2 Unexpected Consequences
how anyone could make a profit doing that.” In 20 , FSIS ruled that
China’s poultry processing was equivalent to that of the United States.
The new approach could begin. A year later, Qingdao Nine-Alliance
Group of China, one of the largest privately owned chicken com-
panies in China, claimed to be the first. No country of origin label was
required.
So what does trade have to do with food safety? Much of the trade
among countries is governed through some thirty separate agree-
ments that countries have negotiated. The World Trade Organization
(WTO) facilitates the execution of these agreements, though countries
themselves are the ones providing the WTO’s leadership, decisions, and
resolutions.
One agreement ties international trade to health. The Agreement
on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)
affirms that countries have the right to take “measures necessary for
the protection of human, animal, or plant life or health.” To avoid the
influence of politics, measures should be scientifically justified.
For many years, I have worked with expert professionals within the
WTO and officials from developing countries on the implementation of
this one agreement, which specifically affirms the priority of science and
the rights of each country. When it comes to animal, plant, and human
health and trade, the role of science is crucial.
Throughout this chapter, I have repeatedly referred to who determines
whether food is safe. This was intentional, typical of how we think—
but also a bit misleading. Every time we take food in, we are accepting
a risk. The risks vary depending on the food, but they never disappear
altogether.
A more appropriate question may be, Who decides what those risks
will be? The common response is letting scientists tell us. But that answer
takes us down the wrong track. What science does well is informing us
about what pathogens, chemicals, or other impurities may be present in
food, based on our expectations for precision.
Thus, the answers science provides are relative, not absolute. Living
with absolute answers would rule out eating many foods, and many
other foods would be made unaffordable. In other words, while sci-