Another adverse factor to food safety is environmental degradation. China achieved rapid economic development in the past three decades at the huge cost to the environment. As Zhao pointed out, some local authorities in China adopted a ‘pollute first, control later’ policy.16 The local authorities pursue the GDP figure, no matter how much cost it needs to
pay. Large number of ‘cancer villages’ have emerged because China’s energy excessively depends on coal.17 In 2007, China became the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide,
overtaking the United States.18 Outdoor pollution has led to approximately 300,000 and
400,000 premature deaths every year in China.19 Sitaraman claims that air pollution alone
has cost $25 billion in health and loss of productivity costs.20 In Shaanxi Province, more
than 600 children, who lived near a metal smelter house, were found to have high levels of heavy metals in their blood and over one hundred children needed hospitalisation.21
In addition, China’s water system also has a severe pollution problem. A joint study conducted by the United Nations Development and Environment Program (UNDP) and the
16 Zhao, Yuhong, ‘Trade and Environment: Challenges After China’s WTO Accession, 32 COLUM.J.ENVTL.L.41, 48-49 (2007)
17 Cheng, Yu, ‘Cancer Villages Emerged Along Coastal Regions’, Nanfang Dushi Bao, Nov. 5, 2007, available at http://news.163.com/07/1105/16/3SI4DUL600011SM9.html.
18 Rosenthal, Elisabeth, ‘China Increases Lead as Biggest Carbon Dioxide Emitter’, N.Y. TIMES, June 14, 2008, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/world/asia/14china.html.
19 Kristof, Nicholas D., Op-Ed., Where Breathing is Deadly, N.Y. TIMES, May 25, 2008, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/opinion/25kristof.html.
20 Sitaraman, Srini, ‘Regulating the Belching Dragon: Rule of Law, Politics of Enforcement, and Pollution Prevention in Post-Mao Industrial China’, 18 COLO. J. INT’L ENVTL. L. & POL’Y 267, 335 (2007),p277
21 Protesters Storm Plant After Children Are Poisoned, Aug. 17, 2009, available at http://www.france24.com/en/20090817-protesters-storm-plant-after-children-arepoisoned-china-lead-school-dongling-sh aanxi.
Chinese government showed that ‘only five per cent of household sewage and seventeen per cent of industrial waste are properly treated prior to discharge.’22 Other industrial
waste and sewage are discharged directly into rivers, lakes and sea.23 One report of the
Chinese Environmental Science Academy showed that 80 per cent of 200 lakes, which it surveyed, are no longer suitable for drinking due to the industrial pollution.24
The water pollution contaminating the seafood adversely affected the international exports. Fish and shellfish are the largest and fastest growing category of foods exported from China to the USA.25 China is the third largest exporter of seafood into the USA,26 and
contributes approximately 21 per cent of the total imported seafood into the United States.27 However, FDA reports that its tests of fish and shrimp during October 2006 to
May 2007 found excessive drug residues in 22 of 89 samples of fish and shrimp from China, a rejection rate of 25 per cent.28 The report in Food and Water Watch claims that
the condition for aquaculture sea food in China is deplorable, as ‘[P]roducers tightly cram thousands of finfish and shellfish into their facilities to maximise production. This generates large amounts of waste, contaminates the water, and spreads disease, which can
22 Sitaraman, Srini, ‘Regulating the Belching Dragon: Rule of Law, Politics of Enforcement, and Pollution Prevention in Post-Mao Industrial China’, 18 COLO. J. INT’L ENVTL. L. & POL’Y 267, 335 (2007),p280
23 Food & Water Watch, Import Alert: Government Fails Consumers, Falls Short on Seafood Inspections (2007), available at http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/ImportAlertJuly2007-1.pdf, P5
24 Li, Jing, ‘Eutrophication Threatens Ecological Condition of Lakes in China’, CHINA DAILY, March, 31, 2009, available at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/zgzx/2009-03/31/content_7635373.htm.
25 Gale, Fred and Buzby, Jean C., ‘ Imports from China and Food Safety Issues’, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Information Bulletin Number 52, July 2009, P6
26 U.S. Food and Drug Admin. (FDA), Import Alert No. 16-131, FDA Import Alerts (2010), available at http:/www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_33.html.
27 Food & Water Watch,’ Import Alert: Government Fails Consumers, Falls Short on Seafood Inspections’ (2007), available at http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/ImportAlertJuly2007-1.pdf, P2
28 U.S. Food and Drug Administration, ‘Detention Without Physical Examination of Aquacultured Catfish, Basa, Shrimp, Dace, and Eel Products form the People’s Republic of China Due to the Presence of New Drugs and/or Unsafe Food Additives,’ Import Alert 16-131, 8thAugust, 2007a, available at http://www.FDA.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia16131.html.
kill off entire crops of fish if left untreated. Even if a disease does not kill off all the fish in an aquaculture facility, remaining bacteria, such as Vibrio, Listeria, or Salmonella, can sicken people who eat the fish.’29
Not only in the case of aquaculture sea food, but also in the case of vegetable and protein products there is environmental degradation or taint. In FDA’s 2007 report, 44 per cent of wheat gluten samples and 32 per cent of rice protein concentrate samples from China tested positive for melamine.30
The environmental pollution and environmental degradation threaten the China’s food safety from the bottom of the food supply chain. As Liu points out, China’s serious environmental problems make ensuring the safety of the food supply from polluted farms extremely difficult.31 However, the details of the environmental challenge to food safety
will be discussed in the Chapter 5.