Well, we’ve all heard about GM raising prices and it seems to be pretty accepted that prices are either going up or the sizes are going down or both.  Heard a very rational discussion on the noon business hour on Newsradio this afternoon.  It goes something like this:

China, with 22% of the world’s population, only has 7% of the world’s arable land for cultivation; a substantial percentage of our crops is being exported to them.  Other parts of the world that export crops to them have bad growing seasons.  Since China buys in such quantity, the price of all grains increases and we foot the bill.

So why don’t we increase the amount of land in production?  Good question, but it turns out that very little of the sandy soil in the southeast (for example) is suitable (unlike our wonderful Midwestern dirt) for plants without genetic engineering, which the Chinese people won’t accept. Continue reading for more contradictions…

The following comes from Wikipedia:

As a developing nation, China has relatively low sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards for its agricultural goods. Corruption in the government, such as the bribery of former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, has also complicated China’s regulation difficulties. Excessive pesticide residues, low food hygiene, unsafe additives, contamination with heavy metals and other contaminants, and misuse of veterinary drugs have all led to trade restrictions with developed nations such as Japan, the United States, and the European Union. These problems have also led to public outcry, such as in the melamine-tainted dog food scare and the carcinogenic-tainted seafood import restriction, leading to measures such as the “China-free” label.

Organic food products

China has developed a Green Food program where produce is certified for low pesticide input.  This has been articulated into Green food Grade A and Grade AA. This Green Food AA standard has been aligned with IFOAM international standards for organic farming and has formed the basis of the rapid expansion of organic agriculture in China.

Would you buy China-certified organic?

I’m throwing this out as a bone to my Cook County readers.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle today made it clear all county officials will soon have to make significant budget cuts — or see their budgets cut.

Discussions between elected officials and Preckwinkle about how to cut more than $480 million will end soon, she said. Some of the biggest county offices, including the state’s attorney and sheriff, have resisted her call to cut their spending by 16 percent.

“We’re obliged to submit a balanced budget,” Preckwinkle said, adding that would be done by Feb. 1. “We hope for their help and cooperation, and we’ll submit a balanced budget whether or not we get their help and cooperation.”

Preckwinkle said she has felt the financial pain, having to slash the number of employees in her office after discovering that former board President Todd Stroger had been spending about $600,000 more in salaries than the budget called for.

Preckwinkle addressed the issue while announcing she had hired former city Comptroller Tariq Malhance, 66, as her new chief financial officer. He will be paid about $176,000 a year, which is $54,000 less than his predecessor, whose salary Stroger boosted after his Democratic primary election loss nearly a year ago.

The article was posted in today’s Trib by Hal Dardic at 3:20 p.m.; updated at 7:09 p.m.