Feature

Milking business

Dr Binoy Barman

BUSINESSMEN can just do the miracle. They can make profit out of nothing. The less scrupulous ones can make business even killing people. They have no conscience -- no morality. 'Business ethics' is something which may be found in books but not in practice. In business it is only money that matters. Consumer's health or welfare is no concern at all. You can find a plethora of proofs for my statements if you just look around.

The extreme callousness of un scrupulous businessmen has been exposed with the recent melamine scandal. The dairy farmers have mixed melamine, a toxic industrial chemical, to make their products falsely rich with protein. Taking this melamine-contaminated milk, many children have either died or fallen sick in China (and in what other countries, who knows). Obviously, the businessmen have hugely profited from such adulteration but at the cost of children's life. The consumption of melamine is harmful for health. It damages kidney and other organs leading up to death. The scandal has sent an alarm to the parents all over the world who have to buy milk and milk products for their children.

Since the publication of reports on melamine-induced infant death, many countries have collected milk and milk products from their markets, especially those imported from China, and sent them to laboratories for examination. The existence of melamine in these stuffs to the proportion of health risk has been proved. After this, a sizeable amount of the hazardous food items have been seized and withdrawn from the markets by the law enforcers. In Bangladesh some brands were tested and banned after confirmation of alleged contamination.

Nobody knows how many children have died or fallen sick consuming melamine-contaminated milk in Bangladesh. There is no survey or medical report in this regard. The market of Bangladesh is flooded with contaminated or low quality powdered milk coming from China and other countries. The poor people of Bangladesh, children in particular, are the guinea pigs of rich countries that dump their unconsumable products here. A few years ago there were reports of radiation-contaminated powdered milk coming from some rich countries. We do not know what death toll or damage it caused -- how many people lost internal organs. We are always kept in the dark about corporate wrongdoing.

The businessmen of Bangladesh are said to be most unscrupulous. They take every chance, in a fair or foul practice, to maximise their profit. They form syndicate to monopolise market and create artificial crisis of merchandise with hoarding to hike prices. They are the champion of food adulteration. They apply formalin to fish to keep it fresh for a long time; they use carbide to ripen fruits overnight. They mix pebbles with rice and sand with salt. They mix brick powder with packaged turmeric and pepper. And do what not, for an extra profit? They do not consider how it may affect public health. What they consider is money and nothing else.

Recently, a different kind of milk adulteration has been unearthed in Bangladesh, which is really concerning. Some milk producers in Sirajganj and Pabna were reportedly producing milk in a process of mixing cutting oil, flour and baking soda with waste churned milk water. Scented with essence, the milk was fortified with formalin and other chemical additives for long preservation. Doctors have said this milk is harmful for kidney, liver and heart. This is just one instance -- tip of the iceberg. This kind of adulteration may be found in the preparation of all other food items, if scrutinised properly. Here there is no regulatory body. So a businessman can do whatever he wishes. He can sell poison branding it as elixir!

After capture and trial, the unscrupulous businessmen are punished with penalty or jail term under existing law. But is it enough? They are restored in business again to produce and sell the hell of goods. Conscientious people feel there should be provisions of severe punishment for the food adulterators. Food is the basic necessity of life and nobody should be allowed to play with it. Food adulteration ought to be treated as the most heinous crime -- a crime against humanity. Food business must not be left in the hands of some money-hungry monsters.

The writer is Assistant Professor and Head, Department of English, Daffodil International University.