a trip to the grocery and some new concerns

Normally I go to the grocery on Monday for the week's groceries. I held off till Tuesday this week and then went to a smaller neighborhood grocery because traffic is still bad in town from the holiday. The smaller grocery had started to get some produce back but its quality was a little less than stunning. Because NO ONE works during this holiday, no one delivers the produce to the market, no one throws out the backstock, no one stocks the shelves, cleans the shelves and the list goes on and on. So its been about 10 days since anyone has done there job and things are beginning to show it. But I finally found bananas today and some bread. Also a list of other produce. This week the meal plan has only 1 meat on it for the main meal of the day so we'll see how that goes.

But the thing that draws my concern of late is what I will call the Milk Crisis in China. And I don't think its too strong of a word to call it a crisis. This is (depending on whose numbers you take) the largest nation in the world conspiring with companies to cover up potentially lethal chemicals being added to the milk supply. A country that actively encourages women NOT to breast feed when every health organization in the world agrees that Breast is Best and then seeks to cover up plastics being fed to those babies. Folks, this one has me ralled like you wouldn't believe. And the thing is that its effecting us here to some extent. Our country has done a rather aggressive recall of potentially problematic foods and over the suggestion of companies that say they are safe. On this one I'm willing to believe the companies but if its coming out of China I really don't trust that the companies know what they are getting from their suppliers. Nestle and Cadbury wouldn't knowingly put melamine in milk but I don't know that their supplier is as honest.

Anyway, at our house we're shunning all things pre-processed. No chips, no cookies, no crackers, anything packaged is called into question. Our milk is produced here locally from imports of Australian cows. Aussie milk is all the thing here, which I'm thankful for. But snacks come out of China- Asians love snacks as much as anyone else. What this boils down to is that I can't eat the chocolate anymore and I'm a little frustrated by that. Its sounds like it might not be a problem for adults- at least not a huge one. But what I eat @ wants to eat. I'm going to go make cookies now because I know what's in them.

*The pic is from our local paper. Everyday for 2 weeks there were adverts from manufacturers trying to remind people that there product wasn't involved in China's Milk Crisis.