Food Safety: The Rural Imperative

1. Food Safety: The Rural Imperative Green Commodity Supply Chain Platform: • Initiated by the Joint Secretariat for China-US Science and Technology Collaboration in Agriculture and Social Development – an organization co-established by Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and The Texas A&M University System • Business-led, market-driven with policy and financial supports from the Government • To develop internationalized food safety infrastructure paradigm in China • To benefit China farmers, rural areas and agriculture (the 3-N) through science and technology Contact: Dr. Yimin Jin at jinym@mail.most.cn Mr. Yang Liu at liuy@crtdc.org.cn Dr. Douglas K. Loh at loh@tamu.edu Mr. Ronnie Liu at ronnie@smarteam.com.cn

2. Food Safety: The Rural Imperative Common R&D Themes: • Capacity building on food safety for detection, testing and handling of environmental toxins, microbial pathogens and bio-hazards • Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points (HACCP) • Traceability with electronic labeling • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform for above tasks

3. Food Safety: The Rural Imperative It is recommended that: • the Joint Secretariat takes the lead in forming a project team. The team is to include an advisory board, a service coalition and the clientele groups. The Advisory Board is to consist of representatives of key stakeholders from governments, private sectors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and consumer groups; the service coalition is to be organized in the form of a service company by equitable participations of interested parties from pertinent sectors along the supply chain; advisory board and the service coalition should work together to identify first batch of clientele groups for the demonstration projects. • the project team seeks the supports and participations of MOST, USDA, FDA, the International HACCP Alliance and other pertinent government agencies, professional societies in the US, China and other countries. In the case of USDA, priority is given to agencies and programs related to voluntary inspections and certification, such as the Agricultural Marketing Service. • the project team works with MOST and other key stakeholders for the funding and establishment of the Service Coalition. Such a company shall serve as a template for developing new science and technology based service industries for China and its trade partners. • In light of the 2008 Olympics and 2010 World Expo, technical demonstration projects be initiated in Beijing and Shanghai. As deemed appropriate, additional sites such as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Henan Province and other provinces can also be considered.