Where does it come from?

Where does the product you are using come from?

This is something that has become an important question to me. While in the States, I didn’t really ever think about this. I simply trusted that anything being sold in the States was of good quality. It never occurred to me that it would matter. But here, in China, this is a big question. And in light of the recent event of contaminated pet food across the world, which came from China, I would say it is also a big question all over the world. It is amazing what gets exported here into the States and other countries, with little to no quality control. In China, anything can be faked, forged, replicated, reproduced, changed, etc. If it costs them less or makes them more money, they will do it, no matter what the cost. I do believe that this stems from a lack of education and not that these people really want to harm others.

Click on this to read an article from the NYTimes. This is one extremely sad case where someone decided it would be easier and cheaper to substitute a lethal product for sugar in medications, which was then shipped out over the world.

Being here in China, I hear all sorts of horror stories about China. Some examples of things I’ve read or been told (possibly just gossip) are (this is just from my memory and may or may not be completely true):

The pollution is so bad that metals are sinking in the ground from the air and contaminating farming fields.

Don’t trust your bottled water, even with a name brand on it, it could be fake (one company here has set up a number system on stickers where you can go to a website and check to make sure it is a real bottle that hasn’t been used before).

See that man spraying “water” on the side of the road? It’s not water, it’s “medicine” for the insects or pesticides, which is now all over your car because you drove past him as he was spraying it everywhere.

Be careful of medicines you buy here in China, even from reputable pharmacies, they may be fake or sugar pills.

Name brand liquor sold here is often diluted down with cheaper liquor or water.

The furniture you buy that is made here could be harmful to you and your children as it’s possibly made with toxic paint, toxic wood and toxic glue.

Shrimp farms use antibiotics to treat the shrimp, along with banned pesticides in the water to prevent algae buildup (figures I’ve seen are roughly 70-80% of the WORLDS shrimp comes from China)

Now, it appears that with all the export business going on with China, these sub-standards are going out across the world. Along with my most recent post about challenging yourself to go “greener” and think about your impact on the world, I would also challenge you to think more about the products you use, not just food. Although it is IMPOSSIBLE to know exactly where everything you have is coming from – just being aware of this and trying to buy some things locally is a good idea. I find it a bit ironic that many people with only buy American made cars, claiming that they want to support the local people and not foreign industry, but there is no big push to buy locally made food, grocery products, clothes etc. I do understand that the cost of buying locally made items tends to be higher and in order to save money, people need to buy the cheaper items which are usually imported in from other countries. I am not saying never to buy imported items, just to be aware of what you are buying and where it is coming from.

I also find it quite interesting that all those items you buy in the States that are “made in china” are usually impossible to find in the country itself. And when you do find something that seems like a great product you could find back home, it is often either a forgery or something that doesn’t work right or has problems. So, the government here allows quality control on items that are being exported but if it’s being sold in the country, there is no quality control. For example, I’ve heard that if there is something that doesn’t pass inspections or quality control on the way to export, it just gets turned around and sold here in the country. So, a piece of furniture may have paint used on it that contains lead – this wouldn’t be allowed to be sold in other countries, so they just sell it here. It doesn’t matter what gets sold here. There is so little education here about the quality of things, they have no idea that what they may be using could injure or kill them.

I’m sure this probably just seems like a big ‘ole ramble – at least it seems rambling as I write it. Hopefully, it comes across better than I feel I’ve stated it.

The next question I’m sure to hear is “why do you continue living and working over there then?”! At some point, I’ll try to address that question.