Asahi: The Food Chain

Great front page article today in The Asahi about food safety: The Food Chain.

In a global marketplace, even moderate changes in local shopping habits or import requirements can have international repercussions. Thus one major legal change, the introduction of toughened safety rules for foodstuffs imposed by Japan this spring, is causing major ripples in China.

According to the Chinese government, agricultural exports to Japan amounted to the equivalent of $8 billion in 2005, accounting for about 30 percent of China's export total.

Due to the Japanese government's introduction of the "Positive List System for Agricultural Chemical Residue in Foods" on May 29, Chinese farm exports to Japan dropped by 18 percent for June compared to the previous year.

It's a drop that may not just affect the food industry: Japan is the biggest importer of China's agricultural products, and there are fears the new system could trigger another flare-up between the two countries.

The Positive List System is part of a government plan to lower the threshold for the amount of chemical residue permitted in agricultural and other food products. It prohibits the distribution of all food items, from fresh to processed food, found to contain agricultural chemicals above maximum residue limits as determined by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Chemicals include pesticides, feed additives and veterinary drugs. The system uniformly covers both domestic and imported food.

The system has widely expanded the screening list of chemicals for which specific maximum residue limits were established. The number of substances was increased from 283 to 799, with a uniform level of no more than 0.01 part per million for other chemicals.

To the consumer, this is nothing but good news, but for many farmers it is very bad for business.

China has complained that Japan's law is too strict, and that it damages China's farming industry. That is just silly, and the Chinese should work to improve standards if they want to export food, and of course the Chinese farmers should also grow safe food for domestic consumption. China's State Environment Protection Bureau has even stated that more than one-tenth of China's farming land has been "contaminated by water and waste products" so obviously there are problems.

The new rules have been debated this summer in Japan with some Japanese farmers also expressing concern that the rules are "too strict". They are especially concerned about chemical residue from neighbors as winds can carry the toxic substances. Read more: New rules on pesticides a boon to consumers, but farmers are concerned. One Fukuoka farmer even wrote an angry letter to the editor complaining that all the farmers get is "useless advice": Farmers want facts, not more dumb advice.

I'm glad to see that other farmers are taking the pro-active approach, and finding new ways to reach consumers who want safe and tasty food, as described here: Local farmers go all out to put produce with 'real taste' on diners' tables.

(Woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai: Farmers crossing a suspension bridge, 1834)