I echo what flu said about “quality” of Chinese made products. Chemicals, pesticides. I have a friend who has come down with Parkinsons. She worked as a chemist for years at a major company tha makes everything from health care, pharmaceuticals to beauty products. Many of her colleagues also suffer from neurological diseases, brain cancer, etc. She said the prevailing knowledge amongst the doctors and chemists is that petrochemicals and pesticides cause these diseases.
China grows food using more than 3x pesticide levels than we consider safe. I have many Chinese friends whom DO NOT buy Chinese made products wherever possible and never buy the food. This is because they have Chinese mothers who read the Chinese papers and 10 years ago started reading about quality issues and people getting sick. People need to take it upon themselves to start learning about the chemicals that go into all things in our daily life whether it be the bed you sleep on, the sunscreen you put on your children, in your shampoo, to the food you eat. There were people getting sick in Florida from Chinese made sheet rock.
It doesn’t have to be more expensive to buy non China grown food. You just have to read the labels and shop wisely. Trader Joes generally carries local fresh food, but you do have to be careful reading the boxes on the packaged stuff as ingredients can be from China.
Finally, on non food products such as beauty products, sunscreen, etc…just because it says its organic does not mean it doesn’t contain chemicals as not all ingredients have to be organic. Not regulated by the FDA and not required to test for safety.
