How to eat healthily? Committee member proposes large-scale promotion of “organic food”文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
“Cantonese people know how to eat, but how to eat safely, healthily and with better flavour—future market demand will require the provision of more organic food.” Yesterday, addressing the issue of food safety on the dining table, [delegate name] who travelled to Beijing to attendNational People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative ConferenceProfessor Liu Xin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, and Dean of the Institute of Food and Health Engineering at Sun Yat-sen University, believes that the large-scale promotion of “organic food” is entirely feasible from a technical standpoint, and “organic food”, once criticised for its high cost, is expected to find its way onto the dining tables of ordinary households.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
“The supply of organic food is not small,” Liu Xin said. Just like the demand for milk powder, once market demand expands and large-scale cultivation supplies the market, the cost will come down. “Large-scale cultivation of organic food is technically feasible,” Liu Xin said. The country already has many organic and green food cultivation bases. “The key issue is that some consumers do not believe whether it really is organic food,” so they are calling for further transparency in national supervision and monitoring.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
Does Guangdong have enough safe land available for organic food production? Yes, it does. Liu Xin explained that, according to surveys, many areas in Guangdong with good headwater sources can provide abundant resources for organic food. For example, in some peri-urban areas of Guangdong, such as Heyuan, Longmen, and regions bordering Jiangxi, large-scale cultivation is possible. “The problem now is that once crops are grown, they cannot be sold; once organic pigs are raised, they cannot be sold.” Because they cannot be sold and the market is poor, costs have also increased.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
“There are only one or two stalls selling organic vegetables in wet markets,” Liu Xin said regarding the issue of organic food supply. Because this supply chain is relatively long, she noted, if market demand is limited, the smaller the scale, the higher the costs.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
Does the reduction in organic food prices rely on large-scale production, and will this large-scale production lead to the alienation of organic food? “No!” said Liu Xin. The state must monitor from the source, including strengthening testing across the entire chain. In addition, Liu Xin suggested raising the threshold for monitoring: “Some food that we call safe has issues when tested abroad.” Liu Xin said he hopes Guangdong will also be a pioneer in food, making people feel that Guangdong's food is the most delicious, the healthiest, and the most trustworthy.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
On gutter oil:文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
The vast majority can be converted into biodiesel文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
Regarding last year's widely discussed gutter oil scandal, Liu Xin pointed out that gutter oil must absolutely not be eaten, but it can be recycled and converted into biodiesel, with “very substantial profits”.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
Liu Xin stated that we need to find an outlet for gutter oil; technically speaking, the vast majority of gutter oil can be converted into biodiesel and used directly as an energy source.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
On food safety regulation:文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
Step up the crackdown on dishonest merchants文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
Why are food safety issues tackled and managed every day, yet incidents such as toxic yard-long beans and leather milk still repeatedly occur despite being banned? Liu Xin believes that currently in China, due to the long chain and wide scope of food production and distribution, there are still vacuum zones, blind spots, and blind areas in food safety supervision in many places.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
Liu Xin told of an example he had witnessed himself: when he went to inspect a large market, although there was modern testing equipment worth hundreds of thousands or even a million, it was basically just left sitting there as a mere formality.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
“The crackdown will be even stronger this year.” Recently, the amendment to the Criminal Law increased the punishment and crackdown on food safety crimes, with a maximum sentence of the death penalty. Liu Xin believes this is entirely necessary. “Only by stepping up the crackdown on illegal businesses can the arrogant momentum of manufacturing and selling toxic and harmful food be effectively curbed.”文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/
He also suggested tackling the issue at the production source, moving away from the practice of focusing solely on the evaluation of end products, and shifting from the regulation of only key links in the food chain to strengthening the regulation of the entire food chain process.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11290/