Our bodies have a remarkably capable system for fighting
stress, toxins and diseases. Unfortunately the necessary ammunition required
the system work is not indigenous. We lost the ability to make it millions of
years ago. The ammunition is vitamin C. Actually it is a liver metabolite,
ascorbate, which also acts as a vitamin. Very small amounts of it prevent
scurvy. Much larger amounts are needed to perform its more basic functions.
It seems clear that this is a strategically important
substance. Without an assured supply,
the health of our entire population, including our armed forces, is at risk.
From a national defense point of view, it seems obvious that we should be
making at least some of it in our own country.
Unfortunately we no longer do!
Last year 4 major companies in China were responsible for 60% of
the world’s vitamin C production. They exported 80% of this at low prices, said
to average $4.57 per kilogram in the U.S. Competition from the Chinese has
caused prices to fall for several years and the closing of production
facilities in this country and in Europe. The 4000 metric ton per year BASF
factory in Grenna, Denmark
went out of business at the end of 2005 following the closure of DSM’s U.S. plant in
May The Hoffman La Roche ascorbic acid plant in this country closed a few years
ago. The remaining 6000 tons per year plant in North Carolina owned by the Northeast
Pharmaeutical Group also closed in December 2005. There is now no production of
vitamin C in the United
States. Only the 22 tons per year DSM plant
in Dalry Scotland
is still in business in the western world
The people of the United States are not in good
shape. The most expensive medical care system in the world does not seem to be
functioning well. The prospect of an invasion of a new, highly lethal form of
bird flu developing in the Far East subjects
us all to what may possibly be unacceptable risks. For example, if a flu
pandemic arises, requirements for antiviral materials will sky rocket. Vitamin
C is one of the very few proven antivirals. When the
demands of 1.4 billion Chinese are met, what will be left for 300 million
Americans?
The closing of manufacturing plants in this country and in Denmark has
been the result of Chinese companies flooding markets with ascorbic acid at
prices impossible for their local competitors to meet. China’s
controlled economy and low labor costs give their companies a competitive
advantage. The law of comparative advantage is working! Some Economists believe
that it is a good thing to force people and countries to concentrate on what
they do best and that consumers benefit by paying lower prices for goods as a
result. On the other hand, basic economic theory assumes that the consumer is
also a producer and trades his production for things that other
consumer/producer make. If the local consumer/producer loses his job because of
the international competition, and can’t get an equivalent one because his
country’s industry is leaving, then his country’s economy has to contract and
become less viable.
Great powers lose their status when they become too
dependent on others for necessities. Mahan’s book on naval warfare states that
both Spain and Portugal, as a result of imports of gold and silver from their
possessions in the Americas, stopped meeting their own needs by manufacturing
in country and, becoming dependent on other countries, declined in power. Holland, once a great
power, also lost her status because she had never been able to supply her own
needs internally. During a war with England, the English navy cut off
her imports and the ensuing starvation necessitated surrender. Are we paving
the way for our own decline by allowing our once supreme,” Arsenal of
Democracy” to disappear?
It should be noted that it was inflation of their money
supplies that has been blamed for the Spanish and Portuguese ceasing to satisfy
their needs in country. Will inflation of our money supply, which has been
fostered since passage of the Inflation Act of 1932, do us in as well?
We are trading less and less and buying more and more of what
we need from other countries on credit. We are living on the equivalent of international
credit cards! When our credit runs out and the bills arrive, with what shall
they be paid? Is a Chinese bid for GE a foretaste of things to come? What will
be left for our children and grandchildren –a life of servitude to our
creditors? Will they “Owe Their Souls to the Company Store” because of our poor
judgment?
Jack
Phillips
