"A lot of animal food companies buy melamine from us to add in the animal feed," said Ji Denghui, manager of Sanming Dinghui Chemical Trading Co. based in the eastern province of Fujian. "This can lower the production cost and increase nitrogen levels."

"As far as I know, there are no rules or regulations that make this illegal. As to whether melamine is toxic or not, I believe it won't do any harm if there is only very small amount," Ji said. "Otherwise, those companies could not do that."

Ji Denghui, quoted in yesterdays morning's Washington Post article titled "Chemical Common in Chinese Animal Feed" by Christopher Bodeen

A few weeks ago while surfing the net to find out which pet food brands were killing America's Garfields and Fidos and learning about wheat gluten, melamine, seitan, and the intricacies of the international trade in food additives, I was mildly surprised to find that we import wheat gluten from China and found myself wondering if someone had sold America's heartland while I wasn't looking. Did a foreign country buy up all of Illinois' farmland as part of the Chicago Skyway deal? Did the current batch of incompetent boobs who pass themselves off as our government manage to misplace Kansas and Nebraska along with our national integrity, respect for humanity and the Bill of Rights while making America safe for Laissez-faire capitalism?