Cheap (45 page)

177
important role in digestion and vitamin synthesis:
See U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Web site
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap15.html
.

178
where the real damage is done:
In his courageous best-seller,
Fast Food Nation
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), author Eric Schlosser gives a stomach-wrenching description of the symptoms of E.coli 0157:H7, outbreaks of which he links to the industrialized food chain.

178
number of foodborne disease outbreaks:
The International Society for Infectious Diseases sponsors a list-serve for members that lists outbreaks of infectious disease around the globe. The list-serve can be accessed at
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400
:1000:712869436458594.

178
bagged baby spinach tainted with the bacterium:
See Food and Drug Administration press release: “FDA Finalizes Report on 2006 Spinach Outbreak,” P07-51, March 23, 2007.

179
fertile breeding grounds for infection:
J. Van Donkersgoed et al., “Environmental Sources and Transmission of Escherichia Coli 0157 in feedlot cattle,”
Canadian Veterinary Journal
42, no. 9 (September 2001), 714-20.

179
Atlanta, Boston, Denver, and St. Louis combined
: Eric Schlosser,
Fast Food Nation,
150.

179
get sucked back into crops—and into us:
Kevin Pickering and Lewis Owen,
An Introduction to Global Environmental Issues
(New York: Routledge, 1997), 198.

180
“after you’ve stopped smelling it”:
Jeff Tietz, “Boss Hog,”
Rolling Stone Magazine
, December 2006.

180
U.S. rejection of Chinese processed foods:
David Barboza, “China Blocks Some Imports of U.S. Chicken and Pork,”
New York Times,
July 14, 2007.

180
“billions of dollars of food exports”:
Audra Ang, “China Shuts 180 Food Factories,”
Associated Press,
June 27, 2007.

180
have quadrupled in the past decade:
Geoffrey S. Becker, “Food and Agricultural Imports from China,” CRS Report for Congress, September 26, 2008.

180
antibiotic that has been linked to cancer
: Rick Weiss, “Tainted Chinese Imports Common,”
Washington Post
, May 20, 2007, A01.

181
“look beyond their emphasis on low prices:”
“U.S., Chinese Leaders Try to Advance Trade, Food Safety Issues,” Agri-Pulse, May 30, 2007.

181
“preceding generations would have found bewildering”:
Paul Roberts,
The End of Food
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008), xi.

182
two Egg McMuffins for three-fourths of the price:
Mike Hughlett, “In a Bad Economy, Many Rediscover the Value Meal,”
Chicago Tribune
, October 17, 2008.

183
to die younger than their parents:
S. Jay Olshansky et al., “A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century,”
New England Journal of Medicine
352, no. 11: 1138-45.

183
most of us have come to think of as pork:
For a comprehensive, fascinating, and on many levels hilarious account of pig farming in America, see Nathan Johnson, “The Swine of the Times,”
Harpers,
May 2006.

184
as of our simply averting our eyes:
Julie Guthman, “Embodying Neoliberalism: Economy, Culture, and the Politics of Fat,”
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
2006, vol. 24: 427-448.

186
American markets with cheap Chinese garlic:
See, for example, Sophia Huang and Fred Gale, “China’s Rising Fruit and Vegetable Exports Challenge U.S. Industries,”
Electronic Outlook Report from the Economic Research Service
, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2006.

186
of transporting the California variety
: “Garlic: Buying Local Helps Reduce Pollution and Protects Health,” National Resource Defense Council, November 2007. Online at
http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/camiles/garlic.pdf
.

186
therefore requiring that we use more of it:
California-grown fresh garlic is heavier than the average imported bulb because of a higher density of soluble plant solids and lower water content. In laboratory tests the American Dehydrated Onion and Garlic Association found that American garlic is 42 percent solid, Chinese garlic about 37 percent solid. The association also measured allicin, the odifer ous compound in garlic that is released when the bulb is crushed. It is thought that allicin is behind garlic’s purported health benefits. California garlic had more than 4,400 parts per million of allicin compared to 3,500 for Chinese garlic. See, for example, Sue Kovach Shuman, “At the Market: How to Sniff Out Where Your Garlic Came From,”
Washington Post
, June 20, 2007, F07.

189
so cheap as to be essentially free:
Marc Levinson,
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006). In this remarkable book, Levinson quotes economists Edward L. Glaeser and Janet E. Kohlhase: “It is better to assume that moving goods is essentially costless than to assume that moving goods is an important component of the production process.”

189
China and the containers they carry:
Joseph Tarnowski, “NONFOODS: HBC/GM: Dueling for Dollars,”
Progressive Grocer,
September 15, 2006.

189
the vast bulk of them from China:
See “About the Port,” Web site: the Port of Los Angeles at
http://www.portoflosangeles.org
.

190
only one-twentieth of the world’s manufactured goods:
Ted. C. Fishman,
China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World
(New York: Scrib ner, 2005), 13.

190
can match China’s efficiency and reach:
See, for example, China expert Orville Schell addressing this issue on the radio show “On Point,”
http://www.onpointradio. org/shows/2004/07/20040714__a__main.asp.

190
no developed nation can touch:
See, for example, Ted C. Fishman,
China, Inc.,
177-201.

190
her household with Chinese imports:
Sandra Bongiorni,
A Year Without Made in China,
(New York: Wiley, 2008).

191
poverty line is drawn at $156 a year:
Wang Zhuoqiong, “New Poverty Line Raises Number of Poor,”
China Daily
, December 23, 2008.

191
poverty limit of $456 a year:
The World Bank poverty line was adjusted from $1 to $1.25 a day in 2008. Interestingly, more than half the people in the world live on $2 a day. For an excellent synopsis of global inequality, see Anup Shah, “Poverty Around the World,” at
http://www.globalissues.org/article/4/poverty-around-the-world.

191
“combination of capitalism, socialism, feudalism and slavery”:
Howard French, “Ideals and Reality Conflict on Chinese Child Labor,”
International Herald Tribune
, June 16, 2007.

192
the world’s biggest shopping mall
: As of early 2008, eight of the ten largest malls in the world were in Asia. Informed speculation has it that within the next few years China alone will be home to seven of the ten largest shopping malls in the world.

192
clueless in matters of labor law:
Aris Chan, “The Children of Migrant Workers in China,” China Labour Bulletin. This remarkably comprehensive report is available online at
http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/100316
.

192
his seventeen-year-old son to sign on:
Lauren Keane, “Chinese Migrants Return to Rural Roots,”
Washington Post Foreign Service
, January 2, 2009, A08.

192
717,938 workplace accidents and 127,089 deaths:
http://www.china.org.cn/english/government/177529.htm
.

193
actual numbers are thought to be much higher:
For example, at least six workers died while working on construction sites of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Chinese officials at first denied the deaths until forced to acknowledge them after a British newspaper investigation sparked international outrage. See Maureen Fan, “China Acknowledges 6 Deaths in Construction Work,”
Washington Post Foreign Service
, January 29, 2008, A16.

194
are made by migrant workers in Chinese factories:
See Eric S. Lipton and David Barboza, “As More Toys Are Recalled, Trail Ends in China,”
New York Times
, June 19, 2007, and
http://www.toy-tia.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Press__Room/Industry__Statements/Toys__Made__in__China/Toys__Made__in__China
. htm. Interestingly, President Obama called for a ban on Chinese toy imports in a New Hampshire campaign rally on December 9, 2007.

194
Chinese use themselves, including food:
For example, the fake milk powder scandal has been widely reported in the Chinese media for years. See, for example, Dwight Daniels, “Fake Milk Powder Case Sounds Alarm . . . Again,”
Shanghai Star
, April 21, 2005.

194
forage for it themselves in the wild:
Fuchsia Dunlop, “Garden of Contentment: In a Toxic Era, A Hangzhou Restaurant Pursues Purity,”
The New Yorker,
November 24, 2008.

194
taking bribes from drug companies:
Daniel Chinoy, “Chinese Buyers Beware,”
Fortune,
July 12, 2007.

195
artificially boost its protein content:
“China Milk Scandal Claims First Victim Outside Mainland,”
USA Today (AP),
September 22, 2008. Among the many suppliers cited for contaminated milk was The Dairy Farm, a China-based vendor for Swiss-based multinational Nestlé, although at first Nestlé denied this allegation. The World Health Organization determined that delays in releasing critical information on the contamination had hampered Beijing’s ability to deal rapidly with the problem and further endangered consumers.

195
“distancing themselves from their own product”:
David Leonhardt, “Outsourcers Could Learn a Thing or Two from Thomas,”
New York Times
, June 20, 2007.

195
American Girl Doll is made in China:
Maria Halkias, “American Girl Dolls Get Party Started,”
Dallas Morning News,
November 3, 2007.

196
shirts are made by Oxford Industries:
At this writing the shirts were on sale on the IslandTrends Web site for $30.

197
“and show monitors falsified books”:
Dexter Roberts et al., “Secrets, Lies and Sweatshops,”
BusinessWeek,
November 27, 2006. The article reports on Nignbo Beifa Group, a top supplier of pens, mechanical pencils, and highlighters to Wal-Mart stores and other discounters. The company had already failed three audits when the managers learned that Wal-Mart was sponsoring a fourth. Flunking the fourth audit would cost the factory Wal-Mart’s business, so it apparently hired a consultant to help tamper with the books and prepare managers to falsely answer questions. The factory passed the fourth audit but improved none of its labor practices.

198
that figure had leaped to 40 percent:
Louis Charbonneau, “Half of the World to Live in Cities by the End of 2008 UN,” Reuters, February 26, 2008.

198
“should campaign in favor of sweatshops”:
Nicholas D. Kristof, “In Praise of Maligned Sweatshop,”
New York Times
, June 6, 2006. Kristof, a generally insightful and sensitive reporter and columnist, has been promoting sweatshops for some time. Following the East Asian financial crises of the late 1990s, he reported the story of an Indonesian recycler who, picking through a garbage dump, dreamed of her son growing up to be a sweatshop worker. He and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, penned “Two Cheers for Sweatshops: They’re dirty and dangerous. They’re also a major reason Asia is back on track,” which appeared in the
New York Times Magazine
September 24, 2000. Two years later Kristof’s column advised G-8 leaders to “start an international campaign to promote imports from sweatshops, perhaps with bold labels depicting an unrecognizable flag and the words ‘Proudly Made in a Third World Sweatshop’ ” (“Let Them Sweat,”
New York Times,
June 25, 2002).

198
“difficulty of competing internationally”:
Nicholas D. Kristof, “Where Sweatshops Are a Dream,” January 15, 2009.

199
in the history of New York City for ninety years:
For this I relied on David Von Drehle’s authoritative account in
Triangle, the Fire That Changed America
(New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003).

199
several small producers have taken up the challenge:
A list of sweatshop-free manufacturers and distributors can be found online at
http://www.state.ct.us/ott/Poli- cyAndEducation/YDYW2008/Track
₃
HumanRights/Background%20 Resources,%20Best%20Practices%20and%20Further%20Reading/Sweatshop%20-%20 Free%20Clothing.pdf.

200
due in part to the decline in farming:
China’s land mass is similar to that of the United States (about 9.4 million and 9.6 million square kilometers respectively), but per capita has fewer farms than do most other countries. It is staggering to learn that China feeds 20 percent of the world’s population on only 7 percent of the world’s farmland. Even that percentage is threatened thanks to government policies that make land development far more lucrative than farming, so local officials rigorously pursue development whenever possible. See Chengri Ding, “Farmland Preservation in China,”
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy,
July 2004. See also Anthony Kuhn, “China’s Food Prices Rise as Population, Wealth Grow,” National Public Radio, April 2008; available online at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89642147
.