Update on Protein-gate

The scandal that won't die…

As you may recall, a few weeks ago, I regaled with a 3-part series about the recent bulk dry pet-food scandal that involves, among other elements…

• Vast quantities of vegetable-based pet foods that are contaminated with a toxic fertilizer and by-product of the plastics manufacture industry (melamine)
• The collusion of the Chinese government in the exportation of raw food ingredients intentionally "fortified" with protein-mimicking melamine
• The ridiculously lax U.S. inspection process that allowed these ingredients to find their way into pet foods (and other places, as you'll discover momentarily)
• The knowing complicity of bulk pet-food manufacturers AND big-box retail pet supply outlets that peddle these products under dozens of different brand names

As if this weren't intrigue and conspiracy enough for you, I ended up that 3-part series with a reference to how some of this pet-food may have seeped into the livestock food  supply - which could end up threatening us humans. To recap, here's exactly what I wrote:

"According to the Associated Press and other sources, huge quantities of the more than 100 brands of tainted pet foods that have been pulled from stores shelves since mid-March have found their way into hog-feed in as many as 6 U.S. states. Safety officials have quarantined hogs in California, New York, both Carolinas, Utah and Ohio. The urine of some of these quarantined hogs has tested positive for melamine poisoning, the FDA has released…

It isn't known at this time whether any contaminated hogs have reached consumers' plates or not. Also implicated is at least one poultry farm, according to the FDA's chief veterinarian."

Well, there's more news now on the scope of this possible mass-contamination of HUMAN food sources by this deadly conspiracy of greed originating in corrupt Communist China.

Shortly after I wrote that 3-part series, officials vehemently denied that there existed any heightened danger to U.S. pork eaters - regardless of whether the hogs in question ate the contaminated feed or not…

However, there's apparently enough danger to quarantine 6000 of these hogs to prevent their meat from entering the food supply. Pork from at least 245 such contaminated hogs actually made it to slaughter - and subsequently into bacon, sausage, or whatever.

But just days after this, USDA and FDA officials conceded that as many as 3 MILLION chickens earmarked as "broilers" had been fed melamine-laced feed between February and May…

ALL of these make it to the table somewhere across the fruited plain.

According to HealthDay News and other sources, the powers-that-be are downplaying any danger. "The risk to humans is small," the FDA's Assistant Commissioner of Food Protection claims.

Yet again, actions speak louder than words. The agencies have mandated that an additional 100,000 "breeder" birds that ate the contaminated feed be quarantined, and will likely be killed…

Strange measure to take if there's no danger, don't you think?