Rebuilding China's Dairy Industry

How do you regain public trust?  Right now, this fundamental question is just as relevant for American financial institutions and the U.S. Congress, as it is for the Chinese government and dairy industry. 

Both issues strike an emotional chord, but the milk scandal has hit Chinese parents especially hard, as many don't know what to feed their only children.  It's highly unlikely that public trust will be rebuilt overnight, or really any time in the near future, but the Chinese government has new efforts to improve the dairy industry, including comprehensive inspections, designed to ensure fresh melamine-free milk.

Adding over 5,000 milk inspectors to ensure the quality of dairy factories, rewarding whistle-blowers, and improved testing methods to detect melamine are only a few of the new regulations the government instituted on Monday.  Government leaders will be considered liable should the inspection system fail. 

In the city where Sanlu is located, the local government is investing about $731,000 in order to implement melamine-testing equipment, and the Ministry of Health has dispatched over 1,600 medical teams to treat children and infants who have been sickened by melamine-enhanced products.

While these measures are admirable, do they go far enough?

It's unlikely that there will be another global milk scare of the same magnitude of this one, but what about other industries?  Will they also receive the same scrutiny?  How will these new regulations influence the dairy industry and small farmers that they're designed to help?  Could they actually pose problems throughout the industry in the future?

At this point in time, China's dairy industry needs all of the positive publicity it can get, and restoring consumer confidence.  Although dairy's prospects look somewhat grim, there is one product that's set to become more popular than ever: Tibetan yak milk.