Food Safety: The Rural Imperative

Dr. Douglas K. Loh, Director, STARR LAB

China is facing great food safety challenges. As mass food/feed production takes place in the vast countryside, it is important to tackle pertinent problems in the country's rural regions as a first step toward establishing a holistic food safety assurance system. The objectives of the roundtable are to identify issues and opportunities on improvement of food/feed safety and security at the upper stream of supply chains. Topics for discussion include 1)management of agricultural environment and natural resources; 2)reduction of pollution and reliance on agro-chemicals; 3)organic agriculture; 4)bio-safety and bio-security related to the biotechnology revolution; 5)reform of land tenure systems; 6)development of supporting rural infrastructures and organizations; 7)good agricultural or aqua-cultural practices; 8)applications of Hazard analysis of critical control points (HACCP); and 9)human resource development. This roundtable is expected to result in a rural food/feed safety imperative for China-U.S. collaborative research.