Frequently
exposed by media and environmental protection organizations in recent years,
food safety cases caused by pesticides have drawn the public's attention across
China. These cases have caused much disappointment, not only significantly
impacting the competitiveness of Chinese crops, but also threatening consumer
health and reducing the public's trust in food safety levels.
Thus,
it is necessary to analyze and address food safety cases regarding pesticides
urgently. Here are four aspects for summarizing the reasons for these food
scandals, including the consumption situation of pesticides, pesticide users
(farmers), pesticide producers and dealers (enterprises) and pesticide
management (policies).
Increasing domestic
pesticide consumption volume
According
to the report concerning pesticide residues of Chinese herbs conducted by
Greenpeace, the domestic total pesticide consumption volume has been increasing
since 1995 in general, except a slight decline from 2000 to 2001. In 1995,
China's annual consumption of pesticides reached about 1.09 million tonnes.
After the development of agricultural planting for 16 years, it is 1.79 million
tonnes at present, increasing by 64.40% compared with that in 1995.
Particularly from 2002 to 2011, the pesticide consumption volume was climbing
by about 3% every year. Although the data in 2012 has not been issued yet, it
is believed that it also enjoyed about a 3% year-on-year growth rate.
In
contrast, the Chinese planting area has been decreasing generally since the
mid-1990s. According to Chen Xiwen, a member of Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the Chinese planting area declined from 130.07
million ha. in 1996 to 121.73 million ha. in 2008. Then, for the following five
years, the area maintained the level above 120 million ha. (1.8 billion mu, the
warning line of planting area set by the China authority).
In
conclusion, since the pesticide consumption volume has keeping increased and the
planting area has been scaling down over the past few years, the average of
pesticide consumption volume per ha. doubled in 2011, compared with that in the
mid-1990s. Therefore, overall pesticide pollution and crop's pesticide residues
in China are likely to be inevitably more severe.
Low utilization rate
of pesticide application in China
Of
nearly two million tonnes of pesticide used for plant protection in China every
year, the effective utilization rate is only about 30%, meaning that the rest
ends up as hazardous pollution and discharges into water, soil and the
atmosphere, which not only does harm to the environment, but also intensifies
the severe condition of pesticide residues on crops, whereas, in the past and
at present, most domestic pesticide manufactories and farmers still focus on
pesticide's input volume too much, but have ignored how to improve the
effective utilization rate of pesticides.
Product structure of
domestic pesticides on minor crops adjusted slowly
On
one hand, most food safety cases involving pesticides have shown serious problems
regarding pesticide residues of highly toxic products, which indicate that the
application of highly toxic products is still popular in China. On the other
hand, product structure optimization of domestic pesticides is developing fast,
along with many new eco-friendly products introduced mainly by multi-national
agrochemical enterprises in these years, whereas most of these products have
been introduced intensively for several major crops namely rice, corn, wheat
and vegetables.
In
contrast, many minor crops including ginger, Chinese herbs, etc. lack new
eco-friendly pesticides for protection, and even there are no legally
registered pesticides for some minor crops. Therefore, traditional, highly
toxic pesticides are applied on minor crops without appropriate instructions,
which leads to the nationwide existence of pesticide residues of highly
hazardous pesticides.
National citizens are
paying more attention to the safety and quality of foods.
The
overall level of citizens' living quality has gradually heightened along with
China's economic development during these decades, although the extreme
disparity between the rich and the poor has also been triggered. The Chinese,
especially people in big cities, are more concerned with their health instead of
simple subsistence only, and in this case, food possessing safety and high
quality are required in domestic agricultural production. But as a matter of
fact, citizens are much dissatisfied with chemical-intensive agriculture in
China because there have been increasing food safety scandals exposed by the
media attracting the public's attention and condemnation.
In
consideration of the above, a healthy and eco-friendly development method is in
great demand by Chinese agriculture.
Food
safety scandal involving aldicarb
Increasing
food safety scandals involving pesticides in China
Summary
of domestic pesticide consumption in recent years
Small
farmers applying pesticides improperly
Pesticide
operators offer hazardous products to farmers
Inefficient
supervision and gaps drive food safety issues
Resolution
of pesticide safety problems and relevant policy dynamics
Restriction
management of highly toxic pesticides in China
Media
and NGOs should play a positive role to boost pesticide management
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