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China’s Food Safety: Challenges and Opportunities

China’s Food Safety: Challenges and Opportunities. Pei-Hwa Ho peihwaho@gmail.com. Background. Wanted to promote a natural bacteria-based fertilizer and insecticide. It can increase yield, improve quality, and soften soils, and has high return on investments for fruits, veggies, and teas.

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China’s Food Safety: Challenges and Opportunities

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  1. China’s Food Safety:Challenges and Opportunities Pei-Hwa Ho peihwaho@gmail.com

  2. Background • Wanted to promote a natural bacteria-based fertilizer and insecticide. • It can increase yield, improve quality, and soften soils, and has high return on investments for fruits, veggies, and teas. • Went deep into the farm villages for trials and develop sales and channels.

  3. Findings • Most farms were run by independent farm families who do not (and can not) rely on farm income to make a living. • Most young workers went to work in cities and only return during harvesting season. • The market is one price fits all, so farmers pursue maximum weight, not quality. • Many illicit and fake products, main culprit.

  4. Findings • Lack of modern agriculture knowledge • Stick with NPK • Use growth hormone or other products to increase yield • Most Chinese soil are in poor state • Farmers don’t consume the products they sold to market, they grow their own food separately.

  5. Resulting in… • Food nutrition content way down • Things don’t taste good, don’t smell good • Soil contains huge amount of chemicals • Soil depleted of minerals and organic matters

  6. And Pollution • Chromium creeps up in well water • Other heavy metals in water • Pollution caused by overabundant fertilizers spilling into creeks and rivers • Air pollution

  7. And Safety Issues • Residues of Pesticides and Herbicides • Overuse of growth hormones and plant growth regulators • Leaner pork and beef with clenbuterol (banned in the US and EU,US uses ractopamine )

  8. Fundamental Challenges • Lack of trust and good consumer protection mechanism • Falsified and fake products everywhere in the agriculture supply chain • Agriculture’s long cycle time and risks (pricing, weather, natural disasters) made is not ideal for Chinese investors

  9. Organic? • Organic Chemistry: Study of compound or materials that contains carbon (with exceptions like diamond, cyanide, carbon dioxide) or things that can only be produced in a living organism (with exceptions too in modern day technology) • Organic Food: Food produced without synthetic chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.)

  10. China’s Organic Foods • Most are not organic (personal observation) • Price too high to be popular • Consumers just want “poison-free” food

  11. Talking Numbers • If water and soil are not contaminated • It won’t cost too much more to grow safe and healthy crops with modern know-how • Not using fertilizers and pesticides won’t give you healthy crops

  12. Where Thing Are • Organic retailer, lohaocity.com • Country Fair / Farmers’ Market • http://site.douban.com/163893/room/1767810/ • Subscribe (and maybe work on) your own land like littledonkeyfarm.com • Subscribe or buy online with home delivery like noahorganic.com or oabc.cc or tonysfarm.com

  13. Opportunities • A foreign brand assisted quality system • Safe and poison-free products instead of organic • Localized sales and distribution system

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