Discount education simply does not work; neither does blind trust in food makers

November 5, 2007
By Ken Worsley


I just read an editorial/article on Nova that struck me as so-so at best, but one quote really stands out, and tells the story in six simple words:

“Discount education simply does not work.”

Let’s see how that gets applied to the food industry in the coming weeks and months. From a different article on problems with safety in Japan’s food industry:

“I was always wary of Chinese products but now I feel I can’t trust anybody, especially after Arafuku.” - Tokyo housewife Naoko Shimoda

So…Snow Brand, Nippon Ham, Meat Hope, Fujiya, Ichiya, Shiroi Koibito, Hinaidori, and McDonalds Japan (which managed to keep its 2002 food scandal very quiet) didn’t bother you? It took problems at Akafuku to make you realize something is going on?

Comments

2 Responses to “Discount education simply does not work; neither does blind trust in food makers”

  1. Garrett on November 6th, 2007 10:12 am

    Ken,
    I fear you’re focusing on the wrong part of Mrs. Shimoda’s quote.
    This:

    “I was always wary of Chinese products. . .”

    . . . is the important part, not:

    “. . . [N]ow I feel I can’t trust anybody, especially after Arafuku.”

    The point is that China is up to no good.

    Look at the huge coverage the “cardboard in niku-man” scandal got on Japanese TV. Did you see a single story about the fact that it turned out Chinese “reporters” were doing what their Japanese counterparts mastered - fabricating stories out of whole cloth, complete with fake interviews?

    When Japanese food companies are up to no good, it’s because of irresponsible elderly part-timers. When it’s a Chinese company, we need to worry because it’s their inherent flaws coming out to hurt us.

  2. JMister on November 6th, 2007 8:36 pm

    The article is crap because Nova did not have the pink bunny
    until recently. It was also connected to a loan company so
    I would hardly call it a company that was built from scratch.
    In addition, the connection to the government formed after
    Suhashi created the slush fund. I could go on and on but I’ll
    save you the bore.

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