Chinese Milk in Turmoil

A new health safety scandal is rocking China, where 53,000 infants have been hospitalized after drinking tainted milk. First investigations are showing that the root of the turmoil can be traced to the Sanlu Group, which diluted its milk with melamine––a chemical used in plastics, adhesives or synthetic resins––to inflate protein contents. Adding this ingredient seems to have been common practice by suppliers of a least twenty manufacturers of dairy products and baby formulas to mislead quality controls.

Following the example of the European Union, countries around the world were quick to ban imports of Chinese dairy products and to remove them from store shelves. Certain nations are even considering strengthening sanitary regulations, at the risk of being accused of protectionism and incurring WTO’s anger.

This fateful episode, which has already caused the death of four infants, supports the need to regulate agriculture and global food products, all the more so when markets are liberalized. We at momagri have often underlined the perils that can be generated by liberalization: price hyper-volatility, speculation and production concentration in a few large farms throughout the world. Today, we can only imagine the additional risks the international community could face if these few global farms were to incur a major sanitary crisis.