Food Policy
Food Policies in China and America
Our presentation focuses on the difference in food policies forwarded by the American and Chinese governments as well as the effect of income disparities on food purchasing among the two nations.
China’s poor population does not have the resources to pay for quality food, so they are forced to purchase inexpensive, low quality items. Some people, however, cannot afford to buy any food. The number of people living on less than $2 a day is approximately 468 million, or 36% of the population in China, according to 2009 estimates. While some do starve, others create soup out of water, hot pepper powder, stones, and sticks.
Without a choice to spend the money needed for safe and healthy foods, poor people who have the resources to purchase any food must go to stores and restaurants that use undesirable ingredients. One of these such ingredients is known as “gutter oil.” Gutter oil is a term in China used to describe illicit cooking oil which has been recycled from waste oil collected from sources such as restaurant fryers, sewer drains, grease traps, and slaughterhouse waste. This oil, that is often produced in rural areas, is exposed to dirty holding containers and prolonged sunlight. It is thus no surprise that gutter oil is shown to be very toxic and can cause diarrhea and abdominal pain. There are also reports that long-term consumption of the oil can lead to stomach and liver cancer as well as developmental disabilities in newborns and children. Testing of some samples of gutter oil has revealed traces of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), a dangerous organic pollutant capable of causing cancer with long-term consumption. Poor quality restaurants do not have the meat standards of higher quality restaurants, nor are they regulated by the government. As such, higher quality beef is frequently mixed with lower quality meat like mice and rats. It is relatively easy to hide this disguised meat when the meat is cut into small
Our presentation focuses on the difference in food policies forwarded by the American and Chinese governments as well as the effect of income disparities on food purchasing among the two nations.
China’s poor population does not have the resources to pay for quality food, so they are forced to purchase inexpensive, low quality items. Some people, however, cannot afford to buy any food. The number of people living on less than $2 a day is approximately 468 million, or 36% of the population in China, according to 2009 estimates. While some do starve, others create soup out of water, hot pepper powder, stones, and sticks.
Without a choice to spend the money needed for safe and healthy foods, poor people who have the resources to purchase any food must go to stores and restaurants that use undesirable ingredients. One of these such ingredients is known as “gutter oil.” Gutter oil is a term in China used to describe illicit cooking oil which has been recycled from waste oil collected from sources such as restaurant fryers, sewer drains, grease traps, and slaughterhouse waste. This oil, that is often produced in rural areas, is exposed to dirty holding containers and prolonged sunlight. It is thus no surprise that gutter oil is shown to be very toxic and can cause diarrhea and abdominal pain. There are also reports that long-term consumption of the oil can lead to stomach and liver cancer as well as developmental disabilities in newborns and children. Testing of some samples of gutter oil has revealed traces of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), a dangerous organic pollutant capable of causing cancer with long-term consumption. Poor quality restaurants do not have the meat standards of higher quality restaurants, nor are they regulated by the government. As such, higher quality beef is frequently mixed with lower quality meat like mice and rats. It is relatively easy to hide this disguised meat when the meat is cut into small