Recurrent reports of unsafe Chinese food products have highlighted problems such as the illegal use of food additives, agrichemical residues, and polluted soils and waters (p. 12). China's ongoing food safety issues have variously been described as undermining public health, agricultural exports and levels of social trust. According to this book's preface, food safety is also “an important symbol” of a country's “economic development” and its “people's living conditions” (p. v), suggesting that China's intractable food safety problems may have had implications for the country's international image and national self-esteem.
There is no question that food safety has received much attention from China's leadership in the 2000s. As is described in chapter one, government-led actions have included the introduction of new food safety standards and certification schemes, the passing of new laws culminating in the 2009 national Food Safety Law, and the establishment of a national network for monitoring the quality and safety of agricultural goods. Yet despite these actions, and although the quality and safety of China's agricultural goods are “overall in good condition” (p. 7), the study suggests that there is much room for improvement in this area, and that to understand the problems we need to examine the characteristics of the food and agriculture industries themselves.
This timely study, by two professors of agricultural economics and management, is written for policy makers in China and “as a reference for developing countries” (p. vi). While some of the theoretical discussions and quantitative analyses will be of particular interest to economists, on the whole this book is an accessible and useful resource for social scientists concerned with food safety and with China's food system more broadly. The study examines the food supply chains of key agricultural products in Zhejiang province. The data were gathered among a large number of food industry actors from around the province by means of focus groups, personal interviews and written questionnaires.
Chapter two examines pesticide use, and argues that users of “highly toxic” pesticides tended to be older and less educated than other farmers. They tended also not to be specialized vegetable farmers and to sell their vegetables to middlemen rather than directly to wholesale markets or enterprises. The third chapter examines the adoption of standards for “quality vegetables” (pollution-free, green and organic) among agricultural cooperatives, and finds that this was more likely among larger cooperatives and those which had registered brands.
Chapter four moves us up the chain to the vegetable processing industry, arguing that larger firms with well-trained staff were more likely than others to adopt quality and safety standards, as were firms engaged in e-commerce and export markets. Chapter five informs us that the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, which involves assessing safety risks at key points in the production process rather than simply testing the finished product, was being adopted by a growing number of export-oriented firms in order to meet international standards – but was not being adopted by food enterprises targeting the domestic market.
Chapter six looks at vegetable wholesale markets, pointing out huge problems with traceability, particularly in privately run wholesale markets. Chapters seven examines traceability within the pork industry, and suggests that larger hog processing and slaughtering firms were more inclined to establish traceability systems and that promoting the integration of these firms with farmers would benefit traceability within the industry. The final substantive chapter investigates the adoption of self-inspection systems such as HACCP among Zhejiang's aquaculture enterprises. Although the adoption of such systems was minimal, it is argued that the closer integration of leading, large-scale firms with smaller firms and individual farmers would be conducive to the establishment of such systems. This is consistent with the other chapters in this book. The arguments and policy recommendations are summarized in a concluding chapter.
Together, these chapters present a fascinating overview of the current state of major food supply chains in Zhejiang, providing an excellent basis for further research. The lack of food- and agriculture-specific information is frustrating, however. For example, we are told nothing about what kinds of vegetables were being grown, what kinds of pesticides were being applied and how, or what kinds of processing were involved. Such “details” have implications for identifying both potential hazards and appropriate responses. Further, the social contexts within which actors’ decisions were being made are often ignored. To what extent, for example, were farmers’ uses of agrichemicals shaped by the availability of household labour? And how might firm managers’ relations with local government have shaped their decisions about adopting particular standards?
The findings and recommendations in this book are consistent with a wider, state-led project for agricultural and rural “modernization,” involving the scaling-up of farming and increased vertical integration of the food industries. This study leaves it to others to ask more critical questions about the implications of this project for farmers, about the use of “food safety” to promote it, and about the claim – which the recent European “horse meat scandal” has shown to be problematic – that scaling-up and introducing self-inspection systems are the best recipe for safer food, be it in “developing” or “developed” countries.
