Yes, that's an alarming headline, and it's designed to get you thinking Beyond The Hive, as I try to do here on occasion. The "nut graf" of this blog is that it is about honey, bees, mead, agriculture and more. And that means I have to look beyond the Food section for stories about honey as an emerging artisanal food product, or the Features or Home section about the emergence of beekeeping as a hobby. It means heading over to the Business section.
I'm specifically talking about Tuesday's New York Times, whose "Dealbook" column by Andrew Ross Sorkin reports on a potential bid by the Chinese firm Sinochem to take over the Potash Corporation, one of the world's largest fertilizer producers, based in Saskatchewan, Canada.
While there was outrage in 2005 over plans by a Chinese firm to take over an American oil company, so far, this issue is a bit more under the radar...even though food - believe it or not - is more vital to us than oil.
Critics' primary worries are that China could divert the product overseas to its home shores, as well as just the general idea that in some regard, China would have control over a good piece of the food chain.
Meanwhile, it's also worth worrying about that, given the Chinese's recent history (especially) of poison in pet food and banned antibiotics in honey, they could engage in similarly lax quality control in the fertilizer industry.
Right now, the Chinese are mentioned as potential bidder, while Australian mining firm BHP has put in a hostile takeover bid of $130 a share (and pledged to be good to Saskatchewan). (Meanwhile, the Commodity Surge blog notes that rising grain prices might impact BHP's bid.)
Any takeover will have to undergo the scrutiny of Canadian officials. But Americans who are interested in food (that's everyone, people) ought to take notice, as well.
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