Sitting in airports (in Dallas on my way to visit a client) gives you time to read. Ya’ll (tip to the South) should all pick up this week’s Newsweek.
At least 300 million Chinese citizens—roughly the same number as the entire U.S. population—suffer from food-borne diseases annually, according to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank and World Health Organization.
China today resembles nothing so much as the United States a century ago, when robber barons, gangsterism and raw capitalism held sway. Now as then, powerful vested interests are profiting from murky regulations, shoddy enforcement, rampant corruption and a lack of consumer awareness. In the United States during the early 20th century, public outrage over bogus drugs and contaminated foodstuffs, fueled by graphic accounts such as Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” finally prompted passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act. China needs a similar revolution today if it is to protect its competitiveness and its consumers.
It is going to be interesting – enter “Wild Bill.”