6 ms·

I think I'd prefer for my food to come from that "backward" farming than the developed nation's industrial agriculture.

seanmcdirmid 13y ago
You know very little about agriculture in China I would guess. Short answer: no you don't. Long answer: we've had chicken, milk, pork, rice scares all in the last few months.
- grannyg00se 13y ago
  Okay maybe not that backward farming.
- Volpe 13y ago
  Citation? (preferably showing how widespread they are as well). (While I agree with your point, alarm bells go off when I read lists of 'events' with no references)
  - DanBC 13y ago
    I agree that references are nice. But then if someone is pushing an agenda it's easy for them to cherry pick the URLs they provide. So even if someone does provide references it's probably a good idea to use a search engine to check. Milk 2008: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7614083.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7614083.stm) Milk 2010: (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126255525849313997.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126255525849313997.html) Milk 2013: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22088977 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22088977) Glow in dark pork: (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8544851/China-goes-organic-after-years-of-glow-in-the-dark-pork-and-exploding-watermelons.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8544851...) Waste oil from gutters outside restaurants repackaged and sold for consumption: (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7971983/China-goes-organic-after-scandal-of-cooking-oil-from-sewers.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7971983...)
    - Volpe 13y ago
      None of those are "from the last few months". And all of them are (pro) western media (less reliable). In addition, it's seems non of them relate to China's intentional avoidance of modern technology in farming...
  - rrreese 13y ago
    Here's an article about contaminated rice: http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/cadmium-rice-is-chinas-latest-food-scandal/ http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/cadmium-rice-...
  - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
    Well, I'm living through it. We recently got chicken back in our work cafeteria after a couple of months without. Colleagues are still smuggling in milk powder from Hong Kong and other places abroad for their newborns, I think it's more illicit and expensive than cocaine now, but that might just be hyperbole. Rice is quite recent and the government is conducting nationwide soil tests. Pork is always problematic since those babies are basically general waste recycling machines, it's hard to figure out what the nongmin are feeding them. Not sure of anything specific though, eventually all these scares start blurring together and I just stop caring too much. Because agriculture is such a thankless job here, and gov regulation is weak, there is a lot of incentive for nongmin to cheat without much disincentive. And to be honest, the "industrialization farmed" or GMO food that many westerners are worried about....well, those are first world problems that we'd love to worry about instead.
barry-cotter 13y ago
Indeed, having so little economic productivity as to have a peasant class would give one someone to feel superior to, as an educated person. Their hovels are also wonderfully picturesque if one doesn't see that the building one thought derelict is actually inhabited by three families.

You know very little about agriculture in China I would guess. Short answer: no you don't. Long answer: we've had chicken, milk, pork, rice scares all in the last few months.

grannyg00se 13y ago
Okay maybe not that backward farming.
Volpe 13y ago
Citation? (preferably showing how widespread they are as well). (While I agree with your point, alarm bells go off when I read lists of 'events' with no references)
- DanBC 13y ago
  I agree that references are nice. But then if someone is pushing an agenda it's easy for them to cherry pick the URLs they provide. So even if someone does provide references it's probably a good idea to use a search engine to check. Milk 2008: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7614083.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7614083.stm) Milk 2010: (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126255525849313997.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126255525849313997.html) Milk 2013: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22088977 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22088977) Glow in dark pork: (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8544851/China-goes-organic-after-years-of-glow-in-the-dark-pork-and-exploding-watermelons.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8544851...) Waste oil from gutters outside restaurants repackaged and sold for consumption: (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7971983/China-goes-organic-after-scandal-of-cooking-oil-from-sewers.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7971983...)
  - Volpe 13y ago
    None of those are "from the last few months". And all of them are (pro) western media (less reliable). In addition, it's seems non of them relate to China's intentional avoidance of modern technology in farming...
- rrreese 13y ago
  Here's an article about contaminated rice: http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/cadmium-rice-is-chinas-latest-food-scandal/ http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/cadmium-rice-...
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  Well, I'm living through it. We recently got chicken back in our work cafeteria after a couple of months without. Colleagues are still smuggling in milk powder from Hong Kong and other places abroad for their newborns, I think it's more illicit and expensive than cocaine now, but that might just be hyperbole. Rice is quite recent and the government is conducting nationwide soil tests. Pork is always problematic since those babies are basically general waste recycling machines, it's hard to figure out what the nongmin are feeding them. Not sure of anything specific though, eventually all these scares start blurring together and I just stop caring too much. Because agriculture is such a thankless job here, and gov regulation is weak, there is a lot of incentive for nongmin to cheat without much disincentive. And to be honest, the "industrialization farmed" or GMO food that many westerners are worried about....well, those are first world problems that we'd love to worry about instead.

barry-cotter 13y ago

Indeed, having so little economic productivity as to have a peasant class would give one someone to feel superior to, as an educated person. Their hovels are also wonderfully picturesque if one doesn't see that the building one thought derelict is actually inhabited by three families.