Excuse the clumsy attempt at word play, but there is definitely something foul with our fowls. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted a ban on chicken imported from China. For the first time, chicken processed in China will go on sale in the United States without any labeling to indicate its source of origin.
NEW YORK — On Sunday, Sept. 15, Senator Schumer held a press conference in front of the Associated Supermarket in Stuveysant Town. A small crowd of roughly twenty people, including eight reporters and cameramen, gathered to listen.
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The USDA has approved four Chinese chicken processors to sell their chicken in the United States. Although the federal law allowed Chinese companies to export only cooked poultry products from chicken raised in the United States and Canada, without on-site U.S. inspectors, it would be hard to ensure compliance. Given China’s appalling record of food safety – arsenic in calamari, glass chips in pumpkin seeds, insecticide-tainted dumplings – Senator Schumer called the USDA’s decision to let Chinese chicken enter the United States without inspection a choice that “Makes no sense whatsoever.” He further claimed that if the agency could not afford enough inspectors to examine food products coming from China to the United States, then “don’t let the Chinese chicken in! Plain and simple!”