The government doesn’t want to tell you this, but the odds are fairly good at one time or another you’ve eaten a poisonous substance called "melamine."

Melamine is an organic molecule that is extracted from oil or coal and then used as one of the ingredients for making plastic. It is found in plastic plates, counter-tops and even in children’s erasers (a darn good reason to tell your kids or grandchildren to not put erasers in their mouths).

So, what's the big deal?

The big deal is a bunch of criminals in China (both inside and outside their corrupt government) have been buying up ground-up melamine scraps from plastic-making factories to add it into grains and byproducts, including the sticky wheat glutens used to thicken soups or help bread rise.

They have also, by the way, been putting it into pet food and into the food used to feed chickens and hogs. If you read the newspaper or watch TV news, you already know the consequences of this.

You see, melamine is a fake protein. It has no nutritional value whatsoever but is much, much cheaper than the real thing. When wheat gluten buyers, for instance, test for protein content, the test they use measures the density of nitrogen molecules. Both protein and melamine throw off a lot of nitrogen molecules so the test can't differentiate between the two.

The good folks at the Food and Drug Administration [0] say they are going to start requiring importers to provide "proof " of the safety of glutens and proteins like wheat, corn, soy and mung bean, however, their ability to enforce this is dubious at best. And just what the proof is is not defined.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture [1]tells us that three million Indiana chickens were fed food contaminated with melamine and these chickens were slaughtered and then instead of being disposed of they were shipped off to market to be eaten by unsuspecting consumers.

The FDA’s tepid response to all of this is typified by: (1) their statement that the “likelihood of human illness is very low,” and, (2) their dramatic action of sending “two drug agency employees” to China where they are scheduled to talk to a “Chinese official” who couldn't be available immediately because of May Day celebrations. Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall during this conversation. "Hey, Dude, will you pretty please tell your party bosses to quit putting poison in the food you export overseas? "

It seems to me it might be time to boycott Chinese products—what do you think? To learn more about how to boycott China, check out Boycott China Union [2].