Food

Inflation, pollution and pork

The inflation rate in China this year rose higher than expected to 4.2 percent, the highest its been since 1996, mainly because of rising food prices, according to the Asian Development Bank.

One reason for the spike was the outbreak of blue ear pig disease that caused pork shortages, thus driving up the prices of pork. The virus wiped out pig communities in China and spread to swine in Vietnam and Burma, according to the Washington Post.

Though there’s no evidence that the virus poses a threat to humans, there are signs that diseased pigs already have entered the food supply either directly because farmers may be trying to pass off diseased pigs as healthy ones, or indirectly because they have been thrown into water used for fishing or for drinking.

The Chinese government says that it has brought the problem under control, but some experts are skeptical, remembering the secrecy and censorship surrounding the bird flu and SARS epidemics a few years ago.

While China’s central government has made numerous improvements since then in how it deals with infectious disease control and informs the public, it has once again been slow to share scientific data and tissue samples with other countries.

As a result, there is worry that while China is lagging, the virus is quickly turning into a global problem.

While China’s previous reluctance to share information may have been the legacy of years of secrecy, its reasons for withholding information this time may be about something else: business interests.

But neglecting your environment–i.e. not taking care of your sick pigs–comes with a cost that outweighs profits or other “business interests.” Inflation, which affects everyone in a consumer society, is one of the main effects.

Now China will have to work extra hard to get everything back to target.

The aim is to rein back the growing trade surplus and at the same time ease strains on the environment by reducing goods production that requires high inputs of energy and natural resources, and that causes high levels of pollution, said Zhuang Jian, senior economist of ADB’s China Resident Mission.

In addition, the key challenge for China is to reduce the country’s reliance on exports and investment for growth in favor of private consumption.

“Such a switch could lessen vulnerability to external shocks and ease environmental strains caused by the emphasis on export and investment-led heavy industry,” said Zhuang. (For full story from China View, click here.)

In other news, China’s leading meat and food processing company, Zhongpin, was honored with the 2007 “China Top Brand” award for its pork products, according to the PR Newswire on CNN Money. Let’s hope the company doesn’t get hit with a food scandal any time soon.

The “China Top Brand” award represents the “blue ribbon” approval granted by General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (AQSIQ) on behalf of Chinese Central Government. The selection criteria for the award include categories such as quality, market share, development capability and social responsibility.

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