China says one-fifth of its farmland is polluted

Associated Press ^ | Apr 18, 2014 4:31 AM EDT | Ian Mader

[Farmer Dean]

Don’t eat shrimp from China either.

[Irenic]

I don’t care for store bought shrimp and I don’t like to eat out. I usually like shrimp that is still hoppin’ or recently was— I love tossin’ cast nets, 6ft.

[stboz]

They'd keep the production from un-polluted land for themselves and export polluted products to us.

I mean....it's just business....right?

[sphinx]

Of course getting rid of ethanol and growing more corn so we can export food to China would be out of the question.

China is already the leading export destination for U.S. agricultural products.

[Kackikat]

May explain all the Chinese buying up homes/land in the West....so are they all moving here in droves?

Doesn’t it make you wonder why the Chinese didn’t rotated crops, or let land rest for 1 yr out of 7? That is the formula for keeping the land from being unable to produce....overuse destroys. If you want to keep using land for a huge population then you had better be careful, or lose the use in the long run.

[buffaloguy]

Russia’s ag land is much smaller than it should be as 17 % is too polluted to use.

Man, communists are stupid. Ag production is a national security issue and should be protected in a reasoable manner. Contaminating it with heavy metals and poisons is really dumb.

[Olog-hai]

Why would communists embrace Biblically-based agricultural principles? They hate them just as much as they hate the family.

[Mastador1]

But not to worry, they use that farmland exclusively for the export market.

[Kackikat]

Those principles are not only Biblical, but good agriculture practices in places who have found out how well they work.... while enjoying the benefits of great soil and good looking harvests.

[Olog-hai]

Yes, I agree. But the nature of communists is to reject such principles because of their author and source. Even Marx didn’t have a ready argument to rebut it with, only to dismiss it as the rantings of those that wished to perpetuate “class antagonism” to keep the people divided and conquered:

“Undoubtedly,” it will be said, “religious, moral, philosophical, and juridical ideas have been modified in the course of historical development. But religion, morality, philosophy, political science, and law, constantly survived this change.”

“There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.”

What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all past society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms, antagonisms that assumed different forms at different epochs.

But whatever form they may have taken, one fact is common to all past ages, viz., the exploitation of one part of society by the other. No wonder, then, that the social consciousness of past ages, despite all the multiplicity and variety it displays, moves within certain common forms, or general ideas, which cannot completely vanish except with the total disappearance of class antagonisms.

The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional property relations; no wonder that its development involved the most radical rupture with traditional ideas.

But let us have done with the bourgeois objections to Communism. …

And when put into practice, Communism shows just how disastrous to humanity it really is. 100 million lives and counting; that sure is a lot of bloodguilt.

[Kackikat]

According to Pearl S. Buck in her Book ‘China As I See It’ there were drastic changes from the successful Empire, independent, and courteous China during 1295: Yuan Dynasty, when Marco Polo wrote his book about his travels, and still civilized and accepting of Christianity in the Ming Dynasty 3000 years later.... to the China of her book edition published in 1970....with no doubt serious erosion to the China we see today due to influence of Communism.

Pearl S Buck claimed a positive view of the Chinese people, and their ability to regain their footing, maybe too much faith in their ability to return to that original independent quality because she grew up there with the people, although born in W Va.

She made a statement in her forward that ‘Even old tigers like Mao Tse Tung and Chiang Kai-Shek cannot live forever.” I think more wishful thinking than prophecy.

I think the last 50 years have shown in China the descent, that could be a picture of America down the road. Empires that fall or collapse not only through economies and greed, but through loss of it’s family foundation, education, and values make the latter harder to repair or restore.

In saying all of the above, it supports the statement you posted, and gives me concern for our own future.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Olog-hai.

Here are some relevant articles from PopSci, which, FYI/BTW, has a search engine that is MUCH WORSE than the one here. No contest. Their search engine — and their site map — SUCKS. Finally found the issue to get the author and title of this first one, then used Google. FAIL.

The Garbage Man
http://www.popsci.com/article/science/garbage-man

16,000 Dead Pigs In The Huangpu: Can You Still Drink Shanghai’s Water?
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-03/can-you-really-still-drink-water-shanghai

Islands of Garbage, Washed In By Rain, Threaten to Overrun China’s Three Gorges Dam
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-08/islands-garbage-washed-rain-threaten-massive-chinese-dam

Beijing Deploys Giant Deodorant Cannons to Freshen Up City Landfill
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/beijing-deploys-giant-deodorant-cannons-freshen-city-landfill

Chinese Government Plans to Cause Ten Percent More Rain By 2015
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-12/china-aims-modify-weather-producing-more-rain-produce-more-crops

sidebars:

Convenient Home Recycler Turns Plastic Garbage Back Into Ready-To-Use Petroleum
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-02/japanese-invention-recycles-plastic-waste-fresh-supply-petroleum

Amazonian Rainforest Fungus Eats Polyurethane, Potentially Solving a Big Landfill Problem
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/rainforest-fungus-eats-plastic-potentially-solving-landfill-problems