Excellent point. I agree, it can't be considered safe. Think of what viruses are going to rip through livestock populations there now.
this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Buddy, if you think this is new....
Well, the important part is at least you realize it now. But there's a reason most other countries don't import US food, our food safety standards have been a joke longer than anyone on Lemmy has been alive.
So by all means, organize to ban US food imports, but you shouldn't have been eating it to begin with.
I'm American, but if other countries apply pressure, we have a better shot of raising the standard.
I'm sorry but this is a false equivalency. Yes, American food has generally been trash quality-wise, but there is still a difference between under regulated and inspected, and NOT regulated or inspected.
Yeah, it's good practice to avoid US food in general, especially meat, which is truly horrid. Produce can be hit-and-miss. Dry goods aren't so bad, but I still prefer to buy from any other country.
Produce is e.coli Russian roulette.
Buy organic produce from a local supplier.
A luxury many can't afford.
Produce gets recalled far too often due to people getting sick after eating it.
What I don't know is: how many times has produce never made it to the shelf because of testing VS how many times produce gets recalled because a human consumer's body played the role of the FDA testing facility.
You know there's some pretty old people here, right? The average age of Lemmy users might be more of a close mark to try and focus on the growth of processed foods and sugar-laden things. Although any standards have to be better than the direction we're heading back towards.
I agree with the general point everyone has here, isolationism will hurt the policy makers and the companies in step with them. It will hurt a lot of us too, but so be it. Burn it down. The alternative is not acceptable.
You know there’s some pretty old people here, right?
Yeah, but I also know how long American food safety has been woefully subpar...
So by all means, organize to ban US food imports, but you shouldn’t have been eating it to begin with.
Who says we are? Boycott movements started months ago...
See https://news.ubc.ca/2025/01/canada-food-flows/ and https://www.euronews.com/next/2025/02/24/new-buy-canadian-apps-released-as-boycott-of-us-goods-in-response-to-proposed-tariffs-grow and https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/12/i-feel-utter-anger-from-canada-to-europe-a-movement-to-boycott-us-goods-is-spreading for reference.
Food imported into Canada still has to pass our regulations and inspections. We don't let it slide just because the US government does.
Trouble is how often they inspect vs how much slips through. If for example contaminated packaged food comes through, the inspectors aren't opening every package, because that becomes destructive testing.
How do you test food for the growing conditions?
Like Ecuador may use some terrible banned pesticides or fertilizer. When a banana boat arrives at Vancouver, how the hell would you know if you can't test for its presence in the peel or flesh?
Banned pesticides and fertilizers are banned because they leave traces that are harmful to the human body. Otherwise they generally won't be banned in the first place. So all they have to do is take random samples and do proper checks. If it was impossible to detect the presence of after effects of such banned substances, there would be no point in banning them since the end product would be no different from normally grown varieties, hence no reason to ban them.
That said, I don't know how good our processes are, but I do think that more funding needs to be allocated now since the FDA won't be doing any of their own testing. Turning cargo back at the inspection centers would be an easy way to ban US foods without changing a single law or policy in the country with a high degree of deniability that this was the intent in the first place.
Not true, don't be so selfish.
Many things are banned because the human body that is harmed is the farmworker. There may be no delectable harm to the consumer.
We should still ban imports of shoes from companies that employ child slave labor. And we should also ban bananas that use chemicals that cause reproductive diseases and cancer in farm workers
This. Canada's food standards have always been leaps and bounds ahead of the states, and we won't sell American food that doesn't meet Canadian standards.
That said, fuck Trump and the US right now (sorry to those of you that are along for the ride) and look for Canadian alternatives anyway.
When we import food/drug manufacturing equipment we often accept American certifications as compliant with Canadian standards. If a company can say they are compliant FDA or NSF while facing no risk of facing an actual inspection/audit then we may have to exercise more scrutiny ourselves.
I'm not sure how accurate this is, but from https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/can-canada-still-trust-u-s-food-safety
However, this recognition does not exempt food imports from meeting the regulatory requirements. All food sold in Canada, whether it is domestic or imported, must meet Canadian food safety requirements.”
Canada has a robust system in place through onsite inspections and verifications to verify imported products comply with Canadian regulations, it said, adding that the CFIA is tracking any changes in the U.S. and other exporting countries “and will take any necessary action to continue to protect the health of Canadians and maintain a safe food supply.”
The implication being that they can inspect produce already certified safe by the FDA and that they will do so if they consider it necessary.
Whether or not they're already determined that's the case (vs still thinking about it), well....
It's bigger, as it's not just food safety at risk, but medication and medical device safety is at risk too, as explained in https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/amid-deep-cuts-to-the-us-fda-experts-warn-canadians-could-lose-vital-safety-information/
Same with Mexico, who hasn't considered USDA guidelines sufficient for ages. There's articles from 2008 and before about it, and it took super heavy threats from the US to force them to accept some of our trash quality produce (GMO, beef, etc).
The Food and Drug Administration indicated in February that it had closed the investigation without publicly detailing what had happened — or which companies were responsible for growing and processing the contaminated lettuce.
Insanity
Please, embargo US food. If it doesn't leave our borders, it'll either go to waste and lose all profit for the manufacturer, or flood the market and lower our food prices. Either one is an acceptable outcome.
tariffs the fuck out of imports coming into the u.s.
wants countries affected by them to buy more american products.
among other things, removes u.s. food safety inspections, unconstitutionally removes related congressionally-approved funding for testing and enforcement, fires staff that did those functions, and cancels leases on those agencies' work spaces so they couldn't work even if they had the funds and the staff.
expects those countries to still buy american products.
whines and complains in late-night twitter tantrums and on far-right ''news'' programs about countries not wanting american products. <<--- this is the next step
this is classic dumfuk in a diaper.
Why would they stop it?
It's very, very clear from the entirety of actions by the Trump admin that they just need enough of their herd healthy enough to ensure production for the oligarchs, and those healthy ones must be educated just enough to be trainable in their new factory jobs. The sick, autistic, old, mentally unwell, are all just drains on profits as far as they are concerned.
I guarantee it all feeds upwards to a "master race" (with different words) approach, where the "weak" will be killed off and they'll be left with an ignorant, healthy, reduced population who can produce for the oligarchs and go get killed in war.
It's all they want.
I'm by no means suggesting that the FDA cuts are good (they are, to be very clear, dumb and bad), but in theory, food is still being tested at the state level.
I can only hope that the Government of Canada is aware of the state programs, and whether they are suitably robust.
I would not trust any republican state level of testing