Goldy

It is time for the Food and Drug Administration and the media covering it to stop pretending that our nation’s massive pet food recall only concerns our pets, for the more we learn about common food industry practices, the breadth and scope of melamine contamination, and the lack of adequate regulatory safeguards, the more it becomes apparent that our entire food supply isn’t nearly as safe as the average consumer assumes it to be.

The industrial chemical melamine has now been discovered in multiple high-protein food additives — wheat, corn and rice gluten — from multiple Chinese manufacturers, leading industry experts to conclude that not only was the contamination intentional, but that such “economic adulteration” is disturbingly widespread, at least in China. Testifying this morning before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, ChemNutra CEO Steve Miller — the importer of melamine-tainted wheat gluten that killed or sickened as many as 39,000 dogs and cats — explains the theory:

“We at ChemNutra strongly suspect, at this point, that XuZhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd may have added melamine to the wheat gluten as an “economic adulteration” designed to make inferior wheat gluten appear to have a higher protein content. They can sell it to us at the price we would pay for a higher-quality product because the melamine, our experts tell us, falsely elevates the results of a nitrogen-content test used to assess protein content. Melamine is not something that we or, anyone else, including the FDA was ever testing for in the past, though of course we are now.

We have recently been told that there was a prior history of this same kind of economic adulteration related to a similar agricultural commodity about three decades ago, where this commodity was adulterated with urea, another nitrogen intensive additive, which had at the time become inexpensive enough to economically use to fool the protein testing.”

Given the facts and the known history, no other theory can adequately explain the contamination, regardless of what FDA investigators eventually find once they are permitted entry to China. One synthetic organic chemist explained that he could think of no other chemical better suited to such economic adulteration than melamine. “What you would look for” he told me, “is an additive that is nontoxic, nonvolatile, high in nitrogen… and dirt cheap.” At approximately 66-percent nitrogen by weight, with no explosive characteristics or previously known toxicity, and widely available for less than a penny a gram, melamine was the obvious choice.

If these known batches of adulterated gluten have not made it directly into the human food supply, it is only by sheer luck, but last week it was confirmed that the toxin most likely did make its way into American kitchens in the form of melamine-tainted pork from hogs fed on “salvage” pet food, exposing yet more of the dirty underbelly of our food industry.

What is “salvage” pet food, and why was it fed to hogs? A spokesperson for Diamond Pet Foods explained that the mixture from the beginning of each production run is “too high in moisture content to run through the manufacturing process,” and that this is provided to farms with non-ruminant animals as “salvage” under regulatory guidelines. In all of its communications regarding the hog poisoning incident, Diamond is careful to frame the little known “salvage” and “distressed” pet food market in the best possible light.

“It is a common regulated practice for animal food facilities to provide salvage product to farms with non-ruminant animals. This regulated practice is mindful of the environment as it does not waste energy (food) and saves valuable landfill space.”

Yeah sure, in fact, feeding salvage and distressed pet food to livestock apparently is a common practice… in the U.S. North of the border, however, not so much. Indeed, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency:

Because livestock animals are grown as food for humans, and pets are not, the pet food industry is able to make use of ingredients which may be unsuited for use in livestock feeds. Thus it is not acceptable to subsequently reintroduce these ingredients back into livestock feeds as waste pet food material. […] Pet food, including salvaged and distressed pet food, is not an approved ingredient for use in livestock feed and as such its inclusion is not considered safe and will not be allowed at this time.

Makes sense. Unsuitable ingredients include those not approved for use in livestock feeds as listed in Schedule IV or V of the Canadian Feeds Regulations. (Interestingly, “rice gluten” or “rice protein concentrate” appear nowhere on the list. Or, for that matter, in the FDA’s EAFUS — Everything Added to Food in the United States — database. Go figure.)

Other ingredients unsuited for livestock feed — in Canada — include those that “may contain animal proteins […] which may be prohibited from feeding to ruminants.” You know, it just isn’t kosher (literally and figuratively) to feed cows, um… cows.

And according to a brochure provided by the Pet Food Institute, the same ruminant cannibalism prohibition holds true here. Sorta. In the U.S., salvage and distress pet food may be repurposed for livestock feed, but must be labeled “Do Not Feed to Cattle or Other Ruminants” if it contains any mammalian protein at all. That is, any mammalian protein except:

• Milk products.
• Gelatin.
• Blood and blood products.
• Pure pork or horse protein.
• And inspected meat products of any type which have been cooked and offered for human food (such as “plate scrapings”) and further heat processed for animal feed.

Yuck. Who knew that in the U.S. your unfinished burger could make its way into cattle feed via salvage dog feed, and then back onto your plate in the form of another burger? That type of dedication to recycling I can do without.

I thought one of the take-home messages from the whole Mad Cow crisis was that it was unsafe and unnatural to feed animal protein to ruminants meant for human consumption, and yet the practice apparently continues to this day. Our lax, salvage pet food regulations have already directly led to human consumption of melamine-tainted pork, and there is no reason to be confident that this and other dangerous chemicals or diseases haven’t contaminated our beef and dairy supply. If it is unacceptable to feed salvaged pet food to livestock in Canada, it should be unacceptable here in the U.S. as well.

There has been much talk recently about the FDA lacking the funding and staffing necessary to adequately police our globalizing food industry, but after six years of Bush administration control, it also clearly lacks the leadership and mandate as well. This isn’t merely an issue about management — it is ideological — and by now it should be clear to objective observers that the FDA’s and other federal regulatory agencies’ over-reliance on industry self-regulation has put the health, safety and welfare of the American public at risk.

This is what comes from electing politicians who despise government, and who appoint regulators who do not believe in regulation.

“Disintermediation.” That’s what this is called. First the Internet enabled politicians to connect directly with voters, disintermediating the legacy press out of the equation. Now tech savvy politicians like Darcy Burner are attempting to use the Internet to connect directly with voters, disintermediating political advertising out of the equation… and the high-priced, professional media consultants who create it.

Sure, it’s a little rough and homemade looking, but that’s because it really is homemade — Darcy actually recorded and edited the clip by herself. No doubt, as the campaign moves into full swing, she’ll have to delegate these kind of tasks to others, but this personal touch is a great way for voters to meet Darcy the way I’ve had the privilege of meeting Darcy… getting to know her as the kind of funny, smart, passionate, hardworking person we need more of in Congress.

Oh, and as Darcy mentions in the video, she’s one of the top-three finalists in Democracy for America’s Grassroots All-Star competition; the winner will receive DFA’s first endorsement of the 2008 campaign cycle, and a huge boost to their election prospects. Second round voting ends Wednesday, so vote for Darcy today!

While it pains me to throw barbs at my friends on the Seattle Times editorial board, I have to echo Josh Feit on Slog this morning in saying that their editorial defending Port Commissioner Pat Davis is wildly off the mark. I mean, what the fuck?

Davis singlehandedly approved a $261,000 severance package for retiring Port of Seattle CEO Mic Dinsmore, claiming that the other commissioners had approved the payments during a closed-door executive session. But at least three commissioners have refuted Davis, with one more refusing to comment out of fear of litigation.

“Pat claims it was authorized, and that she prepared it based on, well, whatever, I don’t know,” [Lloyd] Hara said.

Fisken said it made no sense for the commissioners to be discussing Dinsmore’s severance so far in advance of knowing his plans.

“This is outrageous, and I can’t imagine where it came from,” [Alec] Fisken said. “Pat said we had approved this, but I have no recollection of it at any meeting — it would still have to come to a formal vote for payments to be made.”

But dismissing the severance agreement as a “dead letter” without the approval of a majority of commissioners, the Times not only wants to sweep a potential investigation under the rug, but actually has the gall to demand that the other commissioners apologize and “get back to the people’s business.”

The fact that Davis apparently lied about the circumstances regarding the memo, and then refused to talk further to press, that’s not important to Times. The fact that Dinsmore sought to collect on this “dead letter,” I suppose that’s inconsequential. The fact that everybody involved seems to believe that Davis’ unilateral actions may end up dragging the Port into expensive litigation, well… um… there’s nothing to see here folks, so just move along.

What we have here is a story that broke in the competing Seattle P-I that calls into question the integrity of a commissioner the Times shilled for before the last election, praising her “strong institutional view.”

When the editorial board of our region’s largest paper attempts to stifle an ethics investigation of a commissioner responsible for spending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, it makes one wonder what institution the Times was referring to?

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on Newsradio 710-KIRO:

7PM: Are you fed up with the conservatives’ Big Con?
According to Rick Perlstein (formerly of The New Republic,) conservativism hasn’t just failed to live up to its promise, it cannot live up to its promise, and perhaps nothing illustrates The Big Con better than the massive (and constantly expanding) pet food recall threatening to call into question the safety of our entire food supply. Rick joins us for the hour to take your calls.

8PM: Have conservatives won the war on choice?
The U.S. Supreme Court this week overturned decades of precedent, for the first time upholding a ban on a particular abortion procedure. Blythe Chandler, Deputy Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington joins me in the studio to talk about how this threatens a woman’s right to choose, and how this might play out politically in Washington state and throughout the nation.

9PM: TBA

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

Finally, some commonsense commentary in the Seattle Times regarding a new Sonics arena. Of course, it’s coming from Danny Westneat, not the editorial board, but you can’t have everything.

The Sonics and the public could go 50-50 on the cost of renovating KeyArena. Say the price is up to $250 million. That’s $125 million each.

The Sonics were going to spend at least that much in Renton, anyway. For the public, it’s a quarter-of-a-billion dollars less than Renton.

It would leave us with just one basketball arena — happily, the one we’ve already got. We could drop the sales tax on restaurants. Imagine: a tax canceled! There would be zero state money needed. The entire public share could be paid for by extending local hotel/motel and car-rental taxes.

Seattle Center would get a new arena, with money to pay off the old arena’s debt — lifting a white elephant from the city’s back. There’s even money left over, $35 million that could be used for arts or recreation projects around the county.

Best, it would keep the teams where they belong. In Seattle. Even Chris Van Dyk, backer of Initiative 91 limiting sports subsidies, said he could support such a meet-in-the-middle deal. And that it could comply with the initiative.

I don’t mean to offend Danny or anything, but at least on this issue, it turns out we actually think alike. Just a few days ago I suggested that if the Sonics are really serious about wanting to stay in Seattle, there are many other options they could explore. For example, “Seattle voters might be willing to accept a Key Arena renovation proposal that included a more typical 40/60 public/private financing plan.”

I suggested 40/60, and Danny came back with 50/50. Perhaps the final split might be 45/55? That’s what professional negotiators technically refer to as a “COMPROMISE.”

Danny is skeptical that the Sonics ownership and our political leaders have what it takes to work this out like adults, so perhaps Danny and I should just sit down at the table together and bang out the details of this deal ourselves? We’re already so close. Then Chris Van Dyk can put it on the ballot, and if it passes, the Sonics are free to take it or leave it.

I’m not saying I’d necessarily vote for such a proposal, but a good first step towards convincing me would be for Clay Bennett and his consortium of Oklahoma City businessmen to stop talking ultimatum, and start talking business.

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on Newsradio 710-KIRO:

7PM: The Carl Jeffers Tribute Hour.
I’ve got too many things I want to talk about tonight, so with a hat tip to Carl (who’s on fire tonight from 10PM to 1AM) my first hour will be a torrent of consciousness streaming from topic to topic, including an update on the pet food recall (it’s in the human food supply), the JOA settlement between the Times and the P-I, the Alberto Gonzales hearing, and more.

8PM: Guns don’t kill people… no wait… maybe they do?
In the immediate aftermath of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, the White House made a point of reassuring the nation that the President still supported the 2nd Amendment, while righties immediately suggested that this never would have happened if the students and teachers had all been armed themselves. Figures. Fellow HA blogger Will joins me for the hour talk about the shootings and the controversial topic of gun control… so controversial that Will and I actually disagree. Oh… and in other news, hundreds of Iraqis died this week in sectarian violence. Just thought you might want to know.

9PM: How’d the Governor do?
The legislative session is coming to a close and WA State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz joins me for a recap, and to rate the performance of both the Legislature and Gov. Chris Gregoire. (I’m guessing he’ll give them A’s.) Domestic Partnerships, children’s health care, simple majority on school levies, transportation financing… while we were all focused on the Viaduct and the Sonics, a lot of stuff actually got done.

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

Whenever I see traffic coming in via a link from another site I always check it out. So I almost missed Crosscut’s Skip Berger slamming back at HA’s own Will for his critique of Skip’s recent anti-density sermon.

Thank you, Will, for being honest enough to validate my suspicion that progressives will put “coolness” above rationality when it comes to density — it’s a snobbery that asserts that the urbs are infinitely superior to the burbs.

Hmm. In all, Skip devotes nearly 1,800 words defending his original 1,600 word column, much of it fisking Will. Which strikes me as a tad, well… dialectically masturbatory.

See, I could understand Skip’s fervor had I “posted an attack,” but… it was only Will. You know, a second stringer. One of those guys who sometimes fills space here on HA on those few occasions I’m out trying to have a real life. So get some perspective, Skip — you don’t see me writing doctoral theses deconstructing (u)SP posts by Reporterward, do you?

I mean really, who actually gives a fuck what Will has to say? He’s just some 26-year-old, beer-bellied, snot-nosed slacker stuffing his iPod full of hip, stolen tunes he never listens to, while choking his colon on the fetid remains of a steady diet of breakfast burritos and Diet Coke. What exactly makes Will an arbiter of “cool”…? His youth? His poverty? His dank, dirty Belltown apartment and Wal-Mart remaindered wardrobe? When you mythologized him as some paragon of progressive “snobbery,” knowing Will, I just had to laugh to myself: “Snobbery? Over whom?”

Will is just some pathetic, B-List, blogger for chrisakes, whereas you Skip… you’re a local institution. So my advice to you, Skip, is to ignore the hoard of Goldy-wannabes out there — otherwise they’ll just keep coming back for more. Ignore them. They’re not worth your time.

Me, on the other hand, well that’s different. Had I refuted your density column, that would have been worthy of a vigorous debate. But I didn’t. And I won’t. Because quite frankly, regardless of what you or I think, density is inevitable.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against the burbs. I grew up in one. It was nice. (If you like that sort of thing.) Hell, with my single-family, South Seattle home and its fenced in backyard, I kinda feel like I’m living in a suburb now.

And the rural areas? I love ’em! They’re quiet and peaceful and spread out. Very relaxing. And, um, rural-like. And the food they grow — great stuff! I eat it every day.

In fact, Skip, I share so much of your reactionary nostalgia, that I don’t want things to change one bit. Too bad then, we gotta find a place to put up all these damn people who keep moving here to share our natural splendor and booming economy.

But we do. And while packing a lot more of them into our existing urban cores won’t stop the sprawl that’s threatening to eat up our region’s last remaining farmland and wilderness, it’ll help.

Skip rages at oblivious ecotopians and hip, progressive snobs for destroying the middle class culture that once defined a younger, smaller Seattle — but they didn’t do that, the economy did. I share Skip’s desire for mixed-income neighborhoods with enough affordable housing to serve the needs of those who serve the rich, but tell me Skip, how exactly do we build affordable housing on unaffordable real estate? How does maintaining height limits and restricting density make neighborhoods like Wallingford or Fremont or Queen Anne or Capitol Hill any more affordable? Have you found the secret to repealing the law of supply and demand? And before you start blaming sprawl on mass transit, tell me, when was the last time you drove through the Rainier Valley and saw the thousands of units of mixed-income housing going up along the path of Sound Transit’s light rail? And if mass transit and density aren’t the solution Skip, please tell me how — other than a job-killing, real estate-bubble-bursting, major economic recession — we manage to maintain the city you love, unchanged, while absorbing the hundreds of thousands of new residents coming our way?

But like I said, I didn’t respond to Skip’s column, and I’m not gonna do it now, because while I don’t have any more answers than Skip does, I am absolutely confident of one thing: we’re getting more density. The only question is where we’re gonna put it. In the cities? Or in the burbs and rural areas?

Welcome to 21st Century Seattle, Skip. And welcome to the blogosphere.

Apparently, “there is no breaking news” at the Port of Seattle today… you know… other than fact that it is closed.

Yup, all Port of Seattle container terminals are closed today due to a fatal accident that killed a longshoreman last night at Terminal 5. Docks are scheduled to re-open tonight at 6PM.

I only know this because a local freight forwarder CC’d me an angry email:

Today all of the Seattle terminals are closed due to the death of a longshore worker. Many of our customers have been asking about what the situation is at the port. I looked on the Port of Seattle website and was flabbergasted to see that nothing was written there. The SPECIAL BREAKING NEWS section said “there is no special breaking news today.” Say what?

I phoned the main number and was switched to the public affairs department. When asked if all of the terminals were closed and for how long, the woman who answered said, “I was unaware that the ports were closed today.”

Hmm. Sounds to me like this woman might have a promising career in the FDA Office of Public Affairs. But I digress. The angry email continues:

She transferred me to someone is the SEAPORTS section. This woman wasn’t sure how long the ports would be closed, put me on hold for awhile, then told me to call the individual terminals or the PMA.

How many people work in this department, and what are they supposed to be doing? I told her that I was disappointed and surprised to find that there was nothing posted on the website and that the first person didn’t even know that the ports were closed. She said she would talk to public affairs section and hung up. ALL of the Seattle SEAPORTS are CLOSED ALL DAY – and that is not important enough to put on their website????

My property taxes make me choke. I am sick that this port is unable to function without our tax support, don’t know how to run themselves profitably, and apparently have lackadaisical employees.

I’m told the longshore union normally takes off a shift whenever there is a work fatality, so the folks at the Port of Seattle, this being their supposed area of expertise, should have been fully prepared to deal with public queries.

Apparently not.

Every time the Seattle Times editorial board pimps for a new Sonics arena, they should print a big, bold disclaimer across the top of the page, revealing the millions of dollars in ad revenues they stand to lose should the team leave the region and their sports section.

Most of their readers are capitalists. We understand and appreciate rational self-interest. And if the Times were upfront and honest about its financial stake in churning out basketball coverage through the dreary months of Winter, perhaps we wouldn’t find the following headline so ridiculous: “Olympia owes Bennett a Sonics/Storm vote.”

Gimme a break. Olympia doesn’t owe Bennett a vote any more than it owes Nick a pony.

We know the Times wants the team to stay. We get it. But their constant, one-sided pressure on the Legislature to approve the first deal that comes their way is not only annoying, it’s likely counterproductive. There is no way the King County Council is going to approve this tax package without putting it before voters, and there’s no way, in its current form, it wins at the polls. You want to assure the Sonics departure? This is the way to do it.

If Sonics owner Clay Bennett is serious about keeping the team in the region, then he needs a slap in the face, not sycophantic kiss on the tuchis, for if his most recent press release is any indication, the man is totally out of touch with political reality.

“This a [sic] staggering and quite likely a debilitating blow to our efforts to develop a world-class arena facility. Clearly at this time the Sonics and Storm have little hope of remaining in the Puget Sound region.

We believe we have gone to extraordinary lengths with significant time and resources to craft a proposal for a global caliber multi-purpose event facility that would be a valuable public asset for the region for years to come and have minimal impact on taxpayers.”

Yeah… Bennett went to about the same “extraordinary lengths” crafting his proposal as he did crafting a press release with a typo one word into its opening sentence.

I know the folks at the Seattle Times looked the man in the eye and found him to be straightforward and trustworthy, but how exactly is a $400 million public subsidy a serious proposal coming just weeks after 74-percent of voters rejected a taxpayer giveaway half that size? And what exactly would be the point of approving a deal that King County voters would surely reject at the polls? If they really want to keep the team in the region, the Sonics and the Legislature likely have one shot at getting this right, and, well, this proposal obviously ain’t it.

The Times attacks Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina) for accusing Bennett of trying to create a crisis, whining “That is not fair…”

What is Bennett supposed to do if the Legislature is not even willing to vote on the proposal?

Gee, I dunno, maybe… negotiate? You know, haggle. Bargain. Dicker. Horse trade. Compromise.

As Republican presidential frontrunner Tommy Thompson would likely tell you, if there’s one thing Jews like me understand, it’s haggling — and, well, Bennett… apparently, not so much. See the typical pattern in a negotiation such as this is for the two sides to gradually move towards each other until a deal is struck. Say, for example, you’re in the market for a new car with a sticker price of about $24,000. You’ve done your research, and so you offer $21,000 — only a few hundred dollars over invoice and incentives — and then the dealer comes back and counters with an offer of say… $48,000. That’s kinda what Bennett did.

Bennett says he’s willing “to explore every conceivable funding option,” but so far, only if that option includes about $400 million in public financing — twice what Seattle voters already overwhelmingly rejected. And he didn’t need to hire a high-priced lobbyist to tell him that in the current political climate, that dog won’t hunt.

But if Bennett is really serious about keeping the Sonics in the region, there are plenty of other options that could be explored. For example, Seattle voters might be willing to accept a Key Arena renovation proposal that included a more typical 40/60 public/private financing plan. Or maybe the City Council would consider a renegotiated lease that provides the team an additional $8 to $10 million a year in revenues.

Or, if Bennett really has his heart set on a half billion dollar hoops palace in Renton, he just might want to get the ball rolling by kicking in a couple hundred million dollars of his own. And then we can get down to the nitty-gritty of crafting a revenue package that might pass legislative and electoral muster.

My suggestion? A jock tax combined with a repeal of the sales tax exemption for newspapers would raise more than enough to pay off the bonds. And you gotta admit that it’s only fair that those who would benefit most from the new arena — professional athletes with their over-inflated salaries, and newspaper publishers with their over-inflated egos — should pick up a proportionate share of the financial burden.

And I’m sure there are many other creative ideas out there that would work for both Bennett and the region, if only the two sides could sit down at the table and negotiate in good faith. Bennett’s a successful businessman, and I’m guessing he didn’t get that way by always taking the first deal put in front of him. He shouldn’t expect the region’s taxpayers to be any less savvy.

After all, despite the Times’ insistence that the Sonics are worth keeping at any price, there is no hard deadline, and both sides have leverage. Bennett owns a couple teams we’d rather keep in the region, and Seattle owns a market three times the size of Oklahoma City.

If there’s a deal to be made, it’s time to start haggling.

Melamine-tainted corn gluten, imported from China, has been confirmed in South African pet food:

Johannesburg – Tests have confirmed that Vets Choice and Royal Canin dog and cat dry pet-food products contained corn gluten contaminated with melamine, says the manufacturer.

The contaminated corn gluten was delivered to Royal Canin by a South African third-party supplier and appears to have originated from China.

Once again the rumors prove right, and FDA denials prove wrong. On Tuesday, April 17, I informed the FDA that “the word […] is that corn gluten and rice protein concentrate are being recalled” — information they firmly denied.

What we have here is a pattern, and there is absolutely no reason to assume that it is limited to the pet food and animal feed markets. Wheat gluten, corn gluten and rice protein concentrate are all used to supplement the protein content of both animal and human food, and all three have now been found to be contaminated with melamine. Three different Chinese manufactures have now apparently been implicated.

Given the facts, it is now reasonable to assume either massive, industry-wide negligence, or intentional contamination, and that all Chinese produced high-protein food additives are now suspect. Steve Pickman, a VP at MGP Ingredients, the largest U.S. producer of wheat gluten, explores the most likely theory:

“It is my understanding, but certainly unheard of in our experience, that melamine could increase the measurable nitrogen of gluten and then be mathematically converted to protein. The effect could create the appearance or illusion of raising the gluten’s protein level. Understandably, any acts or practices such as this are barred in the U.S. How the U.S. can or cannot monitor and prevent these types of situations from occurring in other parts of the world is the overriding question.”

In grading the quality of these food additives, the protein content is usually extrapolated from measured nitrogen levels. It now seems likely that unscrupulous manufacturers, in an effort to up the grade and price of their product, are intentionally spiking nitrogen levels with melamine, an industrial chemical used in China as a slow-release nitrogen fertilizer.

One would expect the FDA to test this theory by directly measuring protein levels in melamine-contaminated samples to see if they otherwise fall below grade. One would also expect the FDA to release the names of all importers, distributors and manufacturers who are suspected of handling contaminated product. But then, one would expect a lot of things from the FDA that they have thus far failed to deliver.

The truth might be a good place to start.

UPDATE:
During a conference call today, the FDA confirmed that melamine-tainted pet food was reprocessed and fed to hogs. People eat hogs. Figure it out for yourself.

Agricultural products distributor Wilbur-Ellis has issued a nationwide recall of all lots of rice protein concentrate, after the Food and Drug Administration found additional samples testing positive for melamine. The company is now urging all pet food manufacturers using its rice protein concentrate to recall any pet food that may still be on supermarket shelves.

In an unfolding public health crisis already marked by inexplicable incompetence and willful foot-dragging, Wilbur-Ellis’ press release would border on the comic if the implications weren’t so potentially tragic:

“Last Sunday, April 15, Wilbur-Ellis notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that a single bag in a recent shipment of rice protein concentrate from its Chinese supplier, Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd., had tested positive for melamine. Unlike the other white-colored bags in that shipment, the bag in question was pink and had the word ‘melamine’ stenciled upon it.”

You’d think, just maybe, the pink bag with the word “melamine” on it might have been a bit of a giveaway, yet on Tuesday, April 17, when I asked the FDA to confirm or deny an impending recall, and specifically mentioned that my source said “the rice protein concentrate has ‘melamine’ listed on the bag,” the FDA categorically denied the rumor, insisting that the information on its website “is up to date.”

Within hours, Natural Balance recalled products due to melamine-tainted rice protein concentrate.

And now, a few days later, we learn that the “white bags” have tested positive for melamine too, establishing a broad pattern of adulteration that we must assume to be intentional until proven otherwise.

First wheat gluten was found to be contaminated with melamine, then rice protein concentrate — and despite FDA denials, I’m hearing corn gluten may be next. But why would manufacturers intentionally spike high-protein food additives with melamine, a urea-derived chemical used in plastic and slow-release nitrogen fertilizer? Steve Pickman, a VP at MGP Ingredients, the nation’s largest domestic producer of wheat gluten, explores one theory:

“It is my understanding, but certainly unheard of in our experience, that melamine could increase the measurable nitrogen of gluten and then be mathematically converted to protein. The effect could create the appearance or illusion of raising the gluten’s protein level. Understandably, any acts or practices such as this are barred in the U.S. How the U.S. can or cannot monitor and prevent these types of situations from occurring in other parts of the world is the overriding question.”

It is a question the current FDA seems unwilling or unable to answer.

Mass murderer Cho Seung-hui made a video.

In other news, 183 people were killed today in Baghdad in four separate bombings.

I don’t generally endorse Republicans, but I’m willing to give those who share my interests and agenda a fair shake. Take for example Shawn Bunney, who is running for Pierce County Executive on the GOP ticket.

According to an invitation to a fundraising event being held on his behalf by Strategies 360, Bunney is “a leader and friend to those of us who want to improve the region’s transportation systems.” The invitation urges us to “keep Shawn working for the region’s interests.”

And which region is that? Take a look at the accompanying graphic:

Hmm. Isn’t that the Aurora Bridge and a Metro bus in the downtown bus tunnel? So, if elected Pierce County Executive, Bunney will do everything he can to improve transportation and transit… in Seattle?

Now that’s a platform I can support. Too bad for Bunney that most Pierce County voters actually live in, um, Pierce County.

It looks like a lot of folks hit the bottle after Monday’s surprise announcement that the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer had settled their years-long dispute over their Joint Operating Agreement, assuring that Seattle remains a two-newspaper town for at least another decade.

No doubt Times publisher Frank Blethen and his out-maneuvered lawyers were crying in their beer after agreeing to pay a net $24 million to keep the competition in business, while David Brewster, founder of Crosscut (an online “newspaper” with little news and no paper) — who had pitched investors that his new venture would mine the huge hole left in the local media landscape by the P-I’s imminent collapse — sullenly (if not soberly) opined that “Hearst is the one that blinked.” Yeah. Right. Glug-glug-glug-glug.

P-I employees had no doubt who won this battle of the old media dinosaurs, immediately breaking into a daylong, celebratory bacchanal that culminated that night with a rented limo full of drunken reporters pulling up to Fairview Fanny… and unceremoniously emptying their bladders on the Times’ front lawn.

No, it doesn’t take much imagination to picture grizzled newspaper-war veterans sottedly writing their names in the grass, but the image of a certain female reporter squatting on Frank Blethen’s lawn — marking his territory as hers — that is sure to become an oft repeated tale of local journalism lore.

Hours after a Food and Drug Administration spokesperson denied that the already massive pet food recall would be expanded to include products containing rice and corn gluten, Natural Balance has confirmed that it has found melamine in its rice gluten, and is now recommending that customers avoid all of its products containing this ingredient.

Melamine-tainted wheat gluten, imported from China, had previously been blamed for what has grown to become largest pet food recall in U.S. history, with over 39,000 dogs and cats sickened or killed. Natural Balance says that the contaminated rice gluten was produced by a U.S. company, raising further questions as to the broader safety of the food supply.

Earlier today, after receiving a tip from an industry insider that products containing tainted rice and corn gluten were about to be recalled, I contacted an FDA Public Affairs officer for confirmation, and received a quick and firm response:

From: Castro, Veronica
Sent: Tue 4/17/2007 12:37 PM
To: David Goldstein
Subject: RE: From FDA

Rice gluten and corn gluten are not being recalled. The latest information we have is on our website. It is up to date.

Then again, this was the same spokesperson who emailed me that she had no information about a previous recall… six days after it was issued. I can only conclude that the FDA is keeping its Office of Public Affairs as much in the dark as it is keeping the public.

I have received no confirmation that tainted corn gluten is also suspect, but at this point I have no reason to doubt my original source. Given this new information and past experience, I personally will not serve my pets — or my family — any product containing wheat, rice or corn gluten until the FDA and the industry have proven to me that their products are safe to eat.