Comments for Aimee Barnes

Comment on Rethinking Chicken in China by idleray

idleray — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:19:07 +0000

e coli is a bacteria, not a virus.

Comment on Rethinking Chicken in China by riqq

riqq — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:07:14 +0000

Hi Pierre, while I appreciate your point about the need for perspective, I don’t think it constitutes a reasonable argument to discount the concerns that Aimee has raised. First of all, as I understand it the main purpose behind Aimee’s post here is to shed light on the reality of what exactly is involved in the production processes that are employed to meet our demands for meat (in particular chicken), which is something seemingly mundane that most people simply take for granted without much thought. If people understood the true costs, for their health as well as the environment, that are incurred every time they tucked into their generously spiced baked chicken they just might consider adjusting their lifestyle to accommodate a less destructive habit of meat consumption.

Second, even if we accept for the sake of argument that there are more pressing matters in the world that require our attention it still does not make sense for people to just ignore the negative effects of modern meat production processes, especially if the negative effects can be eliminated, or mitigated, once people are informed of their existence.

(By the way, I’m formerly known as “Rocker”.)

Comment on Rethinking Chicken in China by pierre

pierre — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:06:44 +0000

Should we be concerned about the growth of factory farming in the US, China and the rest of the world?

i truely appreciate your global perpective and genuine concern for the planet and health of its inhabitants. as i’m enjoying my baked chicken (spiced with salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, and paprika)i realize there are more immediate and pressing issues that deserve my concern: nuclear war in the middle east, potential collapse of our economy, my basement flooding after tonight’s rain, finding a girlfriend, etc.

40,000 americans die in car accidents each year – why isn’t anyone screaming about that? (how many die in china?) we accept the risks whether it’s for smoking, drinking booze, eating meat, drinking tap water, being a vegan etc. if i became concerned over the food i consumed and all the terrible things that might happen to me during the course of a day, i would lose my mind and probably get stressed enough to lose a few years of my life.

let the chinese (nicaraguans, brazilians, russians, etc) eat their chicken raised from factory farms financed by goldman sachs. they’ll figure out an efficient way of disposing the waste because in the end (you are right) they have to eat and chicken is yummy.

well, my basement is in good shape! it’s time to light up a cigar and have a glass of bourban on the porch. cheers!

Comment on Rethinking Chicken in China by biglebufski

biglebufski — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:22:54 +0000

Not sure whether to thank you for this post or not.
I am guilty of the ostrich (or is it emu) approach to this issue and sometimes would rather not know.
However, living in China has been a big eye-opener for me in this regard. Unlike in the UK where (poor quality) fruits and vegetables are available all year round in the supermarkets, I now get excited by the approach of lychee, mango, pineapple season as advertised by stalls on the streets of Beijing. The wet markets in other cities in China and the fish in tanks in restaurants take me a lot closer to the origin of the food I’m eating than I am used to.
Finally, and this probably reflects worse on me, given that public health can sometimes seem a sketchy issue (at best) here in China, I am much quicker to be skeptical about the safety of pesticides, etc in use in farming. Consequently I mostly purchase organic produce.
However, two questions arise from this; am I so much more confident that food in the UK is ’safer’ and ‘better’ produced?
Secondly, is food with and organic sticker (and price) really organic?

Comment on Rethinking Chicken in China by author wanglili

author wanglili — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:52:29 +0000

Hi, Aimee:

We should meet. I am in shanghai.

I tells China Cinderella Story in My Tears Wont Fall-Memoir of a Chinese Migrant worker—- From country girl wanglili to Chinese migrant worker wang lili to author wanglili which you can see the summary and some sample chapters in my web http://recordsoftoday.com/

I blog Art of life in practice independently at http://recordsoftoday.com/.

Comment on Rethinking Chicken in China by Aimee

Aimee — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:10:57 +0000

@Michael Thanks for your comment. It's now on my reading list!

Comment on Rethinking Chicken in China by Aimee

Aimee — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:10:15 +0000

@Rocker
Thanks for your comment! I am familiar with the Slow Food movement, but only mildly. You make an excellent point regarding the depletion of types of fruits and vegetables; it appears that it is becoming infinitely more difficult to eat “naturally” these days. In New York, I had access to some great local farmer’s markets, which made it less of a hassle to eat healthful, organic and somewhat trustworthy produce (although that produce was much more expensive). Now, living in Singapore, it’s a bit more difficult to pinpoint the source of the foods I eat. Your comment has given me another idea though… I’m going to do a bit of digging on what food movements are taking hold in Asia. Is there a growing awareness and concern here as there is in the US? Thanks again!

Comment on Rethinking Chicken in China by Michael

Michael — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:57:24 +0000

You should read omnivore’s dilemma

Comment on Rethinking Chicken in China by Rocker

Rocker — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:05:32 +0000

Hey Aimee, are you familiar with Slow Food (http://www.slowfood.com/) by any chance? It’s basically a socio-environmental movement with the goal of promoting the consumption of healthful foods that are produced with the environmental impact of food production in mind. Slow Food emerged as a response to the negative effects on the health of both people as well as the environment that modern commercial mass food production methods have and although the movement hasn’t quite caught on in the mainstream society, for practical reasons I guess, it does have a dedicated following.

The problems with the modern production methods for animal food products that you raise also remind me of the related issue of how the plant foods that we consume are produced. The fruits and vegetables that we consume nowadays are mass produced in monocultures with the specific genetic traits that have been selected to meet our requirements for our food and as a result of this artificial selection the biodiversity of many of the plants in the world has been greatly reduced. The implication of this reduction in biodiversity is that many of the existing plants are now more vulnerable to disease and are less able to adapt to changing environmental conditions, and in the context of our food security this also means that we are putting our sources of fruits and vegetables at risk.

Comment on A New Home Away From Home by Elli D.

Elli D. — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:10:19 +0000

Oh wow, moving from North America to Asia must be a great difference. Sounds exciting, though. I would really like to try it for couple of weeks. Honestly, I cannot imagine it at all – I might be a little prejudiced but I find the places absolutely incomparable. The truth is, however, that a true home can be created anywhere. It usually depends on the people surrounding you. So good luck!