Home -> Law Blog Directory -> International Law Blogs -> China Law Blog

International Law

: China Law Blog

China. Whither The Children. I Say Tomato.

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

During one of the breaks in the recent Berkeley Asia Business conference, I took part in a conversation with an American guy whose wife was expecting her first baby and an American woman with a toddler. Both of these people had spent many years in China and loved it and both were still very much engaged in China related businesses. Both talked of how important it was that they be in China for business reasons. Then they talked of how they worried about China for their kids. They were focused on the pollution. I stayed silent but I thought about how I would also be concerned about the food. Though not a China story, I can never forget my first trip to Vladivostok, Russia and how the drive from the airport to the city included my seeing abandoned factory with sludge pond after abandoned factory with sludge pond. And interspersed between all this were a bunch of tomato farms. I thought about run-off each time I left the tomatoes (about the only fresh vegetable Vladivostok had back in those days) on my plate. The New York Times recently did a artcle on yet another food scandal in China. I fear that the China food scandal story scandals have become so routine the media is losing interest. The NY Times article is on how cowpeas from Hainan Island were grown using illegal and highly toxic fertilizers, used because such fertilizer costs way less than the legal kind. I am not even going to bother summarizing the article beyond stating that it only reaffirms that China's food safety system is broken and I for one do not see a rapid repair in sight. For more on China food safety, or the lack thereof, check out the following: -- China's New Food Safety Law. An Early Report. -- China's Food Chain. Nobody Trusts Nobody. -- China Food Safety: Executions Aren't Working So Let's Try New Standards. -- China Food Products: Can't Live With 'Em, Can't Live Without 'Em. This one is for those of us who believe that we are immune to Chinese foods by virtue of living in the West. What do you think?

Full post as published by China Law Blog on March 05, 2010 (boomark / email).