Posted on 12/31/2013 12:24:47 PM PST by Theoria
The farm-to-table process in China starts in villages like this one in the agricultural heartland. Food from the fields of Ge Songqing and her neighbors ends up in their kitchens or in the local market, and from there goes to other provinces. The foods are Chinese staples: rice, cabbage, carrots, turnips and sweet potatoes.
But the fields are ringed by factories and irrigated with water tainted by industrial waste. Levels of toxic heavy metals in the wastewater here are among the highest in China, and residents fear the soil is similarly contaminated. Though they have no scientific proof, they suspect that a spate of cancer deaths is linked to the pollution, and worry about lead levels in the children’s blood.
“Of course I’m afraid,” said Ms. Ge, in her 60s, pointing to the smokestacks looming over her fields and the stagnant, algae-filled irrigation canals surrounding a home she shares with a granddaughter and her husband, a former soldier. “But we don’t do physical checkups. If we find out we have cancer, it’s only a burden on the children.”
With awareness of China’s severe environmental degradation rising, there has been a surge of anxiety in the last year among ordinary Chinese and some officials over soil pollution in the country’s agricultural centers and the potential effects on the food chain. In recent years, the government has conducted widespread testing of soil across China, but it has not released the results, adding to the fear and making it more difficult for most Chinese to judge what they eat and pinpoint the offending factories.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Chinese are actually tired of living in a toxic waste dump?
Throw in the purchase of large ag products here and they realize that having clean resources is a given.
Why do you think they are shipping water in from the Great lakes. Because they have turned there water into a cesspool.
I wonder what Thomas Friedman has to say about this?
The Chinese pollute with impunity in ways I don’t think this country ever did.
There are a lot of free traders on FR that want the U.S. to deregulate in order to compete against China.
I say keep the regs and raise the import tariffs. Put Americans back to work. But not by polluting our land.
Why post anything from the Times.
Quick, send in American environmentalists.
Sometimes they have useful information. One can pick and choose their info since their positions are a given.
Quick! Blame Monsanto!
Thanks Theoria.
> With awareness of China’s severe environmental degradation rising, there has been a surge of anxiety in the last year among ordinary Chinese and some officials over soil pollution in the country’s agricultural centers and the potential effects on the food chain. In recent years, the government has conducted widespread testing of soil across China, but it has not released the results, adding to the fear...
And if they don’t like it, they’ll be executed, so what’s the problem? Thanks Theoria.
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