Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the repercussions of China's 2008 melamine adulteration scandal to consider the possibilities and limitations for the transformation of conventional foods into ethical ones following a crisis.

Paper long abstract:

In the fall of 2008, as the global financial crisis crested, China faced yet another highly publicized food safety scandal with the revelation that the domestic dairy supply was contaminated with the industrial chemical, melamine. Local government and corporate actors' attempts to suppress information highlighted concerns about China's commitment to transparency and accountability norms and underscored growing consumer unease with the complex chains of food production and distribution systems and anxiety over the global governance of food and health risks. Although the melamine scandal was not an artifact of the global financial crisis as such, both crises raised questions about the role and limits of regulation and prompted public debate over the moral values underlying regulatory practices and even capitalism itself. This paper uses the aftermath of the scandal to examine how conventional foods, often presented as antithetical to traditional ethical foods such as fair trade and organic items, become ethical following a crisis. I examine a diverse set of actions and reforms undertaken in response to demands for greater transparency to consider the possibilities and limitations for this transformation.