In
May 2013, an insecticide namely aldicarb (Brand name in Chinese:
Shennongdan) involved in a food scandal which happened in the rural areas of Weifang
City, Shandong Province. It has been confirmed that some farmers in the areas
had been overusing aldicarb, which is an illegal and highly toxic insecticide
to grow gingers, leading to public condemnation. The increasing number of food
safety scandals these years in China not only indicates the weakness of
pesticide supervision and management, but also reflects farmers' habit of
choosing pesticides: pursuit for low price, quick and high efficacy in China, according
to CCM’s latest
issue of Insecticides China
News.
As
a highly poisonous carbamate insecticide, just 50
milligrams of aldicarb is enough to kill a person weighing 50kg. According to
the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA),
aldicarb is only allowed to use on cotton, tobacco, peanuts, roses and sweet
potatoes under highly strict rules on application. However, on 4 May, 2013, an
investigative report by China Central Television (CCTV) revealed that farmers
in Weifang had been using 120-300kg/ha. aldicarb for growing gingers, nearly
three to six times above the safe level for targeted crops mentioned above.
This is entirely a threat to public health and infringement to the rules of the
ICAMA.
What's
more shocking is that ginger farmers actually did recognize aldicarb's
toxicity. One interviewee said that she was aware of the high toxicity
of the product and dared not to use it in fields where gingers are grown for
export and her family, her aldicarb-contaminated gingers were sold on the
domestic markets. Another respondent said he had been using aldicarb for more
than 20 years since it was first introduced to the market, as it has a stronger
control effect on insect pests and nematodes and a lower price than other
products.
There
are multiple reasons for the emergence of aldicarb-contaminated gingers and
other food safety scandals in China during the past years. Firstly, most
farmers choose and apply pesticides based on the price of pesticides and their
experiences. They used to purchase cheaper pesticides with quick effect but
high toxicity instead of eco-friendly products with low toxicity. While
spraying pesticides, they usually ignored the introductions on package,
undereducated and unaware that they should comply with the introductions.
Secondly,
the food safety scandals witness weak supervision on pesticide management and
food safety. As mentioned above, the farmers in Weifang had already used
aldicarb on gingers with a volume exceeding safe level for a long time, but
what is surprising is that the circulation and application of aldicarb have not
been inspected by authorities in these years; aldicarb-contaminated gingers
were not identified during food safety inspections until they were marketed
across China.
Besides,
the lack of legal and effective insecticides is another reason for the ginger
scandal. Like other minor crops in China, ginger doesn't draw enough attention
of agrochemical enterprises for R&D or registration of applicable
corresponding insecticides, as the economic return generated from investment in
pesticides on minor crops is reckoned to be less than that in major crops. According
to the ICAMA, there's only one valid registration of insecticide for ginger–98%
methyl bromide GA–in China as of 13 May, 2013. This is far from enough to
fulfill the demand of controlling ginger insect pests.
Along
with more and more food safety scandals exposed by media these years, Chinese
authorities would have to tighten its inspection on both pesticide management
and food safety and be more accountable to improve the overall supervision
mechanism in the future. Enhancing the ability and efficiency of law
enforcement is considered to be primarily imperative. Meanwhile, boosting the
development of eco-friendly pesticides and improving farmers' technological
knowledge of pesticide application are required in the long run. Furthermore,
it is advised that the government should strongly support the pesticide
registration for minor crops, such as providing financial subsidies, just like
Zhejiang Province did (please refer to Insecticide China News Volume 06 Issue
02 on Page Nine, Water bamboo receives pesticide registration subsidy in
Zhejiang Province).
Different
from China, some of other countries and regions in the world have washed out
aldicarb. In 2010, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Bayer
agreed to carry out an entire ban on aldicarb use in the US: all remaining
aldicarb uses will end no later than August 2018, as a new risk assessment
conducted by the EPA indicated that aldicarb no longer met food safety
standards. In 2012, both Brazil and Peru repealed the registrations of aldicarb
and started to forbid the product for sale.
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