The furious reaction of the market and consumers has dealt a heavy blow to those who are dishonest or even violate the law in food production.

This is in China, reports Global Times.

Without well-educated citizens or ethical strength, China "can't be a respectable economy or a power in the real sense," Premier Wen Jiabao warned last week, making him the highest official to have made such blunt remarks toward food scandals. Food safety has been raised to the level of national strategy.

One effective way to mobilize consumer enthusiasm is to give more media coverage to the disclosure of fake food producers.

Food scandals have become a public enemy that demands public involvement to eradicate the problem.

Some shoppers told Xinhua News Agency they prefer shopping at big supermarkets, where they believe food safety standards are higher.

Another Beijing shopper said, “I often buy food and other products that are popular and have a good reputation."
 

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In the early part of the 2000s, media outlets seemed to be co-opted by the fantastical claims of the organic food sector. Organic was portrayed as safer, healthier and better for the environment.

There wasn’t a lot of data.

There was a lot of food porn.

I had a student review and code 618 newspaper stories – it seems so quaint now, there were newspapers back then -- reporting on or referencing organic food and organic agriculture from five North American media outlets from 1999-2004.

The paper was published in the British Food Journal yesterday.

Stacey found that of the 618 stories, 41.1 per cent were coded as being neutral, 36.9 per cent positive, 15.5 per cent mixed and 6.1 per cent negative.

From the discussion:

“It was determined that organic agriculture was often portrayed in the media as an alternative to allegedly unsafe and environmentally damaging modern agriculture practices -- organic was defined by what it isn’t, rather than what it is. The National Post, for instance, published an article in 2002 about a report by Environmental Defence Canada, which had interpreted food safety data from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and found that many products such as maple syrup and eggs did not meet safety standards. The article stated that, “to avoid health problems, Mary McGrath, the group’s director of research, suggested consumers consider purchasing organic or ecologically grown produce” (Sokoloff, 2002). Such unsubstantiated comments have become endemic in media coverage of all things organic.

“The stories examined in this analysis frequently suggested organic production was void of many of the challenges faced by large-scale, modern agriculture, including pesticide residue, mad cow disease and genetic engineering.

Of the themes health, safety and environment, food safety was the least important in the discussion of organic agriculture in the media. … The finding that 50 per cent of food safety-themed statements in news articles were positive with respect to organic agriculture, while 81 per cent of health-themed statements and 90 per cent of environment-themed statements were positive towards organic food, indicates an uncritical press. USDA has repeatedly stated that the organic standard is a verification of production methods and not a food safety claim: ‘National standards for organic food will be released soon, and they will make clear that such products aren’t safer or more nutritious than conventional products, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman says’ (Brasher, 2000).”

The abstract is below.

Coverage of organic agriculture in North American newspapers: Media: linking food safety, the environment, human health and organic agriculture19.jul.10British Food Journal, Vol. 112 Iss: 7, pp.710 – 722
Stacey Cahill, Katija Morley, Douglas A. Powell
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1871116&show=abstract
Abstract
Purpose – The project explored the ways in which the topics of organic food and agriculture are discussed in representative North American media outlets in reference to food safety, environmental concerns, and human health.
Design/methodology/approach – Articles from five newspapers were collected and coded using the content analysis technique and analyzed for topic, tone, and theme.
Findings – For a six-year time period, 618 articles on organic food and organic agriculture are analyzed and the prominent topics are found to be genetic engineering, pesticides, and organic farming. Articles with a neutral tone with respect to organic agriculture and food accounted for 41.4 percent of the articles, while positively toned articles garnered 36.9 percent. The themes human health, food safety, and environmental concerns were discussed with positive reference to organic food and agriculture in 81, 50, and 90 percent, respectively, of comments pulled from the articles.
Practical implications – Analysis of these articles over time, between media outlets and by topic allows for understanding of media reporting on the subject and provides insight into the way the public is influenced by news coverage of organic food and agriculture.
Originality/value – Research that analyzes media coverage for how it portrays the topic of organic food and organic agriculture with respect to health, food safety, and environmental concern, and concludes that articles about organic production in the selected time period are seldom negative.

 

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Amy and I are back in Manhattan. We missed a hailstorm, the first tornado in 42 years, but we didn't miss Salmonella in tomatoes.

We left Quebec City at 9 a.m. last Friday. National Public Radio Science Friday wanted me as a guest, and so did CNN. By 3:30 pm, we were in nowhere southwestern Ontario and I had to call the NPR studio -- and they insisted on a landline.

So, after several pay phones didn't work out, we found a lakeside motel. I hastily pleaded with the innkeeper for her phone. She said, "What's it worth to you?"

I gave her $20.

That's me doing my live interview on NPR (above, not exactly as shown; left, exactly as shown).

A couple of hours later we arrived at a TV studio in Toronto for a CNN interview. They said I was too late for Friday's show, but they wanted the footage anyway and maybe they'd use it Monday.

They didn't.

I've done dozens of radio interviews, and find myself defending public health types -- why is it taking so long to find the source of Salmonella in tomatoes? What tomatoes should be avoided? I explain, but even through radio, can sense the listeners eyes glazing over. Public health has always been a largely thankless job  -- whether local, state or federal.

So a big thank you to Elizabeth Weise of USA Today, whose story in this morning's paper is an outstanding exposé of how the Salmonella in tomato case was cracked. It has become required reading in any of my courses.

To all the armchair quarterbacks that fill talk radio and Internet blogs, stop bitching and start producing. And move out of your parents' basement.

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