DPP Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) recently said each of the nation’s 270,000 servicemen and women should be made to eat 1kg of pork a day to reverse falling prices because of consumer worries over the use of leanness-enhancing animal feed by the livestock industry.....the math doesn't really work, as the paper claims thats like 10 pork chops a day, but it turns out our proud defenders are already following this policy with respect to fruit.....
Ministry officials said that in late 2008, when a glut of oranges was plaguing farmers, the armed forces had launched a 20-month campaign to increase its orange consumption.The article ends by noting that the reason people are suspicious of pork is because the government doesn't enforce the laws. All it has to do to cure the problem is start enforcing the laws about what can be in pork. It should also be noted that the lack of law enforcement is a subsidy to pork producers.....
By the end of that campaign, the military had consumed more than 600 tonnes of oranges.
Soon afterward, banana farmers saw prices plummet, so the ministry bought more than 100 tonnes of bananas, which made some servicemen feel they were being “force-fed” fruit, ministry officials said.
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Daily Links:
- USC Center for Public Diplomacy monitors news about Confucius Institutes.
- Loons writing history: KMT academic loon blames Presbyterian Church, Japanese, for 2-28
- Video: Robert Farley (Lawyers, Guns and Money) and Andrew Erikson of Naval War College on China's military power.
- Excellent WSJ piece on China's Coup Jitters: they reveal a fundamental instability
- Video: Making Bamboo Steamers, a vanishing traditional craft
- AMAZING: Dallas Federal Reserve bank calls for big banks to be broken up, and prosecutions of banking and finance gangsters who caused the recent crisis. In 2006, on the eve of the economic crisis, what nation was #3 arms importer after China and India? Award yourself a cigar if you said Greece. Yes, Greek debt problems begin with its bloated military budget.
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.
The additive in pigs "salbutamol sulfate" is a beta-agaonist that is clinically used to treat asthma. It is administered in babies , even premature babies. I don't know if the level of residual amount in pigs, if it doesn't cause tachycardia (fast heart rate) or stimulate the CNS, one can hardly claim it to be "toxic".
ReplyDeleteIn a way one cay say all medications are toxic. Yet the crux of the issue is, is it possible to mass produce produce (ha ha, English!) in modern agriculture? If not, isn't it the government's responsibility to find out what is the maximally allowable level and implement the policy, and reenforce it?
Unfortunately no rational discussion is possible in the political climate in Taiwan given it has become so polarized. KMT was against the import of the US beef in 2007, now DPP is expected to do that.
On the US beef import, I don't deny the potential hidden agenda of the beef import (under the table deal for helping Ma's election, smearing Taiwan pigs to salvage US beef etc), but I do doubt the validity of the danger of US beef.
Well, perhaps that comes with the territory in a democracy, like people make a big fuss out of Romney's dog, or Obama's birth certificate, centrists don't have a say !
I agree -- the threat is not proven. But the real issue is opening the market so everyone can import such beef and pork.
ReplyDeleteIn the U.S. salbutamol is known as albuterol. Albuterol is administered to treat acute bronchospasm, it is given as nebulizer treatments AND not as injections to children/ babies. I don't know if Taiwanese pig farmers gave it as nebs, I highly doubt it.
ReplyDeleteXopenex is the drug preferred generally over albuterol here because albuterol takes longer to clear from the body via the renal route. However around 10 percent of albuterol are bound to plasma proteins (stuff in blood), and prolonged use of albuterol can cause hypokalemia (low potassium) which is more serious than tachycardia in certain segments of population.
So stay away from pork blood sausage or pork blood rice cakes, that is where you will get a larger dose of th drug.
Jen
That's funny--the last I heard, Chu Hung-yuan was blaming George Kerr for 228. Can't he make up his mind?
ReplyDeleteInteresting link on the Confucius Institutes, but there's one minor error: it's the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, not UCLA's. As USC enrolls more Chinese students than any other campus in the US I'm curious as to how unbiased the reporting will be...
ReplyDeleteSpeaking anecdotally from being stationed at an air defense artillery battery, most troops would probably welcome being force-fed chicken drumsticks, fried chicken cutlets, pineapples, and curry - the mess hall typically runs out of those in a hurry. On the other hand, the pork we get (usually extremely tough cuts stewed in 滷汁) get a mixed reception. Leafy greens usually end up in the food waste bin to get fed to the hogs.
ReplyDeleteDon't even get me stated on the field rations (hardtack).