Study On Theoretical And Practical Regulation Issues About Quality And Safety Of Edible Agricultural Products

Since the implementation of reform and opening-up policy, China’s socioeconomic status has been improved constantly, the per capita consumption has been doubled and redoubled, and the urban and rural residents’ demand for agricultural products such as meat, eggs, milk, fruit and others have increased substantially. With the decrease of households Engel coefficient, public’s demand for edible agricultural products has shifted from quantity safety to quality safety. However, in recent years, from tony red to malachite green, from melamine contaminated formula to clenbuterol hydrochloride pork, from rongalit flour to tainted steamed buns, from the poison of anal beans to formaldehyde cabbage, such edible agricultural products safety issues happened frequently, which indicated the shortage of the “invisible hand” and the necessity of government regulation.Based on the social background listed above, this paper attempts to explore the issues related to China’s edible agricultural products quality and safety supervision from the perspectives of theory and practice so as to provide policy recommendations on improving the regulatory system and optimizing the regulatory path.However,in order to study on edible agricultural products quality and safety regulatory issues, we must first clarify the historical origins of regulatory issues, and discuss where the supervision come from and why should we supervise,that is to say, to analyze reasons about supervision. Secondly, we must define clearly what the structure and composition of supervision body are, namely, to discuss who will regulate. Thirdly, we must figure out what the regulatory problems are, and what causes those problems, which means to discuss the regulatory inefficiencies and their causes. At last, we must find out what factors will affect the regulatory,which of them are sensitive factors, and how to optimize the regulation, that is to say how to supervise effectively. According to "Why Regulation- Regulatory what- How to regulate" research logic, the research content in this study will be arranged as follows:First,by sorting out the existing literatures and analyzing the problems about the edible agricultural products quality and safety, I clearly defined the concept of supervision on edible agricultural product quality safety and clarified the regulatory context development on this basis. Secondly, on the basis of analyzing current situation of edible agricultural products quality safety supervision, I did empirical analysis on the social effects of regulatory, and then investigated the problems in the regulatory process and the reasons of regulatory inefficiency. Thirdly, expert evaluation method and public investigation have been used to find out the factors affecting quality and safety supervision on edible agricultural product from the perspectives of experts and the public, and system dynamics analytical method has been used to do simulation analysis on the function mechanisms of those factors, especially those factors with high sensitivity, so as to provide a theoretical reference for the regulatory optimization. Finally, theoretical assumptions to improve the quality and safety supervision of edible agricultural products have been provided.Based on the studies stated above, this study considers as follows:Public have high expectations on current domestic government regulations about edible agricultural products quality safety, while their recognition of the government regulation effect is relatively low. The "free rider" tendency of production and management manufacturers makes the occurrence of edible agricultural products quality and safety issues possible. The problems within the regulatory system, especially the current passive supervision model with the government working in the main position within the industry makes the shielding effect of government regulation on the quality and safety insurance of edible agricultural products failures, which is the main reason leading to inefficient regulation. The reason why the existing regulatory model cannot be effectively improved is that its lack of motivation may provide opportunities for the supervising "free riders" and the departments’ benefits maximization. The "social cohabitation" lacking of public participation makes the quality and safety supervision of edible agricultural products lack of efficiency improving opportunities. Public participation incentives offered by the regulatory system is not enough to offset the loss of total utility given up by the public as "free riders", in addition to the lack of incentive for the public to participate in the supervision resulting from all the participating constraints, which broadens the conditions for government regulatory model improvement.Furthermore, based on the identification and selection of factors affecting the quality and safety supervision of edible agricultural products from the perspectives of regulatory body and public,I found that factors including the producer and manager, production and operation environment, science and technology level, policy environment and others were relatively sensitive to the regulatory system. In the practice of edible quality and safety supervision of agricultural products, the key to improve the efficiency of government regulation is to strengthen the industry self regulation by producer and manager. Effective regulation on additive inputs is a mandatory regulation through policies and laws. However,this paper suggests that, from the perspective of cost-effectiveness,the focus of government executive supervision should not be production source,but be storage and transportation pass rate control, particularly be the market supervision, which is different from the conventional view of the government regulation. Finally,the improvement direction of the government regulatory system should be reducing the cost of right maintenance,improving the efficiency of handling right maintenance events, improving the incentives for public’s participation in the regulatory system, strengthening the coordination between inside and outside industry government supervision, and constructing a multi-governing supervision model on the edible agricultural products quality and safety.