James E. McWilliams, “Our Home-Grown Melamine Problem,” The New York Times, November 17, 2008

This op-ed article examines the widespread presence of melamine in U.S. agriculture, claiming that despite China’s highly publicized problems with the industrial plasticizer, “what the American consumers and government agencies have studiously failed to scrutinize is how much melamine has pervaded our own food system.” James McWilliams, a history professor at Texas State University at San Marcos,
argues that the recent spate of melamine-related incidents “points to the much larger relationship between industrial waste and American food production.” He notes that melamine is routinely added to domestic fertilizers “because it helps control the rate at which nitrogen seeps into the soil,” where it then accumulates as salt crystals that mix with other nutrients essential to crops. In addition, McWilliams warns that the “Byzantine reality” of global food networks makes it nearly impossible to ensure that all imported products are safe.

McWilliams recommends that even as it scrutinizes China’s promise to clean up its food supply, “the United States should seize upon the melamine scandal as an opportunity to pass federal fertilizer standards backed by consistent testing of this compound, which could very well be hidden in plain sight.” “Regulations might be lax when it comes to animal feed and fertilizer in China,” he opines, “but take a closer look at similar regulations in the United States and it becomes clear that they’re vague enough to allow industries to ‘recycle’ much of their waste into fertilizer and other products that form the basis of our domestic food supply.”