Dozens have been arrested in the Shijiazhuang region.
Shijiazhuang 地區有十數人被逮捕.
“You know everything, but you won’t talk. You have no conscience!” another man shouted.
另一人咆哮: 你知道所有的事, 但你不肯說. (此處的"你"指的是一位王姓的官員)
The dairy farming villages around Shijiazhuang came under sharp scrutiny last month after investigators arrested dozens of farmers and milk station operators for spiking milk with melamine, which if blended into food can artificially inflate protein readings, helping it pass quality tests.
在十數人被逮捕後, Shijiazhuang 周遭的產奶農村上個月受到嚴格的檢驗.
But dairy farmers here insist that they never used melamine, and that the real culprits are dairy companies and the milking stations that they operate. They also complain that they have been squeezed by the price controls on food that went into effect last year, which may have created incentives among some farmers and big companies to dilute milk and use chemical substitutes.
但酪農堅持他們未使用 melamine, 而真正的罪犯是乳品公司和其經營的擠奶站.他們並抱怨他們的收入因去年開始的食品價格管制被壓縮, 而此也造就一些酪農與大公司開始稀釋牛奶及以化學物質摻入牛奶之刺激.
Regulatory loopholes and corruption are believed to be part of the problem. Many dairy farmers in the region said bribery was common at milking stations. And dairy experts say local regulators are also known to take bribes or favor companies that are partly owned by a local government entity, which sometimes means that the regulator and the regulated are virtually one and the same.
管制的漏洞與腐敗也是問題的一部份. 此地區的許多酪農說: 賄賂在擠奶站是常見的. 一位乳業專家說: 地方的管制者收賄是廣為人知的, 他們也對當地政府所有的公司較為偏袒.
Sanlu and other major dairy companies were responding to government price controls that were supposed to help fight inflation and rising food costs around the nation. But here in Hebei Province, the policy hurt farmers who were already struggling to cope with soaring animal feed costs, driven up by a global surge in grain prices.
三鹿及其他公司響應政府的價格管制政策之作為, 傷害已受飼料價格上升影響的酪農.
“Before the scandal, the milk station kept lowering the price, but feed costs had gone up a lot,” said Liu Jin Feng, who with her husband raises 16 cows in nearby Xinnancheng village. “The price of soy meal went up 60 percent over the past two years.”
Liu Jin Feng說: 在醜聞爆發前, 擠奶站持續降低價格, 但當時飼料價格已經大幅上揚. 過去 2 年黃豆粕價格上升 60%.
Sanlu, which is 43 percent owned by the New Zealand-based Fonterra Group, one of the world’s largest dairy companies, controls the only milk station in Nantongyi village, giving it monopoly pricing power in the area. Every day farmers guide their cows to the village milking station, pump milk directly into the station tanks and then return home, waiting to hear how much they will earn, if their milk passes quality inspections.
每天酪農將牛隻牽引至擠奶站, 牛奶直接擠入站內槽中, 然後回家等待他們此次能獲得多少錢之通知, 如果他們的牛奶通過檢驗.
And farmers say that the milk dealers who aggregate milk supplies and sell them to big dairy producers had much more opportunity to add melamine. “We have no way to adulterate our milk,” said Shi, a 38-year-old dairy farmer in Nantongyi, noting that village cows went directly to the milking station, where they are milked by machine. “I think it’s Sanlu and the milking station that blend.”
酪農說: 收集牛奶並將牛奶販售給大奶品製造商的奶商有較多的機會在牛奶中添加 melamine. 一位 Shi 姓, 38 歲, 的酪農指出他們的乳牛直接到擠乳站, 以機器擠乳. 他認為是三鹿或擠乳站添加的.
Sanlu officials repeatedly declined to respond to questions for this article. They have blamed farmers and milking stations for tampering with supplies.
三鹿的人員重複地否認此文中的疑問. 他們仍指責酪農與擠奶站.
“In 2004, I was one of the drafters of the China Dairy Products Quality Inspection report,” he said in a telephone interview. “I found adulteration is extremely widespread: urea, soap powder, starch are very popular additives.” He added: “We suggested new inspection methods targeted on these additives should be written into the regulation. But on the other hand, we fear that once these were written into the regulation, more dairymakers would know these tricks, or even innovate by creating new tricks.”
Zhang Guonong 說在 2004 年, 他身為China Dairy Products Quality Inspection report的起草者之一, 他發現摻雜很廣泛, 其中使用尿素, 肥皂粉, 澱粉摻雜最為普遍. 他們建議針對這些摻雜的檢驗方法寫入管理規範中, 可是他們也擔心一但寫入管理規範, 更多的奶業製造者會知道這些花招, 甚至創新出更多的花招.
Nor is melamine the only problem facing farmers near Shijiazhuang. At milking stations in Nantongyi, recent government inspections have also found high levels of antibiotic residues.
melamine 非唯一的問題, Nantongyi 的擠奶站中發現抗生素的殘留.
“Now, they say our milk is not qualified, that it has too much antibiotics,” said Mr. Shi, who has eight cows. “But before, Sanlu never rejected our milk. So I think clearly they knew, and in order to meet demand they boosted production.”
Shi 姓酪農說: 現在他們說我們的牛奶因為太多殘留的抗生素而不合格. 之前, 三鹿從未退貨, 我認為他們知道, 因為為了滿足他們增產的需求.
