This may be old news to some of you, but I only received an e-mailed link to U-Tube today and a subsequent call from another organic friend, who had received it, also. The date of the ABC report appears to be from August of 08 revealing that a lot of Whole Food's 365 Organic brand vegetables are imported from China!?!?! Sure enough, I rushed to my freezer and 2 of the 3 packages of 365 Organic brand vegetables I purchased say "product of China". All three packages display two organic certifications: one by Quality Assurance International and a second one by USDA Organic. I am flabergasted. My gut reaction is to now distrust the two organic certifying agencies. I certainly cannot complain to Whole Foods (they would not even talk to the ABC reporter) since they have two certificates of approval. What do we reallyknow about these certification entities?

I found out a little info on how the organic certification process works by googling "organic certification" and going to Wikipedia, then googling "Quality Assurance International" and "NSF International". Wikipedia says that "Quality Assurance Intl. is a U.S.-based international organic certification company that is authorized by the USDA ...to certify organic operations to National Organic Program standards." NSF, a not-for-profit co., owns Quality Assurance Intl., a for-profit co. When you go to the NSF website and click on International: Asia: China. you find "NSF International responded to...customers' needs by establishing a joint venture in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China with Shanghai Audit Centre of Quality Systems(SAC) in 2005.
"The joint venture, NSF Shanghai Co., Ltd. is approved by Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNCA) and is authorized to provide comprehensive services to customers requiring management system registration, product certification service of NSF International, or both. Services include product certification in the areas of food and water as well as food safety systems registration."
So I guess I've answered my own question. There's more if you are interested in researching these sites and this subject.

You might also be surprised how many of Whole foods and private label grocery stores prducts come/or are made in Canada.

Fortunately we know that the Chinese would never engage in anything but the most honest and healthy business practices (cough).

Yeah - watch where your fish comes from too... I'm not so sure I am confident in a lot of the farm raised in Asia seafood... kinda like the stuff that's been swimming in deep, cold, remote waters.

I'm with you CHF3, I don't get any Asian farmed fish, food, or etc.

On the other hand, I sometimes think we can probably trust the Canadians more than our own hi-jacked USDA and FDA.

I prefer to grow as much as possible, avoid as much canned food (BPA) as possible, and buy from my local natural farmers when I can. When I supplement from the grocery stores, I just try to make the best choices I can for my family.

Well said, you for sure can trust the USDA and FDA, but only to trust that they are in bed with the chemical companies and will always look out for the best interest of the chemical companies, and never the American public or anyone that is not a future or past employer. As far as trusting the Canadians, I don't know if they are any better but they for sure can't be much worst.

Hi,

I prefer to grow as much as possible, avoid as much canned food (BPA) as possible, and buy from my local natural farmers when I can. When I supplement from the grocery stores, I just try to make the best choices I can for my family.

I'm not sure there's much you can do. As long as the package declares it's "made in..." and are not hiding the product origins.