New stories about unsafe foods and ingredients from China are littering the news media as of late: China's substandard manufacturing and weak regulation is an old story among the Chinese but only new grabbing attention internationally; and skepticism regarding organics from China. An article by Jeff Yang published in the Washington Post on July 15th suggests that the outcry against foods from China has a xenophobic undertone. A Utah company is even putting a 'China Free' sticker on its products. Indeed recent food scandals lend support to the preferences of growing numbers to eat more locally. The question of rejecting food from China is thus to be framed in terms of trade barriers and even racism.
While product safety in China needs to be taken seriously, intensive focus on food safety and China may be misguided. Recall California's contaminated spinach outbreak last year. In May, the US FDA announced that an Ohio-based company was itself adding melamine to feed - and potentially even exporting it to China. Last week the Chinese Embassy in the US called on the United States to clean up its own act, citing several contaminated food incidents within the US.
Sandra Finley from Saskatoon asks us to look "here" as well as "there." Our own waterways are full of "sewage, pesticides, heavy metals and other pollutants." From California to China, each of these problems derives from a food system based in industrial agriculture and industrial pollution generally. Good Agricultural Practices encompassing food safety measures can reduce risk to consumers and the environment. Both China and the US are weak regulators of GAPS.
Smaller scale agricultures and shortened links between consumers and producers can help protect us - wherever in the world we are - and our environments all.
See an excellent blog run by Eric Brewer and Karen Harris on regulation of foods imported to the US for more information.
Source: http://www.foodnews.ca/
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