Uploaded May 2013 | Updated September 2026, 12 hours ago
Food safety in China has long been a concern. On Thursday, a US Congressional subcommittee looked into the threat of consumables imported from China.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher opened the hearing with some shocking statistics.
[Dana Rohrabacher, Subcommittee Chairman]:
"Astonishingly the US Food and Drug Administration inspects less than 2% of the food imports form China."
And this lack of oversight has resulted in product recalls.
[Bill Keating, Subcommittee Member]:
"From tires to toothpaste to toys Chinese imports account for more than 50% of the recalls announced by the Consumer product Safety Commission."
In the case of organic food, a watchdog found in 2009 that almost half of all organic soybeans to the US come from China and other countries. In China, they're graded into "A-Beans" and "B-Beans", and in most cases, brokers can only vouch for the "A-beans".
[Mark Alan Kastel, Codirector, The Cornucopia Institute]:
"And the B-beans? Well, the brokers have a piece of paper, a certification document, that says they're organic. And they're cheaper. Most commonly, we found the ones that got purchased were the B beans."
Because of China's poor environmental standards Chinese produce is often cheaper, thus undercutting US farmers.
[Mark Alan Kastel, Codirector, The Cornucopia Institute]:
"Organics continue to grow even in this tight economy. But for the first time we are seeing a net loss in the number of organic farmers in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states and we're losing thousands of acres of farmland. We can't compete with the Chinese without a level playing field in terms of aggressive certification and enforcement of organic law."
At the hearing, many expressed concern over the fact that Chinese people themselves don't trust their own food supply.
[William Triplett, Former Chief Rep. Counsel, Committee on Foreign Relations]:
"One of the things we've known for a long time is the Chinese cadres had their own farms, they don't trust the own food and so forth and so on. That's number one. Number two, the farmers themselves don't trust their own food they won't eat what they produce so they ship it to another province."
Committee members noted the bipartisan support for investigating this issue and plan to hold another hearing later this year.
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Food safety in China has long been a concern. On Thursday, a US Congressional subcommittee looked into the threat of consumables imported from China.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher opened the hearing with some shocking statistics.
[Dana Rohrabacher, Subcommittee Chairman]:
"Astonishingly the US Food and Drug Administration inspects less than 2% of the food imports form China."
And this lack of oversight has resulted in product recalls.
[Bill Keating, Subcommittee Member]:
"From tires to toothpaste to toys Chinese imports account for more than 50% of the recalls announced by the Consumer product Safety Commission."
In the case of organic food, a watchdog found in 2009 that almost half of all organic soybeans to the US come from China and other countries. In China, they're graded into "A-Beans" and "B-Beans", and in most cases, brokers can only vouch for the "A-beans".
[Mark Alan Kastel, Codirector, The Cornucopia Institute]:
"And the B-beans? Well, the brokers have a piece of paper, a certification document, that says they're organic. And they're cheaper. Most commonly, we found the ones that got purchased were the B beans."
Because of China's poor environmental standards Chinese produce is often cheaper, thus undercutting US farmers.
[Mark Alan Kastel, Codirector, The Cornucopia Institute]:
"Organics continue to grow even in this tight economy. But for the first time we are seeing a net loss in the number of organic farmers in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states and we're losing thousands of acres of farmland. We can't compete with the Chinese without a level playing field in terms of aggressive certification and enforcement of organic law."
At the hearing, many expressed concern over the fact that Chinese people themselves don't trust their own food supply.
[William Triplett, Former Chief Rep. Counsel, Committee on Foreign Relations]:
"One of the things we've known for a long time is the Chinese cadres had their own farms, they don't trust the own food and so forth and so on. That's number one. Number two, the farmers themselves don't trust their own food they won't eat what they produce so they ship it to another province."
Committee members noted the bipartisan support for investigating this issue and plan to hold another hearing later this year.
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