It's all in a day's work for this woman
she opens up a manhole cover and scoops out as much slop as she can
delighted by what she finds. What others might view as revolting
she sees as a bonanza. She works in the streets at the southern Chinese city
of Shenzhen
a foot soldier in China's so-called gutter oil industry
After more than 10 years in the business
she says she's made enough money to build a house for her family
back in her home village a thousand miles to the north
Her slop eventually winds up in a processing plant like this one
where it's combined with other animal fat refuse
to create recycled cooking oil. Workers put the oil in barrels for delivery to
restaurants and hotels
How can you eat this? If you eat it
it can kill you. Cooking oil has long been a cherished commodity in China
where stir frying in a wok is the mainstay of daily meal preparation. The high profit
margins from
gutter oil production have proven irresistible. Chinese experts estimate
that one tenth of China's cooking oil is gutter oil
which has been found to contain carcinogens another toxins harmful to humans
Most it winds up in hole in the wall restaurants
and among street food vendors. Illegal production sites are often discovered
after people living nearby
notice a nauseating stench and alert the authorities
Police have arrested scores of people across the country in recent years
for engaging in the trade and seized thousands of tons of the material
The Chinese government enacted a tough food safety law in 2009
that included harsh penalties for producers of tainted products
But many consumers doubt that China's dinner tables can be completely free of gutter oil
All we can do is accept it. In our current society
everybody tries to swindle everybody else. There's nothing we can do about it
The lush fields of southern China's Guangdong Province
team with fruits and vegetables. Produce from this area is shipped to Hong Kong
and throughout mainland China but a closer inspection can be disturbing
The fields are littered with an odd assortment of trash
An RFA investigation has found that farmers in Guangdong
are making fertilizer out of fermented garbage
some of it contaminated with used batteries and other toxic waste
As the cost the fertilizer has shot up
farmers have found a cheaper option at the local landfill
They piled the garbage by the side of the road for compost
then they mix it with chemical fertilizer
and spread it on their fields. No need to be afraid
I eat these vegetables too. Am I dead?
I eat them every day and I'm still alive aren't I? I grow them myself
You don't have to worry about eating my vegetables. Chinese media have reported
that eighty percent of the produce from this area
is grown with waste fertilizer. Vegetables grown in this way
can contain elevated levels of heavy metals
like lead and mercury.
The government has a lot of regulations explaining how farmers should raise
their crops
but we find that it may not do enough follow up to make sure they do it properly
We believe the government should do a better job but the government response
has been to cover up the problem
According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency
when China's Ministry of Environmental Protection receive data
about farm land contamination, officials classified it as a state secret
and refused to publicize it. The ministry has said it is still investigating
It's the wee hours of the morning
and this slaughterhouse is going full bore. The operation
located near the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen
is a makeshift cluster of tents erected after dark
and dismantled daily before dawn. Its butchers slaughter hundreds
of pigs a night
But this is an illegal slaughter house unregulated by the Ministry of Health
and sources tell RFA that some of the pigs processed here are diseased
or even dead on arrival. Pork from this slaughter house and for many other
unauthorized operations find its way into China's food supply
every day. When the slaughter house buys pork
some pigs are still alive and others are already dead
they're not all dead. The dead ones are cheaper.
Pork is China's most popular meat
The country produced 50 million tons of it last year
Nearly half the global total. And as China's 1.3 billion people become richer
their appetite for pork is growing. The spike in consumption has created new
challenges for health officials
Sometimes the authorities announced plans to crack down on illegal slaughter houses
But it's not an easy task. RFA sources say that operations are often run by
criminal gangs
and protected by corrupt officials. And when
the authorities shut down the slaughter house in one place it can quickly open up again in another
Whether we're merchants or consumers
it's not possible to take an inspection machine to the market to test whether
the food is safe or not
We can only trust the government. Reports of food safety scandals are on
the rise in China
but the people's faith in government regulation
is wearing thin
A thick blanket of choking smog has descended on the northeastern Chinese
city of Harbin
closing schools and halting operations at the local airport
highways were also shut although there were still reports of multiple car crashes
The state-run Xinhua news agency said visibility in Harbin
had dropped to less than 50 meters. It quoted a local traffic official as
saying that drivers who ran red lights because they could not see them
would not be penalized. Pollution from rapid development and heavy coal use
plagues wide swaths of China. Thick smog in Beijing and other Chinese cities has
prompted a strong public outcry
and authorities have pledged to make improvements.
The State Council, China's cabinet,
said in June that it would hold local officials accountable
for improving air quality
I'm sure many of you have heard about China's food safety problems
It's something that affects the lives of over a billion people
but it doesn't affect your life all the way across the Pacific
or does it. According to an online blog that was recently posted on the
Wall Street Journal website
there's a decent chance that the next time you eat out at a diner
that the entire meal was imported from China
and that none of the foods were inspected by the Food and Drug Administration
The article which has been picking up popularity on Weibo
claims that Chinese food products are being imported
to the US but inspections in both China and the US aren't keeping pace
which is a growing danger to American consumers
The post goes on to say that many of the imports are used by restaurants,
institutions as well as food processors
so as a result consumers do not see labels
and are not aware of the origins of the food that they eat
Now a lot of Chinese Weibo users found the post quite amusing
Nobody thought that Chinese food safety problems will have an effect on the
lives of Americans
half a world away and some even suggested that perhaps now
with Americans being affected, that the Chinese government would finally get off
their butts
and do something effective. Okay now let's take a look at some of their comments
Obviously Americans do not have the iron stomachs that we Chinese possess.
To a regular person, food is the most important thing in life.
How did we let the quality of our food slip to such a low level
that we're allowing companies to serve us poison? Unscrupulous businessmen
who sell us substandard quality foods should be sentenced to death!
A slap on the wrist is not enough. Do not worry America.
In China we give all the good foods to our leaders as special tribute. We the
average Chinese
eat all the poison sub-standard foods, but we always save the best to be exported to
our foreign friends.
Americans don't need to worry about the quality of imported food.
The quality of Chinese food export is higher than the quality of food consumed domestically.
The standard for food exports from China is very high.
In this age of globalization, each country should not only be concerned about its own affairs.
Cooperation is a key factor for every country in order to achieve a win-win
situation for all.
Well it looks like it's up to the American government to help tackle food
safety problems in China.
According to the Weibo article
Chinese imports dominate some food categories in the US
And in a testimony before a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in May
food safety expert Patty Levera noted that
China accounted for eighty percent of tilapia
a type of freshwater fish. 51 percent of cod
forty-nine percent of apple juice. 34 percent of processed mushrooms
27 percent of garlic and 16 percent
of frozen spinach consumed in the US in 2011. So chances are
you probably consumed some tainted Chinese food.
Now safety problems are of course not only a concern for the US
A German magazine also recently posted a list of rejected foods
imported into the EU from China during 2012 which included
insect infested potatoes, rabbit meat loaded with antibiotics,
oyster sauce with the staph bacteria, salmonella infected ginger,
pumpkin seeds with glass chips and arsenic in
frozen calamari. Now that doesn't sound very appetizing at all
and that's food good enough to export, so you can only imagine that local Chinese
have to put up with a lot more
and why food safety is such a big concern and a hot topic of discussion
on Chinese internet forums. And now let's take a look at a few more comments about
food safety
I wonder if Chinese people will evolve into a race of people that's immune to
various types of poisons.
That's a more optimistic outcome than to have history remember us
as a people who all died because we had nothing to eat but poison foods.
If China is exporting our poisonous foods to America, then I guess there is
no reason to go to America anymore.
If possible the American government and local US
institutions should do more. They are more advanced than relevant Chinese departments.
I think that some US policies and systems are more effective than our own.
It's undeniable that some Chinese departments don't fulfill their
responsibilities on
food security. The ironic thing is that their incomes come from taxpayer's money
but they haven't shown that they deserve that money at all.
Now it seems that all anyone cares about is to make as much money as possible in
as short amount of time as possible through any means possible
and then flee the country. What a country we live in now.
At least in previous dynasties, the worst loss of face we had to endure was losing wars.
Now we are losing face because the world sees us as an incompetent
greedy people that will eat poison to make money.
The food that sustains as as a people are seen by foreign countries as unfit for
human consumption.
What does that say about us? Are we subhuman?
An ongoing cooperative agreement between the US and China on tackling common food
safety problems should in theory
provide a platform through which effective action can take place.
However unsafe foods are still finding their way into American restaurants.
And it's possible that in the near future, American diners would have to post
a sign out that
certifies that they do not cook with Chinese imported ingredients
and I guess if things got bad enough, consumers can always write up a petition on
the White House website.