parts per million. While Taiwanese authorities were quick to issue a ban on the sale of this item, the fact that it took this long for it to get discovered is cause for alarm.

Clearly the current food production standards in China are not designed to ensure public health. Even worse, the Chinese authorities have been anything but forthcoming about the issue. There are media sources that report that the health department of Liaoning found melamine in local eggs at the beginning of October. These same tainted eggs had been labeled by the food safety authorities as an “organic product.” While they did order an investigation into the feed company involved, they deliberately suppressed the news from the media.

In addition, a manager from a feed company based in the central Henan province recently told the Associated Press that the practice of using melamine in feed has been going on longer than previously reported – at least seven or eight years. The fact that this sort of deception went unnoticed for so long, or worse might have been deliberately hidden from the public eye, is unacceptable. And to think that only now the world has begun to figure it out.

The assumption that leaving China to its own devices will lead them to fix the problem on their own is purely wishful thinking. More recalls are in order – but even more importantly, the inspection standards in our own country need to be vastly improved, as do those abroad. China is not the only one to blame if our own country’s federal agencies will not take the time to verify that the food it is importing is safe.

Food & Water Watch's fish team is currently in the Gulf of Mexico region, working to bring out a variety of local voices to the Gulf Council's public hearings on aquaculture. Marianne and Sascha, two of our fishy fighters, send dispatches from their work in the north Gulf region.

We hit the ground running on Wednesday, having meetings with various local allies in Mississippi to plan our week. In the evening, we were invited as guest speakers for the local Mississippi Sierra Club chapter. We had a great discussion about ocean fish farming, and in particular concerns with use of wild fish in feed for farmed fish. About 1 billion pounds of Gulf Menhaden are already taken annually from the Gulf of Mexico – and these fish are important in the wild as food for larger wild fish, birds and other marine wildlife. The chapter is very interested in Gulf of Mexico issues, and a group of people from the meeting agreed to attend the Gulf Council public hearing Monday night! They plan to carpool down to Mobile. We also had an interview with a reporter from the Associated Press by phone. That night, we headed up to New Orleans to stay with friends.

Thursday, we spent the day hanging flyers announcing the meeting at New Orleans colleges, including Loyola and Tulane, two schools with well-known environmental programs. We contacted some professors to get the students up on the Gulf fish farming issue. A number of students have already committed to attend the Council’s comment session Monday night, so we have arranged free transportation to and from the meeting for them, and are hoping more will join us. We also spoke to a Times-Picayune reporter who expects to come to the Council meeting in Mobile from New Orleans.

Friday was a very busy day! We headed out early to drive down to the bayou – through Galliano, La Rose, Cut Off and more to meet up with some of our local fishermen friends.  We had an hour at radio station KLRZ with Ken Friedlander, the “Rajun’ Cajun,” on Talk on the Bayou, to let people know about the upcoming Council meeting and the final decision on fish farms for the Gulf. Margaret Curole from Commercial Fishermen of America joined us to talk about how ocean fish farming in the Gulf can hurt Louisiana’s coastal communities. She also detailed the horrible conditions she’s seen in fish farms while traveling internationally. We had a number of callers tell us they are very worried about fish farms in the Gulf and that they are planning to come to the Council meeting to voice their concerns. It’s sounding like the Council meeting is going to be very interesting with the various types of people planning to attend.

Early on Saturday, we met up for breakfast with some of our local allies in Gretna, a historic community on the outskirts of New Orleans. We then went downtown to catch up with our fish team colleagues Christina and Justine, who had been working in the southern Gulf. They came north for VooDoo Fest, a local music event. Our fish mascot is going to VooDoo to tell people about the Gulf Council’s plan to permit offshore aquaculture in the Gulf and collect signatures on a petition. We had a quick collective chat, then split up again – our team headed back to Biloxi, and Justine and Christina to VooDoo Fest. Our plan for Biloxi was to stop at the various docks and bait shops to tell people about the Council meeting. We hung a number of flyers and handed out many packets of information. Some people told us they hadn’t heard anything about the fish farming plan, and were very concerned.

The Gulf coast seems to be slowly rebuilding from the storms in recent years. There were a number of new houses and docks, and there were noticeably more boats in the marinas than last year at this time. One area we stopped still had no parking lot – just some gravel and sand. We learned that in such cases, we should park the car elsewhere and walk to the docks – we got the car stuck in the sand for a while, until some of the fishermen noticed and came to help push us out (it was a great ice-breaker!).  We stopped at the local TV and radio stations, then at the Sun-Herald newspaper office. We had a late dinner at a local seafood restaurant, then drove back to New Orleans. We are going to VooDoo tomorrow!

– Marianne Cufone and Sascha Bollag

Food & Water Watch held the Get Cookin'! sustainable seafood recipe contest to gather the best recipes for the variety of seafood choices we recommend in our Smart Seafood Guide. Over the past several weeks, we received a multitude of recipes from seafood lovers all over the place. We were so excited to see how many people out there care about what they eat and have so many creative ideas for serving it.

We judged the recipes on the basis of several criteria: first, they had to include a type of seafood that we recommend in our Smart Seafood Guide. Other criteria included healthfulness, ease of preparation, originality and of course—most importantly—deliciousness. This last factor might seem subjective, but we had a panel of dedicated judges from the Food & Water Watch staff, including our partner chef, Rocky Barnette, who gathered to cook and taste all the recipes. It took a few rounds of voting before we were able to come to final decisions on all our winners, but we finally did. Throughout the tastings, everyone’s response seemed to be the same: “yum!” According to Chef Rocky, all the recipes were well-written and very professional. All the staff judges had a lot of good things to say about every recipe.

So we’d like to congratulate all of our winners on their wonderful recipes, and thank everyone who entered for their participation and enthusiasm. Stay tuned for the winning recipes, to be featured in a forthcoming recipe booklet out in time for the holidays.

Here are our fabulous seafood chefs:

Elaine Sweet with Crazy Cajun Shrimp Etouffee Cream over Garlic Noodles
Joan Churchill with Curried Clams and Melon Salad
Clayton Jay Davis with “Idaho Meets the Sea”
Roxanne Chan with Lebanese Scallop Salad
Rosemary Johnson with Black Cod with Butter Pecan Sauce
Bev Jones with "Grillted" Pomegranate Shrimp Salad
Candy Barnhart with Puffed Golden Halibut over Zucchini "Pasta"
Francis Garland with Crab Pizzawich with Wine-Soaked Grapes
Ken Hulme with Hogfish Hoagie
Wolfgang Hanau with Alaskan Salmon and Indian Cornbread Pie
Peter Halferty with Squid Risotto

All of these winners will be receiving a copy of the recipe booklet and a snazzy Food & Water Watch chef’s apron (pictured here on several Food & Water Watch staff).

And our grand prize of $250 goes to Jane Ingraham for her San Francisco Fish Stew. Congratulations, Jane!  

To all other sustainable seafood enthusiasts—both chefs and eaters—keep your eyes peeled for recipes to come. You can also click here for more ways to get involved with sustainable seafood--help to protect our oceans from unsustainable fish farming and check out our Smart Seafood Guide for recommended buying and dining choices!

- Erica Schuetz
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In an especially passionate display of concern over food safety today, Food & Water Watch activists courted the chocolate giant Hershey's to their side, asking them to give U.S. consumers the same assurances about not using genetically modified (GM) sugar in their Hershey's Kisses™ the Brazilians receive.

What's the rumpus?

U.S. farmers planted have planted GM sugar beet crops for the first time this season. The beets are genetically altered to survive regular applications of Monsanto's weed killer, Roundup, and its active ingredient, glyphosate. Because the EPA increased the maximum allowable residues of glyphosate on the beetroots (from which sugar is extracted) by a staggering 5,000%, Food & Water Watch is concerned about:

• the possible impact on the environment
• gene pollution of other crops and plants, and
• human health
  

Since GM ingredients are NOT labeled, there is no way to know if consumers are eating GM beet sugar once it hits the market, which could happen as early as next year. That's why Food & Water Watch called on its activists. And their enthusiastic response may have surprised the food industry.

According to the New York Times article, Round 2 for Biotech Beets (registration required), several American food companies aren't resistant to the use of GM sugar in their products because they feel American consumers have come to accept biotechnology.

Ooops.

We wouldn't call it a "kiss-off," but the activists were clear: they want their sweets GM-free. Protect your Kisses™. Urge Hershey's to publicly reject the use of GM sugar.