Governance Logic and Basic Systems of the New “Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China”: a Focus on Social Co-Governance

To modernize food safety governance, we must carry out basic restructuring of its internal logic at the national level to reflect the features of contemporary Chinese society that shape food safety. This will entail establishing an overarching, macro-level conception of food safety that integrates “baseline safety”, “hub safety”, “co-constructed safety” and “endogenous safety”. These four dimensions of safety represent four fundamental requirements of food safety governance in modern Chinese society, which is a “risk society” (Beck 1992) and one that is also complex, open and pluralist. These requirements are: maximum legal liability, a unified, authoritative and efficient supervision system, a concept of social co-governance, and enterprises being the primary entities accountable for food safety. This article uses this analytical framework to interpret the basic contents of the newly revised Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China, and uses a focus on social co-governance to present the institutional highlights of this law and the transformation of the internal logic of food safety governance.     

粮食地理学视角下乡村本土农业的社会建构——元阳哈尼梯田稻作系统案例

选取元阳哈尼梯田稻作系统为研究对象,基于粮食地理学的农产品生产-消费网络理论,通过深度访谈等方法分析多元主体在本土农业生产消费领域中的策略及行为,解读其中的社会建构现象。研究发现:农业生产领域中多元参与特征显著,优质稻种的人为筛选、种养品种的多样化以及土地流转的推广均为政府、村民和外来企业为实现各自利益而共同协商达成的策略,不同行动者共同利用与改造着农业生产的各种要素;农产品消费领域中,政府和企业逐步承担了农产品商品化的后续工序,国有资本完成农产品的收购、加工与包装,外来商业资本负责建构商品品牌,满足目标消费者的市场需求是他们的共同目标。     

中国农产品贸易结构演化及对粮食安全的影响

利用可比净出口指数、贸易集中度指数、Hilbert曲线、时空多元模式可视化、岭回归等方法,对1992—2020年中国农产品贸易结构演化进行分析,并解释其与粮食安全的关系。结论认为：① 1992—2020年中国农产品贸易总体格局发生了转变,表现为对国际进口的依赖显著增强,猪肉、牛肉、玉米、高粱、油菜籽等众多农产品由出口转变为进口状态。快速增长的进口直接增加了国内食物的供应,提升了粮食安全水平。② 农产品进口呈现产品结构和空间结构双集中的叠加效应,这种效应使得重点农产品进口极易受美国、澳大利亚等少数国家贸易政策变化的不利影响;在出口方面,农产品集中度较小,随着与“一带一路”等地区国家贸易的发展,地理集中度也显著降低。较低的集中度有利于稳定出口的经济效益,保障出口部门农业生产的稳定性。③ 中国农业生产出现部分进口产品生产规模压缩的趋势,加上高度集中的进口结构,将使得国内农业生产与粮食安全保障在面对外部冲击时更加脆弱。建议在坚持贸易开放的同时,优化农产品的生产和贸易结构,引导形成合理的农业种植格局。     

The value of commodity biographies: integrating tribal farmers in India into a global organic agro-food network

The production of organic food has been regarded for a long time as being synonymous with ecological regional production systems. However, the increased production of organic food products has led to an ongoing industrialisation and also to a global spread of network structures within this segment of agriculture. This paper provides a case study of the integration of organic pepper farmers from an indigenous tribe in Kerala, India, into global agro-food networks, linking them to a German producer of organic meat products. The results of this study show that the importance of the territorial embeddedness and the abandonment of the exercise of power can be crucial for the success of global organic agro-food networks.     

Pesticide-related Food Safety Risks: Farmers’ Self-protective Behavior and Food Safety Social Co-governance

This article investigates the sources of vegetables consumed by farmers, their perception of pesticide-related food safety risks and the behaviors they engage in to protect themselves, and explores the implications for the social co-governance (shehui gongzhi) of food safety emphasized by China’s recent Food Safety Law. The research site is a county in Yunnan Province where vegetable growing is the major source of income and livelihood for local farmers. We surveyed 417 farmers and collected 776 vegetable samples from 377 surveyed farmer households and tested them for organophosphate and carbamate pesticide residues using PR-12N Rapid Detection Instrument for Pesticide Residues. The results showed that farmers know about the risks to food safety caused by pesticides used in vegetable growing and they purposely avoid these risks by mainly consuming vegetables planted in home gardens or private plots that use little or no pesticides. Vegetable samples from these private plots had the lowest positive rate of pesticide residues (6.10%), compared with vegetable samples from commercial farmland (13.73%) and markets (12.66%), and the difference was statistically significant (X²=9.69,0.005相似文献   

中国蔬菜生产的农业物质投入及其潜在风险评价（英文）

由于蔬菜需求量的增加,中国的蔬菜产量不断增加;然而蔬菜地的化学污染会威胁到中国的食品安全。基于蔬菜和粮食作物的播种面积和产量、农业生产投入价格指数、单位面积的农业物质投入、蔬菜和粮食作物生产者价格指数和净利润等数据,本文计算分析了蔬菜地污染造成的中国潜在食品安全风险的变化趋势。研究表明,由于改革开放以来对蔬菜饮食的公共需求的不断增加和蔬菜高的市场价格,蔬菜的播种面积和产量显著增加;然而由于研究时段内蔬菜种植比例的增加,农业物质投入增加所带来的潜在污染风险也在不断增加。通过控制蔬菜地污染,中国的食品安全问题可以得到较大改善。     

新疆三工河流域农业需水量预测与分析

依据新疆三工河流域的农业生产发展情况以及农业用水现状,综合考虑该流域土地资源状况和农业发展方向,结合国家西部大开发战略和相关的宏观经济调整政策,预测2005年、2010年和2020年流域三个水平年的农业需水量,分析了未来20年的农业需水态势.同时,结合该地区工业、生活、生态环境需水量的未来变化趋势,平衡分析了在满足未来农业需水条件下的社会-经济-生态复合系统水资源配置的合理性,并提出从农业灌溉中节水,尽量追求内涵式发展的农业模式,这才是谋求三工河流域社会-经济-生态复合系统可持续发展的有效之路.同时,这也为国家对该地区的国土开发、经济建设布局以及长远水资源利用问题进行宏观决策提供了参考依据.     

农业资源高效利用评价几个基本问题的探讨

围绕当前农业资源高效利用评价工作中需要先行搞清的一些理论和方法问题进行了议论。讨论了农业资源高效利用的评价标准,在概括农业资源高效利用评价目的,内容和基本方法的基础上,提出加快我国农业资源高效利用评价研究工作纵深化发展的具体建议。     

Big Data Resource Planning for Food Safety: a Preliminary Exploration of the “Environment,Food and Health” Information Chain

Environmental pollution, food safety and health are closely linked. A key challenge in addressing the problem of food safety and protecting public health is building an integrated knowledge base to inform policy and strengthen governance. This requires breaking down the trans-departmental information barrier across the environment, food and health domains to ensure the effective flow of data and the efficient utilization of resources, and facilitate the collaborative governance of food safety. Achieving this will be crucial for the development of health and medical care in China in the era of big data. Currently, the information resources commanded by various departments are incomplete and fragmented. Data resources are also organized in vertical silos and there is a lack of data sharing within and across policy streams. To provide the basis for more effective integrated collection and analysis of data in future, this study summarizes the information resources of various departments whose work relates to interactions between environment, food and health, and presents measures to strengthen top-down design, and establish unified data standards and a big data sharing platform. It also points to the need for increased training of data analysts with interdisciplinary expertise.     

Geographies of the Firm and Transnational Agro-food Corporations in East Asia

Agro-food transnational corporations (TNCs) are pivotal players in the emergent regulatory structures of the East Asian agro-food system, but there has been little explicit concern to account theoretically or empirically for their prevailing socio-spatial practices and strategies. This paper uses the case of Nestlé in South East Asia to make three claims. First, transnational corporate strategy is best understood as comprising an interaction of restructuring processes within the arenas of production, realisation (sales), and reproduction (corporate finance and investment). Second, the analysis of agro-food transnationals in Asia requires elevated attention to the local regulation of food systems. Third, in Nestlé's case at least, the articulation of global strategies with local arenas of production and markets encourages corporate finance to play a key role in the generation of profit. This is evidenced through the extensive use of intra-firm trade and royalty payments (or, related party transactions) by Nestlé in Thailand.     

Geographical Environment for the Safe Production of Food

Food is essential for human survival, but harmful, toxic substances in food damage and threaten human health. Food production is inseparable from the place where the food is produced; that is, from the geographical environment that consists of natural and human environments, two parts of a unified whole. China’s territory is vast and its geographical environment is complex and diverse. Food production patterns in different parts of the country vary significantly, as do local socio-economic and cultural conditions. Such differences have an enormous impact on food safety. Based on the geographical area where food is produced in China, this paper reveals the main environmental problems arising from industrial and agricultural production activities, and related risks for food safety and health. In concluding, we make some recommendations for countermeasures. The main food safety related environmental problems include the excessive application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides; high background levels of heavy metals; discharge of wastewater and heavy metals; and excessive use of additives and antibiotics in livestock and poultry breeding and aquatic products. All these issues can lead to huge risks for food safety and thus health. These are not simply scientific issues, but also political, economic and legal issues, as well as social problems that differ from region to region. Therefore, comprehensive studies are needed to identify risks to food safety and health hazards in different areas. Systematic and comprehensive risk assessments of health problems caused by changing ecosystems, environmental pollution, nutrition problems and lifestyle, and especially comprehensive risk assessments of regional environmental changes and health risks are needed. Measures based on an understanding of local conditions must be put forward to protect food safety and health, to strengthen multi-sectoral management, and to improve environmental quality     

Responding to common questions on the conservation of agricultural heritage systems in China

Although the urgency of their conservation has been recognized, Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) since 2002 and China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (China- NIAHS) certified by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) of China since 2012 are faced with questions as to why to conserve them, what is to be conserved, who should conserve them, and how? This paper attempts to clarify and respond to such questions focusing on the conservation of agricultural heritage systems in China based on a review of both theoretical and practical progress. Agricultural heritage systems exhibit a multitude of values for sustainable and equitable development and therefore should be conserved for both present and future generations. Unlike most conventional heritages, the conservation of agricultural heritage systems is a complex, systematic “engineering” in which both physical and biological components and associated socio-cultural processes should be conserved in a dynamic way. Farmers and heritage sites must benefit from the continuance of traditional agricultural production under the premise of ecological functions being sustained and traditional culture being inherited. For a more effective conservation, a multi- stakeholder process should be established involving governments at different levels, multi-disciplinary scientists, communities and farmers, and business enterprises as well as social organizations. As has been demonstrated, the conservation of agricultural heritage systems aims to promote the regional sustainable development, to improve the livelihood, food security and well-being of farm people, and to provide references for the development of modern agriculture in China.     

关于中国农业文化遗产保护若干问题的解答（英文）

Although the urgency of their conservation has been recognized, Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems(GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) since 2002 and China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems(ChinaNIAHS) certified by the Ministry of Agriculture(MOA) of China since 2012 are faced with questions as to why to conserve them, what is to be conserved, who should conserve them, and how? This paper attempts to clarify and respond to such questions focusing on the conservation of agricultural heritage systems in China based on a review of both theoretical and practical progress. Agricultural heritage systems exhibit a multitude of values for sustainable and equitable development and therefore should be conserved for both present and future generations. Unlike most conventional heritages, the conservation of agricultural heritage systems is a complex, systematic "engineering" in which both physical and biological components and associated socio-cultural processes should be conserved in a dynamic way. Farmers and heritage sites must benefit from the continuance of traditional agricultural production under the premise of ecological functions being sustained and traditional culture being inherited. For a more effective conservation, a multi- stakeholder process should be established involving governments at different levels, multi-disciplinary scientists, communities and farmers, and business enterprises as well as social organizations. As has been demonstrated, the conservation of agricultural heritage systems aims to promote the regional sustainable development, to improve the livelihood, food security and well-being of farm people, and to provide references for the development of modern agriculture in China.     

Agricultural Heritage Systems: A Bridge between Urban and Rural Development

In the early 1990s, China stepped into the stage of rapid urbanization with a flourishing economy and new technological development. Surplus labor from rural areas flooded into cities and became the main force of urban development. However some severe threats to human survival emerged from urbanization, such as over- extensive urban development, excessive resource consumption, ecological degradation, food security and safety risks and social crises. It has become an imperative to balance urban and rural development to achieve greater harmony between nature and society. This paper firstly tried to focus on public dietary change, agricultural industry development, institutional guarantee, ecological restoration, as well as cultural tourism in urban and peri-urban agricultural heritage sites. Then, it established a development model, balanced the urbanization and urban-supported agriculture. This paper proposed “Agricultural heritage systems” as an entry point for balancing the development of urban areas and rural areas. Agricultural heritage systems can inherit local traditional culture, keep the green and organic agriculture cultivation systems, exploit the distinct landscape tourism, and the like for diversified development; In addition, agricultural heritage systems can take full advantage of abundant funds, firm the institutional guarantee and advanced technologies from the nearby urban complex for regurgitation-feeding of rural enterprises. With the help of these strategies, we can achieve the harmony of “Ecological Urban” and “Garden Countryside”.     

The Total Diet Study: Changes in Food Safety Since the First TDS

This article discusses what we know about some of the main food safety risks in China. The focus is on role of the China Total Diet Study (TDS) as a tool for food safety risk assessment and the selection of priorities for monitoring. We compare the strengths and weaknesses of the TDS with those of two other major sources of information about food safety and nutrition: the National Food Safety Contamination Monitoring Network (FSCN) and the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), showing how the different methods they use produce different but complementary information. We then use an analysis of lead, cadmium and pesticide residues to demonstrate that, despite its shortcomings, the TDS provides the most reliable source of information about the actual dietary intake of harmful substances.     

中国保健食品的结构特征及其发展趋向

保健食品是具有与生物防御、生物节律调整、防止疾病、恢复健康等有关的功能因素,经设计加工,对生物体有明显调整功能的食品。我国保健食品始于1980年,20年来,随着国民经济的发展和科学技术水平的提高,保健食品的生产和消费也迅速发展。截止2002年底,全国保健食品生产企业848家,当年具有批准文号的产品共1 474种。本文对保健食品的功能、区域、产品原料、所有制、产品剂型、质量管理等方面进行了分析。分析表明:从产品功能看,主要集中于免疫调节功能、调节血脂、抗疲劳的产品,这3类产品共占全部保健食品市场的61.7%;从区域特征看,半数以上的企业仍集中在沿海地区;从保健食品原料分类看,以中草药原料为主,占44.5%;从所有制结构看,民营企业为主,已占全部保健食品企业的17.9%;从产品剂型结构看,胶囊剂(软/硬)是主打剂型,占56.4%;科技投入占当年产品销售收人的2.3%;全国仅有13.1%企业通过GMP和ISO体系认证。最后分别从中老年、中青年和青少年3个消费群提出了今后保健食品的发展方向。     

Understanding Agriculture Production and Food Security in Ethiopia from the Perspective of China

Food security and sustainable agricultural development are the hot issues of scientific research, especially after the population affected by hunger surprisingly increased in 2016. Long-lasting and recurrent famines caused by natural disasters and wars have afflicted Ethiopia. Unlike Ethiopia, which is still struggling to achieve food self-sufficiency, China managed to quickly become food self-sufficient at a rapid speed, despite the fact that it also faced the same challenges of famine over the last century. In the backdrop of differing environmental and socio-political challenges the two countries face, comparing the similarities and differences between the two countries will yield important lessons and insights for Ethiopia to follow to achieve food self-sufficiency. Here, the progress towards food security in Ethiopia and China is presented to quantitatively compare the gap of agricultural production between both countries. We found that food production in Ethiopia is heavily constrained by drought, soil degradation, climate change, out-dated agricultural production technologies, and poverty. According to these challenges, we examined corresponding responses in China to propose solutions for achieving food self-sufficiency in Ethiopia, given the realities of its unique national situation.     

《中华人民共和国国家农业地图集》的设计特点

《中华人民共和国国家农业地图集》是我国第一部大型综合性农业科学参考地图集。本文探讨了该地图集的设计原则。详述了地图集的设计特点:(1)以宏观农业系统思想为指导,精心选题设计;(2)全面综合地显示我国农业生产的特点和发展变化;(3)综合反映我国地学、农学、生物学的最新科研成果;(4)遥感制图、机助制图和传统制图的有机结合。     

全国综合农业区划的若干问题

1979年至1980年间,作者参加全国农业区划委员会组织的“全国综合农业区划编写组”,分工负责草拟全国综合农业区划分区方案和组织编写分区报告。现在,全国综合农业区划报告已经定稿出版^[3]。作者仅就工作过程中所接触到的全国综合农业区划的若干理论与方法问题,提出一些个人体会。     

Farmers’ Dual Roles in Food Safety:Perceptions and Countermeasures

Farmers are both the producers and consumers of food, and as such have a dual role in food safety: they both generate risks and are exposed to them. Based upon a survey of the food production and consumption habits of 140 farm households and long-term research in two villages in Yunnan province, this study found that rural families are highly dependent on the market for food production and consumption. In their role as consumers, farmers are aware of food safety risks and concerned about them, but their ability to protect themselves is limited. They do so primarily by avoiding certain products and growing as much of their own food as possible. At the same time, in their role as producers, farmers engage in practices, primarily the overuse and inappropriate use of fertilizer and pesticides, that are damaging to food safety and the environment. There is therefore a disconnect in their roles as consumers and producers that needs to be addressed if policy goals for improving food safety and reducing the use of agricultural chemicals are to be achieved. Farmers need more information about food safety risks related to the products they consume themselves, and technical guidance on the safe use of farm chemicals when growing food for market. However, such measures will not be effective unless the external pressures on farmers are also addressed, through consideration of market incentives to use farm chemicals and the impact of consumer demand.