No license to kill

Guest blogger Lance Jungmeyer chiming in ...

More and more media reports are focusing on Chinese food exports and an environment there that permits, if not encourages, malfeasance.

Buried in this article from the Brisbane Times is this nugget:

"An administration survey found that almost one-third of China's 450,000 food production companies, mostly smaller companies employing less than 10 people, were unlicensed."

At least China is starting to take the food safety problem seriously. But the reaction seems more kneejerk than is necessary.

The article notes how Zheng Xiaoyu, head of the State Food and Drug Administration from 1998 until 2005 was charged with taking bribes and faces the death penalty for the nation's ongoing export-oriented food safety woes.