China Choking on Growth
It’s nearly impossible to escape goods made in China these days. Looking at my son’s toy from his Mickey D’s Happy Meal reminded me of a series being run by the Times entitled “China, Choking on Growth.” Readers wishing to educate themselves about costs involved in China’s becoming the fastest growing economy in the world should read and watch this series.
The latest installment involves farm raised fish. Haven’t you wondered why shrimp is so much more affordable now then it was 20 years ago? And, while I do enjoy a dish of tilapia on occasion, I’d never even heard of it before 5 or 6 years ago. This one will get you thinking a bit folks.
A major take-away for me re: China is the costs involved with raising the bottom line ($$$$). They are experiencing so many problems that will profoundly impact the rest of us. A brief and glaring example being their thirst for oil. Lots of the former farmers in that country of 1.3 billion can now afford that automobile that was formerly a bicycle. No wonder they’re chummy with Iran (They’re financing the construction of oil refineries throughout that country). You think $3 a gallon is expensive? Think about what today’s kids will be paying in 15 years unless alternative fuels are created. I’m not looking to get all Al Gore on y’all, but read this series. It really is important to all of us.
Below is a brief excerpt and a link to a short video can be found here: China Choking on Growth, Part VII
China produces about 70 percent of the farmed fish in the world, harvested at thousands of giant factory-style farms that extend along the entire eastern seaboard of the country. Farmers mass-produce seafood just offshore, but mostly on land, and in lakes, ponds, rivers and reservoirs, or in huge rectangular fish ponds dug into the earth.
“They’ll be a major supplier not just to the U.S., but to the world,” said Richard Stavis, the chairman of Stavis Seafoods, an American company that imports Chinese catfish, tilapia and frog legs.
China began emerging as a seafood power in the 1990s as rapid economic growth became the top priority in the country. But environmental experts say that headlong pursuit of higher gross domestic product has devastated Chinese water quality and endangered the country’s food supply. In Guangdong Province in southern China, fish contaminated with toxic chemicals like DDT are already creating health problems.
