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Posts Tagged ‘Europe’

For all the Cows! (we are what they eat)

December 28th, 2011 No comments
Give him something to smile about

Give him something to smile about

Recently I wrote about a little tree cone I found in my Mengniu yoghurt and how it bugged me to the point of never wanting to buy that product again. Today I read about how Wang Xiaoshan, a columnist, published a microblog post calling for Web users to boycott all Mengniu products. This was because it was found in October of this year that some of Mengniu’s products were contaminated with over double the national permitted level of Aflatoxin M1. This substance is reported to cause severe liver damage and liver cancer.

How did this carcinogen get in the products?

Reports are formulating that cows were given Mildewed feed which caused the high levels of this toxin in the milk. If the levels were twice the acceptable amount then surely the feed is allowed to be somewhat mildewed (mouldy) anyway. If your animals eat crap, then why would you not expect the product from them to also be crap? Did no one hear of the adage, you are what you eat?

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Why China should assist Europe with financial recovery

November 7th, 2011 No comments

An opinion from a foreign trading company in China

We live in a small world these days. World markets rely on each other and what affects one country will invariably affect another. We have become so intertwined with who owes what to whom, and whose debt is held by whom to the point that the current looming European financial crisis has further unveiled the intricacy and co-dependency between Europe and China.

Europe is China’s largest trading partner. Europe has provided two decades of foreign investment, year-on-year solid bilateral trade and decades of technology exchange that has benefitted China’s rapid development. China has in turn provided Europe with the workforce and large scale production that has allowed businesses on both sides to grow and profit.

The present financial situation is almost entirely Europe’s fault, caused by poor fund management and reliance on a single young currency while member nations ignore policy and allow overspending. The mistakes made should be admitted and stricter rules enforced if they are to expect any further confidence in them and the Eurozone. Anyone considering aiding Europe needs to seek genuine assurances of change to the status quo before any assistance is to be offered.

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