MCLC: how to prevent a Chinese Monsanto?

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: debbie hu <dbbie.h at gmail.com>
Subject: how to prevent a Chinese Monsanto?
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Hi everybody,

I'm worried that China's food economy is going down the same road as
America's. All the media hype around food safety violations seems to have
everyone shopping at supermarkets and asking for more government food
regulation. It's becoming harder and harder for small-time farmers to sell
their crops directly in the market; people like my grandma are willing to
pay ten times more for vegetables sold at supermarkets because she doesn't
trust small farmers. I'm betting these surplus profits aren't going to the
laborers on these farms.

When I think about this in conjunction with urbanization and the young
people flocking to the cities in droves, I'm afraid that there will hardly
be any small farms left in a couple of decades.

Is there any kind of grassroots/academic attention being paid to this
issue? Or is it considered minor relative to all the other problems facing
China? I realize that I am bringing a US-centric viewpoint to a complex
issue.

Best,

Debbie