China's agricultural product quality and safety standards lag behind attention

The Central Economic Work Conference held recently pointed out that it is necessary to place increased supply of green agricultural products in a prominent position, and pay close attention to standardized production of agricultural products, brand creation, and quality and safety supervision.

In recent years, with the improvement of people's living standards, the quality and safety of agricultural products have attracted more and more attention. How to strengthen the quality and safety supervision of agricultural products, and implement the meeting requirements? The "Legal Daily" reporter interviewed industry experts.

Agricultural product quality safety attracts attention

Not long ago, online rumors that Beijing freshwater live fish were largely removed from the shelves to make the public stunned. The Beijing Food and Drug Administration responded by saying that in recent years, the pass rate of sampling of aquatic products in Beijing has reached more than 90%. The rumors of water pollution and water pollution caused by water pollution in Beijing are not credible.

This incident reflects from one side the concern about the quality and safety of agricultural products.

“In general, the quality and safety of agricultural products have attracted more attention from all walks of life than in previous years, and progress has been made in many aspects. Even so, the quality and safety of agricultural products still have problems. The hidden dangers of agricultural products quality and safety still lie in excessive pesticide residues. There are also some concepts of green products, organic products and pollution-free products. The pollution-free products say that they are organic products, and the green products also say that they are organic products. In fact, they are not the same.” Vice President of China Consumers Association, Chinese People Liu Junhai, a professor at the University Law School, said.

"In terms of safeguarding the quality and safety of agricultural products, some supermarkets now pay more attention to the use of testing instruments and rapid monitoring methods. This is a bit of a backwards. Safe food must be produced." Zhu Yi, an associate professor at China Agricultural University, said, "For the safety of agricultural products, everyone Concerned about pesticide residues and heavy metal residues, for these two problems, relying on the detection and supervision of the enhanced end, can not solve the problem fundamentally, the cost-effective effect is not good. To ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products still need to start from the source Start with the countryside and farmers."

Zheng Fengtian, deputy dean of the School of Agriculture and Rural Development of Renmin University of China, believes that there are still several problems in the quality and safety of agricultural products: there is still a gap between the overall number of safe green agricultural products and the needs of ordinary people; the number of agricultural products is not enough; Some agricultural products quality and safety issues; supervision of small farmers is more difficult.

Improve the quality and safety of farmers' income relationship

Regarding how to “increase the supply of green agricultural products”, Liu Junhai believes that “it should rely on the market, the government, and the consumers. In terms of market means, farmers must make agricultural products earn money. But now the agricultural market is not sound enough. Some farmers can't make money by farming. You say that your agricultural products are organic. Others also say that their agricultural products are organic. If consumers don't know clearly, they will not be able to sell good prices. The government should strengthen guidance. Encourage farmers to plant agricultural products, promote intensive cultivation, ensure high prices, local governments can provide guidance to farmers, provide free skills support. Consumers should also be conscious, not blindly cheap, pay attention to the quality and safety of agricultural products.

“The main force in the production of primary agricultural products and other food products in China is farmers. Even the leading aircraft carrier-level enterprises that include many foods are looking for the past and trace the source. The dependence on farmers’ cultivation, breeding and small farmers’ workshops is still quite the same. Gao.” Zhu Yi believes that the current situation is that businessmen who do business in agricultural products make some money, but farmers still don’t make much money. For agricultural products, a more scientific price system is needed to reflect the labor value of farmers. All consumers should understand that raising farmers' income is the material basis for ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural products.

“The funds required for the detection of agricultural products in supermarkets and other places are also very large. It is possible to consider subsidizing some farmers to promote the popularization of safer and more environmentally friendly farming methods. Agriculture needs national and social support. Farmers and businessmen who do business in agricultural products Between, income should not be too big," Zhu Yi said.

For the quality and safety of agricultural products, in the "National Agricultural Modernization Plan 2016-2020" issued by the State Council not long ago, it was clearly stated that ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural products requires upgrading source control, standardized production, brand driving, risk prevention and control, and agricultural product quality and safety supervision. Aspect ability.

"The standardization of agricultural products in our country is still not perfect. Farmers are all family laborers. The standardization of agricultural products is a very long process. The general model is to cultivate large grain farmers under the guidance of the government. It is more difficult for small farmers to standardize. "Zheng Fengtian said.

Liu Junhai believes that the standards for agricultural products are still not perfect. “I personally think that agricultural cooperatives are a good starting point. Agricultural cooperatives can integrate the quality standards of agricultural products. Of course, the agricultural sector should also publish national agricultural product quality standards. Rural cooperatives can self-pressurize, and farmers can also see good ideas. Qi, because the general scattered farmers are difficult to organize, so the output of the product is not standardized enough, including the label is not the same, the labeling of the nutritional components is also complicated. Standardized production of agricultural products is necessary. It depends on organized, professional cooperatives , or agricultural production and management enterprises, it may be easier to promote standardized production of agricultural products in this way."

Two-pronged approach to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products

“High price, brand building, and standardized production are all positive incentives for agricultural products.” Zheng Fengtian said that it is necessary to increase the crackdown on illegal additions and abuse of pesticides.

According to relevant media reports, the Anhui Provincial Agriculture Commission recently issued a new policy on strengthening the quality and safety supervision of agricultural products, proposing to implement the "red list" and "black list" system, establishing agricultural product quality safety and trustworthiness incentives and disciplinary mechanisms to protect the masses of the people. Physical health and consumer safety. The system stipulates that the “Red List” implementation standard is a new edible agricultural product production unit that has won the government quality award, product, well-known trademark and trademark at the provincial level or above; the newly obtained edible agricultural product production with pollution-free agricultural products, green food and organic food certification. Units and so on; the "blacklist" implementation standard is the edible agricultural product production unit that refuses to be inspected in the routine quality supervision or supervision and spot check of the competent department; after checking for unqualified products or illegal violations, there is no justifiable reason to refuse rectification or after rectification The food production unit that is still unqualified is reviewed again.

Whether it is positive incentives or increased efforts, it is inseparable from the strengthening of supervision.

"Agricultural product supervision faces two problems. First, the agricultural sector manages itself. Secondly, the production and sales of agricultural products are separated. The regulatory links are placed in the production areas, but the agricultural products are sold to other places, so many There may be local protectionism in the locality. I think that if I don’t sell it locally, I will close my eyes with one eye.” Zheng Fengtian said.

Regarding how to solve the above two problems, Zheng Fengtian also put forward two suggestions. "We should let the food and drug supervision departments do more random inspections. Second, we can adopt a 'reverse force' mechanism. If the origin of agricultural products is not detected, Once there is a problem in the place of sale, the origin is listed as a 'black list', and then the agricultural products in this place will not be bought. For example, the vegetables in a certain place have had problems. After all, they are not bought all over the country. The local vegetables are forced to go to the local quality inspection. From the sales side, the production is closed, so that the current quality and safety supervision problems of agricultural products can be resolved.

Industry experts believe that to fundamentally ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products, it is necessary to further improve the relevant laws.

"Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Law has not yet been closely linked to the Food Safety Law. This is a relatively fundamental issue." Zhu Yi said.

“First of all, we must amend the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Law. Because we ensure the safety from farm to table, we must first require farmland to be safe. The current food safety law is only for food other than agricultural products. It is a concept of small food. In fact, agricultural products are food. For example, wheat, corn, sorghum, sweet potato, can it be said that it is not food? But these are classified as agricultural products. It may even be considered that the quality standards of agricultural products can be lower than the food quality standards, which is undoubtedly wrong. The quality standards of agricultural products should be better than The food quality standards are higher. Imagine if the quality standards of agricultural products are lower than the food standards, can you create safer foods?” Liu Junhai said, on the basis of perfecting the law, completely eliminate the blind spots of supervision and let the agricultural sector and food The drug supervision department has formed a regulatory force to improve the efficiency of supervision and establish a cross-regional, inter-departmental, real-time information sharing and all-weather regulatory cooperation mechanism.

Zheng Fengtian believes that laws and regulations need to be improved, of course, so that agricultural products can be put into food. "Now the production of agricultural products belongs to the agricultural sector, and the environment belongs to the environmental protection department. The food and drug supervision department can assume more responsibility for the quality and safety of agricultural products in the future, but this may be difficult to change. Other standards including agricultural products are also lagging behind. The quality and safety law also appears to be lagging behind, including quarantine testing, implementation of responsibilities, etc., and there is still a big gap compared with food."