CHINA'S PROGRESSIVE ERA? Joseph Kahn had an interesting piece in the New York Times Week in Review Sunday, musing about whether China, given the recent food quality scandal, needed to go through a "Progressive Era". His answer was yes and no, which I pretty much agree with. Some of the same factors that slowed the move to food safety in the U.S. are also at work in China, including weak regulation and the undue influence of industry on government. However, China's structural economic position in 2007 is much different than that of the U.S. in 1907; the world economy means something different, and the nature of that economy has dramatically shifted. The U.S. in 1907 didn't so much face the prospect of exporting food to countries with much higher regulatory standards, and so didn't have the same political difficulty with food quality that China is dealing with now. The move towards regulation was driven by domestic, rather than international concerns. China today is producing not only for its domestic populace but also for a skeptical international market. Expect that the drive towards food production safety in China will be substantially as a result of international pressure on the CCP to increase and enforce regulation, and direct pressure from the international market on Chinese producers. Altogether, while Chinese food safety still has serious problems, I expect that the process of dealing with those problems will be quicker and smoother there than it was here. But maybe not. See Brad on the continuing difficulties that the CCP faces in creating and enforcing environmental regulations. --Robert Farley
