Fakery, eggs and the consumer.

Someone on a trainer forum I frequent brought everyone's attention recently to the fact that in China people make fake eggs and sell them to the public for consumption. Fake fucking eggs.

They retail for less than a genuine egg and contain amongst other ingredients: gelatin, benzoic acid, coagulating material, lemon-yellow colouring powder, alum, calcium chloride and paraffin wax.
People buy this shit and serve it to their families. Alum alone, when consumed in sufficient quantities, causes dementia.

Consider the fact that we are not talking about a nice Henry Lloyd coat, a Ralph Lauren shirt or a pair of Air Max here. I have no problem with fake goods, ("each to his own" is sometimes a motto I live my life by) I grew up in an area where such goods were sold in every local pub. It was the norm to have people congregate around a parked car on a Saturday dinnertime or outside work on a weekday and pick the knock off garments they would wear the next weekend. The usual story is that someone has acquired (read stolen) a job lot of designer clothing and needed to offload it quickly and at far less than retail. The reality was that it was all fake and manufactured in China and the sellers were taking regular deliveries, the bulk of which were sold through a network of single mums that would purport to have shoplifted it and the rest sold from the dealers car. You had access to a myriad of "expert" knowledge from pubgoing folk that knew what to look for as regards labels, barcodes, hangtags, packaging, position of embroidery etc. and so you were totally safe from falling into the trap of buying fake goods and the abuse that wearing a £100 shirt when you earned £600 a month would bring.

We as a country rely on the cheap labour that China provides, whilst turning a blind eye to their complete lack of moral fibre. Even if you occupy the high ground of boycotting sweatshop labour, the chances are that the manufacture of the clothes you stand up in and the shoes you walk in have in some way contributed to the suffering of someone in a country far, far away.

Eggs though, are a step too far. That's when the realization hits you that this world is a more fucked up place than you possibly imagined it could be.