Your organic food: Made in China Part 1. Why you should give a hill of beans about it

[cali]

By Anne Galloway on December 2, 2009



For years, I’ve kept a store of rice, oats and canned goods, along with pickles, potatoes, shelled beans and frozen vegetables, in the cellar of our old farm house. I buy food in bulk quantities and put up as much as I can from our garden. Going to all this trouble in summer is like holding down an extra part-time job, but I do it because I like to have some idea of where my family’s food comes from.

Recently, though, I began to have doubts about the bulk buying part of my hoarding strategy. Three months ago, I ordered a 5-pound bag of organic black beans from my local food-buying club. When the bag arrived, I was dismayed to find that the source origination cited on the package from United Natural Foods Inc. was not California, or the Midwest.

The country of origin was a place I tend to associate with melamine-laced baby formula: China.

Until that point, I had naively assumed that the bulk food I ordered through the club and purchased from my local co-op was grown domestically.
It turns out my assumption was wrong. A surprising number of organic products available at co-ops and natural food stores in Vermont now come from China.

These are the Chinese organics I’ve been able to identify: fresh garlic, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, black beans, soybeans, adzuki beans and mung beans. In addition, most natural foods stores and co-ops offer frozen foods from Woodstock Farms, a house brand owned by UNFI that distributes imported Chinese broccoli, asparagus, spinach, peas, mushrooms, edamame and peppers. Some frozen foods from Cascadian farms, including the company’s California mix (cauliflower, broccoli and carrots), are also from China.

Since I bought that first bag of Chinese beans in September, I’ve asked a lot of questions and been transferred from one communications officer to the next, put in voicemail hell and given punts like my personal favorite, “Could you please put your questions in an e-mail?” (So that we can ignore them forever.)

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http://vtdigger.org/2009/12/02/your-organic-food-made-in-china-part-1-why-you-should-give-a-hill-of-beans/