Don't take chances when it comes to food safety
- Source: Globaltimes
- [02:15 March 01 2010]
- Comments
By Fang Yuan
China is facing a fresh food safety crisis. This time the cause is a vegetable commonly used by many, namely, cowpea.
From the end of January to the beginning of February, about 3.5 tons of cowpea from Hainan Province was found tainted with Isocarbophos, a highly poisonous pesticide, in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province. Soon other provinces, too, reported consignments of toxic cowpeas from Hainan.
Detailed reports show that many Hainan farmers didn't realize it is dangerous to use prohibited toxic pesticides. The farmers can be forgiven for acting out of ignorance, but when local agricultural officials' complain against Wuhan's reporting of the matter to the press, it is most unacceptable.
A report by cnr.cn says that local agricultural officials in Sanya, Hainan Province, "can hardly understand" the reasons that prompted Wuhan to reveal the issue to the press.
A local official went so far as to say that actually, some vegetables from other provinces were also found tainted with pesticides or other chemicals. But, the "hidden dealing rule" is to tell the concerned offices and let them control the source of tainted stuff. In this official's view, how Wuhan dealing with the matter doesn't benefit either the country or the people.
Hainan is bound to suffer a huge loss from the toxic cowpeas, and regions in Hainan producing toxic cowpeas have lost face and are facing a crisis. But for this reason Wuhan cannot be faulted for reporting it to the media.
The public has a right to know, and it's the government's duty to tell them what they need to know.
Actually, Wuhan has been slow on reporting this to the press. Wuhan has found and destroyed a large amount of tainted cowpeas from January 25 to February 5. Wuhan told Hainan to test their cowpeas on February 6 and, from that day, placed a three-month ban on cowpeas from Hainan. But until February 22 Wuhan did not notify the press what it had found and done.
