05.10.07

Are Chinese food imports safe?

Posted in News at 9:22 pm by Valentine

There is a very simple answer to proponents of unfettered capitalism: read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, telling a story of the Chicago meat-processing plants around the beginning of the twentieth century. The working conditions were dreadful, wages were dismally low. Sanitation was non-existent, and unspeakable things made their way into the vats.

Sinclair’s focus throughout is on the workers, wages, and employment conditions in these factories. His thesis is that the appropriate response is unionization and Socialism. While I prefer to avoid that debate, the book undeniably demonstrates the necessity for governmental regulation of the food supply. Public health demands that we trust in the quality and safety of what we eat!

One hundred years ago, Sinclair’s journalism (admittedly interpreted through the lens of literary license) inspired Teddy Roosevelt and Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, legislation supported by the food industry to restore consumer confidence in their products. As a result, the situations described in The Jungle can no longer be found in Chicago. Yet half a world away in China, we are seeing history repeat itself. (Ironically, Communism is considered the diametric opposite of the laissez-faire Capitalism that Sinclair decried.)

The pet food scare raises a red flag. Was it contaminated with melamine by accident? Or was the gluten adulterated intentionally to increase its market value? The paper trail (as described in the links) is looking very suspicious. Has any authority, Chinese or otherwise, ever inspected that factory? Or tested its products for purity? The FDA now claims the “gluten” in question was a complete fraud, mere wheat flour adulterated with melamine to fool simple chemical analysis.

In a similar vein, the Boston Globe tells us of shrimp ponds being fed with chicken droppings, produce grown with dangerous pesticides, and poor sanitation practices. Another recent article warns about catfish doped with illegal antibiotics. The USDA is in charge of inspecting imports, yet you can only test for substances that you suspect. What else might be coming in undetected? Even if China were to allow access to the factories, the USDA is grossly unprepared (and underfunded) to take on that task.

Rumors circulated last year in Chinese-language newspapers of “fake eggs” being manufactured in China. I initially dismissed these as urban legend, but might they be more plausible in light of recent events?  Or should we worry about nutrient-free baby formula reaching the US?  China appears to be waking up to the problem, and hopefully will take strong corrective action, but in the meantime this feels like a ticking time bomb.

We have worked for a century to make our domestic food supply as safe as possible, a process that China is only beginning.  I would not want lard from a 1900 Chicago processing plant.  Neither should we be importing food from China until they successfully duplicate the inspections and controls that the US first instituted a century ago.

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