Food safety issues must return to the origin of social justice

University of California, Los Angeles, China Research Center, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, East China Normal University Zijiang Professor of previously focused on Chinese rural society interpersonal relationships, private life and public space features and changes, representative works include " Gifts flow - a Chinese village in the principle of reciprocity and social networks ",

" Change of Private Life: A Chinese village of love, intimacy and family change (1949-1999) "(book won the 2005" Levine "Growing sense of social injustice makes many individuals feel that since the entire structure so cured, so unfair, if they want to take some unconventional, non-ethical manner, you can also legitimize this behavior, he would think, Anthropologist Yan Yunxiang began two years ago on China's food safety problems serious academic research. He found in the data collection, previous systems, serious academic research is not much, mostly medical, public health professionals on the pathological analysis of the causes, from the perspective of scientism food hygiene or regulatory issues.

Food safety issues faced in three different levels simultaneously, and each with a different exposure, but the key is generated by three different risk levels intertwined to form a mixed type of risk. Interview process, the core of the problem showing sharp and outspoken honest look.

He gestures humble, rustic "local flavor" with his youth had long "presence" in Heilongjiang Cape village under relevant, and this comes from the bottom of the spirit tempered, in fact, constitutes his observation and reflection on China's most rural and social change important resource.

Oriental Morning Post: Food industry seems to rarely cause sociologists and anthropologists concerned initially touches your motivation for doing this study is what? Yan Yunxiang: As a mass society of individuals, I have a food safety issues in daily life personal experience and feelings, but to do serious academic research, the most recent one or two years. I was doing a big research project, trying to portray Chinese society since the reform and opening up people's values ​​and ethical practices change; in the research process, I began to explore the issue of food security impact on people's moral behavior, as well as moral behavioral changes of a performance. With further research, I grabbed the two phenomena, one good thing is blackmail.

Can blackmail just helped you, and this is a very rare break moral bottom line behavior. I investigate the causes of the phenomenon, it relates to issues of social trust, because if people will even help you by your blackmail, then to trust strangers can imagine, any stranger could be a potential hazard. Through the attention of the social crisis of confidence, my research naturally extended to frequent food safety issues. It is actually a wider range of impact on social trust, a good thing to be falsely likened more general and more broadly affect the daily lives of each of us. From this starting point, I found things were not so simple, because the food safety problems have different levels. For example, the non-safe food issues - that is because the current food production, circulation and consumption of the three links in the modern characteristics of the potential insecurity - the risks posed by modernization itself is actually brought. Yan Yunxiang: 1982 was a watershed year China promulgated the "Food Sanitation Law", food poisoning has become the central government is very concerned about. 2003 was another line, the state established the National Food and Drug Administration, food safety issues was officially mentioned a very important agenda, beginning with government agencies to oversee the management of food production, consumption, security issues. In these two lines to handle collected material, I found that prior to 1982 cases of food poisoning related analyzes published in medical journals or public health, the vast majority of cases are related to health-related, is due to people's lack of knowledge of public health , food production, processing insufficient hygiene, microbiology nourish eventually cause food poisoning. Even a small amount of food caused by the pesticide poisoning cases, but also because farmers lack the basic knowledge of the use of pesticides, such as pesticides packaging to pack food, or because the canteen negligence, wrongly incorporated into the pesticide as a seasoning food, there is no Who is because the problem of pesticide residues and poisoning. After entering the 1980s, some of the cases of food poisoning was due mainly to buy food with additives, the added purpose is to change the shape of junk food, colors, shoddy. So from 80Mid, gradually a new development, food poisoning causes shifted from the original, or simply because of lack of health knowledge management oversight caused by germs or microorganisms cause poisoning, began to shift other causes food poisoning, and these new reason to seek more to do with commercial interests.

Then, the "food security" as a public topic in the last century began to enter the public view, it slowly emerged along with the "toxic foods" this word unique to China, and now is widely known toxic food, food safety is always talking about the. Yan Yunxiang: Not only is a gradual deterioration of the process, which is essentially two concepts actually represent two entirely different social phenomenon. Food poisoning is basically because of carelessness, lack of knowledge caused, no one is intentional; rather poisonous food is a food producer, or food distribution and marketing aspects of the transporter, custody, retailers, etc., they have a sense of to add the toxic chemical composition, additives to achieve the purpose of profit. Intentional or not, this is the most fundamental difference.

"Poisonous food" the word appears quite late, even though it is now a household name, specifically, is the "milk", "bread poison", "poisonous ham", "poison pork", "poison Seafood" etc. and so on.

Yan Yunxiang: depth toxic food phenomenon social reasons, the first question must be stressed that food safety is not only poisonous food production, circulation and consumption which is a phenomenon in itself, the contemporary Chinese food safety problems faced by the existence of three levels, namely the traditional From the sociological analysis of the cause of toxic food, there are several levels. The most superficial level of the most common is the interest-driven problem. Manufacturers, transporters, retailers in the food production, distribution and sales of all aspects, using a variety of ways to make a profit, including adding some toxic ingredients.

From government regulators concerned, this also with the entire food industry, non-formalized a relationship. Because China's food industry, from the production, circulation to the retail, family workshops accounted for a large proportion, while the family workshop first small business, profit is very thin, in order to chase profits, some people may resort to various means. While a large number of family workshops and makes the whole monitoring very difficult.

But this interpretation persuasive limited because many large companies also involved in the food safety scandals, such as 2008 years of Sanlu milk. Profit is the direct cause of poor businessman; But whether because of profit, people must break the moral bottom line? If there are other ways that they can make a profit if they feel should improve their economic status but also through their own hard work to obtain long-term, may not be such a phenomenon. Behind the profiteering may have more profound social reasons that this society is changing so fast that everyone this community for fear of being dropped. Because in this social upheaval behind the impetuous permeates the entire society is actually behind the utilitarian mentality insecure universal common mentality, the mentality of this lack of security led everyone to seek to find ways for their own multi-touch a sense of security, and security is the main way to reap the economic sense of security, that is, to make more money, which may explain why making a profit has become so necessary, so not hesitate to take any means. Another reason may be that many people are strongly felt social injustice. In the process of dramatic social change, the distribution of wealth appears more and more unfair, many people feel that they as individuals being squeezed out of the entire fair competition channel. Many domestic scholars have pointed out that since the mid-1990s, the basic structure of Chinese social stratification curing distribution of life chances trend has been formed, although a few individuals but also through a very remarkable effort to completely change their social status, in order to achieve social flows leap, but most people feel that this possibility is getting smaller and smaller. For example, in the early 1990s that everyone is full of hope, feel that jumped to the sea swim while, finally able to earn pours, think they have self-development opportunities. But now circulating in this society is the "fight father" sort of argument, and just at that time to form a contrast. Growing sense of social injustice makes many individuals feel that since the entire structure so cured, so unfair, if they want to take some unconventional, non-ethical manner, then this behavior can also be legalized.

Yan Yunxiang:

China's food safety problems can be divided into three levels, three levels of risk are not the same result. The first level is food hygiene problem that scientists committed to addressing the level of, or because of lack of knowledge, or because of poor conditions, or because science does not have the means, leading to food safety. It leads to a very traditional risk, it can manage and easy to cure. Throughout the contemporary production, circulation and consumption patterns in the background down the investigation, this traditional, conventional food hygiene issues also produced some important changes. First, our consumer demand has undergone great changes. In the world, driven by the wave of consumerism, we began to get used to the maximum extent possible, as quickly as possible to meet the various individual desires.

We hope to be able to eat all year round, the food we eat, and these foods is best, clean, and beautiful, and delicious, and easy processing; result leads to the following conditions: first-season planting, The second is to achieve long-distance transport to fully meet the market demand, you can eat all year round place to comparison of other exotic agricultural product or foodstuff, which resulted in the transport and preservation process to use a lot of preservation agent additive , the use of new, modern technology and chemical composition. When we taste more and more demanding, increasingly demanding convenient, tasty, beautiful, life will be filled with a lot of semi-finished products, convenience foods and fast foods. These foods are processed or semi-processed, out of thin air will increase the number of links; any link if not managed properly will produce food hygiene risks. Coupled with the difficult to monitor small family workshop in a large proportion of the entire food industry, it can be imagined that there is food hygiene vulnerability provides much space.

In our society a big step towards the process of modernity, the traditional food hygiene problems may be amplified several times, whether it is still produced in the form of causes, have undergone great changes.

The second level I would call it non-safe food, referring to because modern production, circulation and consumption patterns lead to a series of food safety problems or potential problems.

This level is closer to Western Europe, North America, talking about food safety issues, is a post-industrial society created by the risk. First, many modern production technology has greatly increased the output of agricultural products, such as genetically modified foods, but it leads to long-term consequences of what we do not know; such uncertainties include potential risks. Secondly, in modern society, consumers high-quality, high-calorie foods high demand, leading to livestock, eggs, meat products are increasingly adopting Western modern production methods, but also in the whole production process add a lot of uncertainty even with a high risk factor.

For example, the poultry industry has developed from the traditional backyard to large colonies. Since captive prone fowl plague, so the chicken into the cage after Aberdeen will continue to fight drugs, I visited the chicken factory basically once every seven days to fight drugs in the feed also add a lot of variety of antibiotics and growth agents, leading to the current chicken growing particularly fast. In fact, all this is in order to meet growing market demand, with the change in the way the consumer together.

Our entire diet has undergone great changes, for meat consumption has grown exponentially; previously before the New Year to eat meat, eat meat every day now. For example, in 2005 China's annual meat production is 78 million tons, nearly 29 global meat production