Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

China has launched a 9-month crackdown on illegal pesticides and veterinary drugs after news media exposed illegal production, distribution and use of the substances. The crackdown conducted by seven government departments is being launched this month (July 2026) and will continue through the end of March 2027, according to an official news release . The campaign includes the agriculture ministry, law enforcement and prosecutorial organizations, market regulators, and the quasi-government Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives.  This is the latest of many campaigns in China to address pesticide and veterinary drug residues as food safety problems going back three decades.  Shanghai-based The Paper 's announcement of the latest crackdown was careful to depict illegal drugs and underground workshops as isolated incidents and problems that need to be rooted out before causing bigger problems. The crackdown appears to have been triggered by a May 28 Chinese news media re...

Huawei and ChemChina are key players in building an agricultural industry based on technological innovation, according to China's agriculture minister. In November, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs website featured visits by Minister Han Changfu to Beijing research centers operated by the two companies to tout China's hope for technology to overcome challenges such as pest pressures, increasingly scarce and unreliable workers, and chaotic supply chains. Han Changfu visits Syngenta research center. Photo: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Minister Han first visited a plant-breeding lab and greenhouse at a Beijing research center operated by Syngenta, the Swiss seed and agrochemical giant acquired by the State-owned China National Chemical Corporation, aka ChemChina in 2016--China's biggest-ever overseas acquisition. According to the article, Syngenta's resources have been integrated into Chinese agriculture since it was acquired by ChemChi...

This month, China's Minister of Agriculture promised to eliminate toxic pesticide residues from food, a problem that was has spiraled out of control even though China's leadership recognized it as a problem in the 1980s. At a press conference held in conjunction with the National Peoples Congress , Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu was asked what officials are doing to address the Chinese public's concerns about residues of pesticides and veterinary drugs in food. Minister Han noted that the issue of pesticide residues in food comes up at these press conferences each year. He emphasized that China is moving in the right direction but he acknowledged that toxic residues in food remain a prominent problem. Minister Han said that 39 highly toxic pesticides had been banned in the last few years, and 12 had been restricted to nonfood crops. There are plans to ban three more toxic pesticides. He claimed the proportion of highly tox...

China is afraid of genetically modified crops because they might possibly somehow harm consumers someday. Vice Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun brags that China's restrictions on GMO-labeling are more strict than in other countries. Unlike other countries that permit 1%, 5%, or 10% GM-content without labeling, China requires foods to be labeled if there is any GM content whatsoever, even .00001%. Chinese people must be notified if they are eating a single modified gene because it might be dangerous. Last month, Vice Minister Niu snuck in a jab  in a news media interview , complaining that the United States had not given China enough information about a mysterious field of genetically modified wheat found in Oregon. All of China's wheat is non-GMO, so it's safe and environmentally benign, right? Let's look at how China grows its non-GMO wheat. Since 2012, China's main strategy for boosting wheat production has been to mobilize armies of farmers, tractors, air...

On July 2, 2013, China's Ministry of Agriculture issued an emergency notice to step up efforts to control the spread of army worms , a caterpillar that affects corn and other crops. A Jilin Province corn field in September 2012 where army worms  stripped lower leaves off the stalks. The corn cobs are left intact. Army worms appear during the hot summer months of July and August and strip the leaves off corn stalks.  In 2012, an unusually  large infestation  attacked large areas of China's corn crop. The 2013 emergency notice warned that many areas of northeast and north China and the Huang-Huai region have a high risk of infestation by second- and third-generation army worms. The notice warned that army worms tend to migrate as a group and an infestation can develop rapidly. Local officials were told to watch migratory patterns and to be on the lookout for hidden or unexpected army worm risks. Officials were urged to do a good job on weekly reporting of pes...

An article that appeared in the Chongqing Evening News last September reports the story of Mr. Chen who found a bottle of toxic pesticide mixed in with his rice. The story provides an example of the combination of ignorance, minimal regulation, and callous disregard for other peoples' welfare that creates China's severe food safety problems. Mr. Chen bought a 10-jin bag of rice at the supermarket, brought it home, and as he was preparing dinner, his child noticed a small plastic bottle in the bag. The child exclaimed, "There's a bottle in the rice!" Photo from Chongqing Evening News The bottle was about the width of a finger and contained a powder. It had a tiny hole drilled in the side. Mr. Chen picked up the bottle, and it gave off a strong odor. He examined the label and found that it was a highly toxic pesticide called aluminum phosphide. The label said it was forbidden for home use. As he thought about it, Mr. Chen became more nervous, recalling many other b...