My Chinese Tea Experiment
- Thread starter Xue Sheng
- Start date
In this context I would prefer to see lab results from a reputable source.
There is a lot of half truth and misinformation out that is slow to die. (Rodale still proclaims that pressure treated wood seeps arsenic into the soil when its been removed from the treatment process over 15 years ago.)
I'm a skeptic.
I understand China is where the West was in the 60s...but the modern stuff is expensive and - at least in the West - hardly overused....
Again...China has a different learning curve....
Just got another of the OMG THAT IS IN YOUR FOOD kind of feeds on MSN...I glanced up to the top corner and, yup, Rodale...that publishing company takes 'organic' and granola to new lows of heights....totally off the rocker (and I am afraid Green Peace has jumped the shark a couple of decades ago as well)
I liked Japanese green tea too.
But after the Fukushima radiation leak, I ran out to the Costco store and bought all the Japanese green tea I can find. Now I no longer buy tea grown in Japan :-([h=3][/h]
OP
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
- Thread Starter
- #28
did you read the Do You Know Whats Really In Your Tea?
It is also discussed the tea bags the tea is in and the science behind the problem with some materials, that was not a green peace article
And I do not understand the "China has a different learning curve" bit.
The tea growers in the countryside are not directly regulated and they use whatever is available or cheapest and some of what they are using is illegal to use in China for food production. But contrary to popular beleicf the Chinese government does not watch everything its people do. It tends to work on a "if you don't make us see it we will not do anything" basis
by in large China is doing the same things the West did in the 60s and 70s - and has yet to pay the tab for, smog, pollution, pesticides. if the chemicals would not be available, they would not be used. If things would be regulated and people educated, things like lead in baby toys would not happen (although, there are people who just don't give a damn, regardless of nationality)
And please, I think the US is about 20-30 years behind in ecological thinking...
(and I always believed teabags to be crap, but I use them because there is nothing else, except Lipton's loose tea...nope, not getting that)
OP
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
- Thread Starter
- #30
You drink your tea and I'll drink mine and lets leave it at that
It is a bit more complicated than that, first China is not the west and for that matter does not want to be and it can't understand why the west cares what it does inside its borders. As to China being like us in the 60s and 79s, I would place it more towards the 20 to 40s as far as industrial pollution goes and the presence of robber barons.
The chemicals are available, like chemicals are here, for various uses, they just choose to use what is immediately available and cheapest and that means it may be a chemical that should not be used on food or for that matter around breathing humans. Regulations exist but they tend to be enforce only when Beijing is forced to act, and at times depending on how much of a bribe you can give the local officials, Beijing may never hear about it at all.
In some cases, particularly the at the industrial level, they are educated and they do know but you then run smack into "they don't care as long as they can make money". This is where the Chinese government needs to focus and regulate and they do regulate, when it becomes an issue so big they cannot ignore it, that or someone is crazy enough to say "Hey Beijing, look what I'm doing" (and it has happened). It is at that point they act and generally not before and it tends to be extreme in response.
But with that said Beijing does claim that it is looking at environmental cleanup of China but the place is so bloody huge and parts are rather isolated by our standards I do not think they have any idea where to begin.
But this is way off the topic of tea and the stuff of another post I have no plan to make
It is a bit more complicated than that, first China is not the west and for that matter does not want to be and it can't understand why the west cares what it does inside its borders. As to China being like us in the 60s and 79s, I would place it more towards the 20 to 40s as far as industrial pollution goes and the presence of robber barons.
The chemicals are available, like chemicals are here, for various uses, they just choose to use what is immediately available and cheapest and that means it may be a chemical that should not be used on food or for that matter around breathing humans. Regulations exist but they tend to be enforce only when Beijing is forced to act, and at times depending on how much of a bribe you can give the local officials, Beijing may never hear about it at all.
In some cases, particularly the at the industrial level, they are educated and they do know but you then run smack into "they don't care as long as they can make money". This is where the Chinese government needs to focus and regulate and they do regulate, when it becomes an issue so big they cannot ignore it, that or someone is crazy enough to say "Hey Beijing, look what I'm doing" (and it has happened). It is at that point they act and generally not before and it tends to be extreme in response.
But with that said Beijing does claim that it is looking at environmental cleanup of China but the place is so bloody huge and parts are rather isolated by our standards I do not think they have any idea where to begin.
But this is way off the topic of tea and the stuff of another post I have no plan to make
Exactly.
But I am sure if thy cared (understood) enough, I don't think they could be stopped....
after all, rumor are abound that they are big in selling kidneys from prisoners....:EG:
(I know, cynical)
But as much as they stole from the west via espionage....the damages done eluded them....hmm
OP
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
- Thread Starter
- #32
Thing about China that most do not think about when they read the news from China in the main stream media (selling kidneys from prisoners) the Chinese government has a pretty good grip on the mainstream media so they have to let these stories out. It is then one should ask "why did they let this out?" and at times these are let out (some real some fake) as distractions so we fail to notice what it going on elsewhere in China.
It's not like the US news actually cared....
regardless....
I suppose tea from China, you have probably a different chance of contamination that imported and tested to importer specs....
Shame we can't grow our own.
A while back I read an article in my local paper about a small tea plantation in my Bama hometown. It makes sense: The Carmelia, the state flower is of the same genus as tea....
Not sure how I could obtain some bushes though....maybe Xue can bring me some next time he visits family?
I may try this when I head South in a few years. Though trying the greenhouse method or grow house in my basement might work too. If you hear of a Buffalo house raided by a swat team with a grow operation in the basement, and see my name, it's just tea. Really.
