With the recent outbreak of hep A, contracted from imported berries, why on earth do we allow this practice when we have the ways and means of processing affordable foods right here.

We have the farmers who are forced to dump, or not even pick their fruit, often because it is either lower grade (suited for this application), or they can't compete with imported prices. We also have rising unemployment, which means we have the available man power, so why are we one, importing this crap, two, allowing the waste in our own crops, and three, paying people to do nothing while there are obviously jobs that can be created by value adding our own produce, produce that is often going to waste.

It's a no brainer!

You need to be suspicious of any type of food that comes out of China, they sell rat meat as lamb, cows and pigs graze on landfills, As they do here they use glue to manufacture meat, plastic is mixed with rice, reclaiming cooking oil from drains.

China is faking anything they can get money from.

I completely agree with you, "Made In China" is rapidly becoming an major issue. They fake anything (copy the format and do the same using cheap stuffs) and make a huge profit out of it. However not all the Chinese manufacturers are bad, and yet it is true that there are some of them whom cause the trouble.

Unless people decide that they will not buy Chinese Products (just to save a few dollars on worthless products) and indirectly help the Chinese Economy beat us and build their armed forces to challenge democracies in Asia.

2 Years back I am and My wife purchased goods (stuffs for Christmas) from a Chinese vender and found that most of the products hardly survived till Christmas (just 2 days).

This time we decided we will only buy made in America products and went online to http://www.thechristmaspalace.com/

Dear rehctub,

You're right to be concerned about the importation
of foods into this country. We export
food, therefore we're forced to import - as part of our
the Trade Agreements.
And the competition between retailers in Australia
to keep prices low also contributes to all of this.
South Africa and Thailand are nations notorious in
poor conditions of worker's rights and in having
extremely low wages. They are the two markets
commonly used by the cheap food retailers in Australia.

I'm personally very fussy in my choice of the products
that I buy. I check the labels and prefer Australian
made.

We need more regulation and better testing for what comes
into this country.

Yes Foxy I agree.

I just see this as a prime opportunity for us to value add a product that is currently either left in the paddock to rot, or dumped. We have the produce, we have the man power, and now we have the motive.

What better way to promote jobs than to value add something that we currently import, but have the produce available right here.

Dear rehctub,

I totally agree with you.

What bothers me is that -

There was a comedy sketch recently
on TV that inferred that Dick Smith buys cheap
goods from China and re-brands them in the
"Dick Smith" brand for sale in Australia.
I wonder how much truth there is to that?

We've bought a few of his products and now I
can't help wondering if they're not from China.
He's a man I've admired for so long in backing
Australian made products.