Certified 100% China Free
It was going to happen sooner or later. With the backlash against China quality and product safety, some enterprising company was bound to capitalize on consumer fear against Chinese products. Well, now someone has. Just as many CPG providers are labeling their food, pharmacy and now even clothing products "organic" and "fair trade" -- don't get me started on that one -- one dietary supplements provider
is certifying that its products are 100% China Free right on the label!
According to a story in a supplements trade magazine, Food for Health International has announced it will “start labeling its dietary supplements with a sticker that reads "safe" and "China-free" following highly publicized discoveries of contaminated food imports from China." It's good to see that the author of the story notes that the "move begs the question whether such labeling is in fact a thinly disguised means for domestic producers to muscle out of the competitive sector of Chinese ingredients, or even blatant xenophobia."
Personally, I find such marketing abhorrent. In Nazi Germany -- and throughout Nazi occupied countries in Europe in the late thirties and early forties -- if you were a retailer who wanted to keep your store, it was considered advantageous to make sure your products were not advertised as being made by Jews (unless of course, they were enslaved in government factories).
When I read this type of marketing from Food for Health, it feels to me like a new type of racism, the kind that can lead to the dehumanizing of individuals (and we all know where that path goes down). I mean, come on. Doesn't the fact that "First Health will print stickers on their product boxes that fold over one of the top edges saying "safe" on the top half of the two-inch sticker, and "China-free/synthetic-free" where it folds over," scare you?
This is one slippery slope which, as both a pundit and consumer, I believe we all need to nip in the bud. In the spirit of free trade and thwarting anti-Chinese sentiments at home, I would urge all Spend Matters readers to boycott products from Food for Health International and tell the stores selling their products that you will not do business with them until they remove their items from their shelves. The wonderful thing about living in a free country is that anyone can say or print whatever they want to. But we also have a right to not buy someone's products and drive them into bankruptcy should they cross the line -- or at least bring them some horrible PR.
- Jason Busch
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I’m writing you in response to your article Certified 100% China Free.
As an American consumer we need to make sure all imports from China or else where meet US standards and right now China is far from it. They pirate our products and manufacture them with ingredients or materials that are not our standards, all for large corporations to make huge profits. Anywhere from food products, medications, baby toys etc… have been found to have poisons toxins etc… in them.
The tooling industry in the US has taken a huge hit due to cheap low quality Chinese built tooling, unless Americans want to live like people in China and third world countries I suggest we do not buy or import their products. I don’t think Nazi Germany is the correct analogy here nor is it racism it’s a preservation of the American way of life. We’ve fought against communism for decades I see no reason we should even be allowed to trade with Communist China at all, just as we do with Cuba. Mr. Busch, once your job or business has been eliminated or went out of business due to China outsourcing maybe you will feel the same way.
FAIR TRADE NOT FREE TRADE!!!!!!
I would suggest you read Jared Diamond's book: Collapse. A major thesis of his is that civilizations which have failed in the past are those which intentionally (policy, etc.) or unintentionally (geography, weather, topography, etc.) isolated themselves from trade with the rest of the world.
I'm sorry if you're personally impacted by the trade situation with China and other countries, but I would suggest that there are a number of ways that you could re-tool (pun intended) your operations to take advantage of what domestic manufacturers will always need from local suppliers like you even in a global market with lower cost suppliers (e.g., rapid production turnaround, rapid prototyping, design outsourcing, etc.).
So seriously, quit whining and think about how to thrive in the global economy. Or you won’t be passing down your operation to your kids. We’re in a time of change, and open trade is the only way of preserving our place in the world economy, lest the EU, China, India and everyone else pass us in economic growth, prosperity and all the metrics which contribute to the quality of life in this great country. You can bitch at me all you want (I can take it, and I don’t care if it gets personal), but I'd wager against you if this is the attitude you stick with. Adapt or die, man. You can't stop the invisible hand once it's in motion.
BTW ... regarding trading with "communist China", I'd suggest to you that China is more capitalist than the US (its taxes are lower, for example). They absolutely need to work on the Democracy issue and IP protection, I agree there. But as a huge believer in free markets, I'd sooner live in "communist" China than "socialist" Vermont or Taxassachusetts, for one (I fled the latter earlier in my career). At least in China, I’d have a chance at shaping future Democracy -- it's bound to happen sooner or later -- and a capitalist spirit than nurturing a socialist nirvana that looks more like the EU and less like what our founding fathers had in mind ...