(Re)making quality in China’s dairy industry
Abstract
Quality in the food industry is viewed at once as both a standard of excellence to be reached and as an attribute, characteristic, or property to be imbued in products and people. In contemporary China, quality is further divided into suzhi or “human” quality reserved to describe embodied characteristics with a range of other terms used to describe the attributes of institutions, objects, and other non-human entities. This article explores how various ideas of quality transfer or circulate among people, places, and things. I consider the manner in which various activities—such as milking cows, producing indigenous foods, and advertising—stabilize notions of quality through their attachment to particular objects and practices. Using data collected within China’s dairy industry before and after the industry’s epic 2008 melamine adulteration scandal, I revisit the notion of human quality and examine it in dialogue with Callon’s work on the qualification of objects.
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In China, increases in Food and Drug Administration scope of practice contributed to a shortage of experts and increased workload of FDA officials, which compromised enforcement of policies regulating antibiotics supply.
“In China, for instance, increases in Food and Drug Administration scope of practice [58, 59] contributed to the shortage of experts and increased workload of Food and Drug Administration officials, which in turn compromised the enforcement of policies regulating antibiotics supply.”
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Belachew, S. A., Hall, L., Erku, D. A., & Selvey, L. A. (2021) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-021-11163-3 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
“In China, for instance, increases in Food and Drug Administration scope of practice [58, 59] contributed to the shortage of experts and increased workload of Food and Drug Administration officials, which in turn compromised the enforcement of policies regulating antibiotics supply.”
Background
- Authors
- Tracy, M.
- Affiliations
- James Madison University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Tracy, Megan
- ORCID
- Tracy, Megan
- Venue
- Asian Anthropology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2018-10-02
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 237-253
- ISSN
- 1683-478X (ISSN-L)
- 2168-4227
- OpenAlex
- W2896690393
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 4.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Asian Anthropology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1157551)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Global trade, sustainability, and social impact
- Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Geographies of human-animal interactions
- Keywords
- quality, dairy industry, suzhi, human qualities, Callon, food adulteration, indigenous foods, milking practices, food advertising, China
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