Made in China

I recently made a vow never to buy items made in China again. I had originally decided to do this some time ago after the all the problems with toxins in the dog food, baby formula, honey, lead in kids toys, human rights abuses and too many other disturbing issues to mention. Sadly over time I got a bit lazy with this and didn't always check lables - after all who has the time to check the lable of every little item bought, when even the innocent looking tin of mussels turns out to be made in China. It's not that I don't want to, but just that shopping with 3 kids (one a toddler and one a baby) after a 2 hour drive when I need to buy a months worth of groceries is just not with in the realm of possibility, and quite frankly enough to drive hubby over the edge.

After recently coming across a post about http://animalsaviors.org I just knew I had to do something...
What that something would be is not yet certain, I am rather limited for time, what with trying to get a business off the ground, homeschooling a 12 year old and raising two little ones; not to even mention the veggie garden I am trying to get up and running in the interest of becoming more self sufficient; did I mention that I am supposed to be studying myself as well - yeah I have a bad habit of biting off way more than I can chew.
So in the meantime I decided to go back to not buying anything 'made in china', quite frankly I would rather go without than support a country with so little respect for living beings. It's not that I have anything against Chinese people as such, I am sure that the vast majority of them are decent caring human beings...but there are just too many issues that I feel I would be condoning by buying anything that comes from there.

Some interesting reading:
http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/upload/Wal-MartLungcheongReport.pdf
http://newsblaze.com/story/20070126232727nnnn.nb/topstory.html
http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/
http://www.spacepub.com/users/china/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2139401.stm
http://casarana.wordpress.com/2007/08/22/dont-buy-chinese-goods/
http://richmond.injuryboard.com/defective-and-dangerous-products/dont-buy-chinese-made-products.aspx?googleid=219430


These all come from just a brief "google", I am too scared to look deeper for fear of what I might find....
Not to even mention that China is the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, mainly due to all its coal power plants.

Somehow I am going to stick to my resolution - not new years, I don't do those - and if I can't get non Chinese I will do without. My first choice is still, always local, after all "Local is Lekker!!"