The tainted milk powder incident has led to a crisis in China's dairy industry.

The incident erupted on September 11 when Sanlu, one of China's famous infant formula manufacturer, publicly recalled its products after three babies died and thousands of others became ill. Later, investigators found contamination in liquid milk made by three other big dairy companies in China.

An article in the Beijing News says this incident is an opportunity to protect dairy farmers' rights and improve the government's supervision of food manufactures.

The article points out that many innocent milk farmers suffered a serious loss because of this incident. Diary farmers are the most vulnerable victims in the industry chain. The lesson to be learnt from the incident is that it is vital diary farmers form an alliance to protect their rights.

Meanwhile, the government should also learn a lesson and enhance its food quality supervision. The article praises the Chinese quality watchdog's thorough investigation of the case and its cancelling of all kinds of inspection exemptions previously given to food producers.