Sightings

The Chicken and The Egg

THE CHICKEN AND THE EGG

by DANIEL K. EISENBUD | photography by Reuters/Stringer Shanghai

In China, after a baby is born, many parents host celebrations featuring hard-boiled eggs. So it was shocking to learn that Chinese dairy farmers had deliberately contaminated eggs—like these, at a hennery in Changzhi in Shanxi Province—used to produce a popular baby formula. The farmers fed chickens melamine, a nitrogen-rich industrial chemical compound used to create plastic, with the goal of making their eggs—and the resulting formula—appear higher in protein.

The tainted formula, produced by one of China’s leading dairy processors, killed six infants, sickened nearly three hundred thousand children, and set off an international food panic. In October, Chinese authorities grudgingly acknowledged the problem—and that they had learned of the contamination months earlier. It didn’t help matters that this took place not long after melamine was found in Chinese-made pet food, killing thousands of cats and dogs across the United States.

Governments have played out this breach of trust on an international stage, instituting unprecedented embargos pending testing on Chinese goodsmade withmilk, essentially forcing China to prove that its products are safe. In late November, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent staff to Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai—its first-ever overseas offices—to certify inspections of U.S.-bound exports. And China responded by promising to issue new laws and standards within a year, though skeptics noted that the country officially banned melamine as a food additive back in April 2007.

A wider debate about how closely to monitor imports has inescapably ensued. Perhaps even more significant, generations of American consumers who have been comfortable buying countless Chinese-made goods may now view the iconic “Made in China” label as somewhat sinister, particularly as it relates to food for their newborns and pets.

In the end, consumers around the globe are likely asking themselves what the real price is of doing business with China, where eggs aren’t so sacred after all.