Harvard Asia Pacific Review 11.1

trends, whereupon they sometimes express a general frustraprofit in the face of inadequate public and private safeguards. tion at how matters have come to pass as well as what they Apparently, stiff competition among dairy processors seeking understand these events to mean. As with employment and supplies from a large number of small-scale producers prophysical insecurities, food concerns can unite an otherwise vided an environment in which there was little incentive on fractured society. Food quality and safety alarms can be esthe supply side to monitor input quality. Concerns circulated pecially effective at activating those who have little general within the domestic and international food processing secinterest in policy matters. tors long before the issue A common failing is that food handlers see little But what these food conbecame public knowlcerns quite are exposes reason to value their reputation when quality failures edge.The problem was much about the state of are difficult to identify and trace, prosecutions society.

For example, not a want of food safety food safety and quality are laws, although the event are rare, and firms have not established a brand probably luxury goods. has been used to provide reputation to motivate protection.

Demand for these attrineeded clarification on butes likely rises with real aspects of existing laws. per capita income as consumers become more educated and Rather, the failings are in institutions and in the commerbegin to take calorie sufficiency for granted. cial perspective taken. These failings are related. Reflective This article will analyze what two recent events in East of weaknesses in United States and European Union apAsian food markets reveal about societal evolution and proaches, assignment of oversight responsibilities from farm tensions as well as institutional needs. One is the use of to kitchen has left gaps. Beyond that, countries undergoing melamine in China’s food sector. The other is the reaction to rapid growth will inevitably lag in public and private seca trade agreement to allow United States beef re-entry into tor institutions and personnel stock to respond to such crithe South Korean market. ses. Senior officials may be inexperienced, poorly trained, or worse. The former head of China’s FDA was executed in July 2007 for accepting bribes to approve drugs believed to have Adulteration caused fatalities, a punishment widely viewed as an official Dishonest addition of low-value, or even harmful, masignal to corrupt civil servants. terials to traded food is possibly as old as the trade of food.

Problems can also be more technical. Epidemiological Yet, growing societies in the process of urbanization are pardata may not exist while reporting systems may be of poor ticularly vulnerable because of the flux in demand patterns quality or irrelevant to a rapidly changing country. And pubas well as stressed infrastructure used in consumption and lic involvement, so often a substitute for government overproduction. A common failing is that food handlers see little sight, may be ineffective for a variety of reasons. Affected reason to value their reputation when quality failures are difprivate citizens may lack the training in critical thinking and ficult to identify and trace, prosecutions are rare, and firms science to identify and convince pertinent authorities of a have not established a brand reputation to motivate protecproblem at an early stage. Data may not be available to the tion. public in order to discern patterns among anecdotes. Private Writing on The Conditions of the Working Class in Engfunding may be very limited whereas scientific product testland at the height of its industrial Revolution, circa 1845, ing is costly. Impartial citizen watchdog groups may not exist Friedrich Engels asserted that producers and shopkeepers or have qualified access to decision makers and communica“… adulterated all foodstuffs in a disgraceful manner, with a tions infrastructure. Individuals may find it prudent to engage scandalous disregard for the health of the consumer.” Ample in self-censorship. historical evidence attests to widespread unethical and unFood safety scandals hold great risks for an authoritarsanitary practices in the food industry at that time. Although ian government.

A state that curtails freedom can rationalslow in emerging, public pressure ensured significant legislaize these actions by presenting arguments, and maybe even tion and public intervention in the more prosperous parts of compelling evidence, that society is more secure and stable Europe, and in North America, prior to World War I. as a result. These claims are hard to sustain when the typical The extent of the adulteration problem has diminished citizen worries frequently that her food might be poisonous. over time in these countries. In addition to enforced reguAnd such worries can lead the authorities to worry in turn lations, developments in the biological sciences likely had about civil instability. Urban children were reportedly afmuch to do with this. So too had consolidation in food disfected most severely in the melamine episode. Aside from tribution and marketing, together with the advent of branded grieving the harm or loss of a loved one, families limited to goods. Consumers likely understand that a company with having one child and concerned about social security in old significant investments in a product market has a profit incenage are likely to feel particularly upset by such events. This tive to maintain product reputation. would be especially true if evidence points to failings within However, adulteration is still a severe concern in less the government itself. In the aftermath, claims of censorship developed countries. Melamine was implicated in China’s and state pressure against judicial recourse abound. kidney disease epidemic during the summer of 2008, due to Although difficult to measure, the economic cost to contaminated infant formula. High in nitrogen, the additive China is likely to be large in the short run and possibly in boosts crude protein test results in order to mask fluid milk the longer run. Following detection of lead in toys and other adulteration with water. The chemical had raised concerns problems, it was one more blow to the “Made in China” laa year earlier after Chinese exports of pet food had caused bel, and especially so in lucrative high-income markets. But animal fatalities in the United States. the long-run impacts depend on the extent of constructive Public memory had not yet faded on deaths arising from response. a fake infant formula scandal during 2004. Similar to other Despite a large population, scarce arable land resources, food safety incidents in China, the 2008 melamine case reand severe water shortage problems, China has managed to vealed an organized endeavor to achieve large short-term FEATURE | The Political Economy of Food Safety in Asia and Implications for the United States 17