melamine also was found in chicken feed and, of course, in Chinese chicken products.

But Congress agreed to open the markets here to Chinese chicken provided an inspection process was instituted that supposedly would ensure Chinese chicken production would meet U.S. standards. That provision crumbled the opposition. U.S. Rep. Rosa Delauro, D-Conn., previously an opponent, explained in an article she penned for Roll Call that enough safeguards have been put in place for her to support the new plan.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has urged toughness regarding Chinese imports without a lot of success, said the whole issue comes down to a game of chicken.

""The Chinese don't play fair, and we've been cowards," the senator told Fortune. "Every time China threatens, we back off."

The U.S. market for apple juice (what's more American than that?) is dominated by products whose roots are a powdery concentrate shipped on freighters in 55-gallon drums from where else but China. Most U.S. consumers don't care, or at least don't pay much attention, to China being the nation of origin of most of the "juice" in drink boxes and apple juice bottles sold in this country. And since no big problems have been reported with Chinese apple products they have become ubiquitous here. Only a handful of companies claim to only use U.S.-grown apples.

Not long ago I bought a piece of frozen salmon in a package. Even though I obsessively check certain products for nation of origin labeling, I didn't notice this one until it was too late: China. My salmon was from China. I have lived in Alaska and fished salmon from Nushagak Bay on the Bering Sea coast. To the fine people there, I apologize.

Perhaps it is a simplistic notion or overly protectionist, but with the backdrop of millions of recalled products, melamine-tainted food and bird flu on the resume of the nation of origin, is it too much to ask of the U.S. government to refrain from giving passports to millions of pounds of processed Chinese chicken products?

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/10/08/why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road-actually-its-shipping-in-f/