Milk Scandal

I don't think many of my grad students here will become journalists--most are worried about supporting their parents and (surprise) journalists aren't well paid--but they are doing some terrific stories. I've got them working in teams to investigate different angles on the milk scandal.
So many things come together here: rapid economic growth, corruption, limited government regulation, the plight of the peasants, health care and the lack of a social safety net.

Here's part of one story:

The milk industry in China has grown dramatically in the past ten years. That rapid growth has involved high risks, a ----- professor at Nanjing University says, and those risks can be linked to the Sanlu milk scandal,
Professor ---- recollected the history of the milk industry from 1998- to 2007 and defined it as “The Great Leap Forward” of China’s milk industry”. Sanlu led the way in aggressively producing and marketing its milk. But high speed also means high risk, --- says.
“Melamine is the result of unceasing experiments by people to produce fake milk,” --- says.
Sanlu doesn’t have any farms or cows. They just collect original milk from milk stations or milk peasants. Seventy percent of the profit goes to Sanlu and 20 percent to the milk stations, leaving only 10 percent for the peasants. If the peasants or milk stations want to increase their profit margins, they add water and chemicals to the milk, --- says.
In addition, the demand for milk continues to exceed the supply. --- suggests that inbreeding among cows may have reduced their productivity.

From a story about advertising:

Most parents today believe formula milk products provides all the minerals needed for babies’ wisdom and robustness and it must be better than breast milk. People get this opinion from the heavy advertisements on television or in newspapers that are repeated over and over again.For example, one TV advertisement of Sanlu infant formula says:“It’s mothers’ achievement to have greater children. Our products make babies smarter, healthier, greater.” Another one uses such words:“The choice of thousands mothers. Let wisdom create future.”The scene on TV shows lovely little babies playing with toys with English letters happily and as their mothers watch joyfully.
As most Chinese have only one child today, the whole family usually does whatever they can to make their baby stronger and smarter. The only thing they’re afraid of is if their baby falls behind others. As long as a product can help, they will not care about the price.
“Those advertisements touch young parents easily,” Dr--says. She a little helpless. But she says that, in fact, no infant formula contains the perfect combination of proteins, carbohydrates and fats to enhance brain development as well as breast milk does.
Dr --- says that a rule approved in 1995 prohibits companies which produce infant milk powder from advertising their products or promoting them on the packaging, banning any images of babies and requiring a statement that promotes breast feeding.Most companies ignore this rule, she says, and no government department has taken action.

Another group of students wrote a moving account of a peasant family which brought their sick baby to Nanjing Children's Hospital for treatment after their local hospital failed to remove the kidney stones. The baby is recovering now and the government is paying for his care, but they haven't been reimbursed for the 10,000 yuan they paid the local hospital or the loss of income when they had to leave their farm for two months.

And the legal system hasn't come up with a solution yet since courts have been dismissing individual lawsuits and not permitting class action suits.