Posted on 01/05/2014 6:56:48 AM PST by Kaslin
At the end of 2013, China reported over 3 mln hectares of land too polluted to farm.
About 3.33 million hectares (8 million acres) of China's farmland is too polluted to grow crops, a government official said on Monday, highlighting the risk facing agriculture after three decades of rapid industrial growth.
China has been under pressure to improve its urban environment following a spate of pollution scares.
But cleaning up rural regions could be an even bigger challenge as the government tries to reverse damage done by years of urban and industrial encroachment and ensure food supplies for a growing population.
Wang Shiyuan, the vice-minister of land and resources, told a news briefing that China was determined to rectify the problem and had committed "tens of billions of yuan" a year to pilot projects aimed at rehabilitating contaminated land and underground water supplies.
The area of China's contaminated land is about the same size as Belgium. Wang said no more planting would be allowed on it as the government was determined to prevent toxic metals entering the food chain.
"In the past there have been news reports about cadmium-contaminated rice - these kinds of problems have already been strictly prohibited," he said.
This year, inspectors found dangerous levels of cadmium in rice sold in the southern city of Guangzhou. The rice was grown in Henan, a major heavy metal-producing region.
State researchers have said that as much as 70 percent of China's soil could have problems.
All Farm Products From China Suspect
The last sentence above says all you need to know. It's unsafe to trust any farm products from China.
Woefully Inadequate Response
The vice-minister of land and resources, said China committed "tens of billions of yuan" a year to pilot projects aimed at rehabilitating contaminated land and underground water supplies.
How uncomforting! The cleanup bill for air pollution alone is $290 billion. Give that State TV amazingly promotes the "Benefits of Smog" one has to wonder how many acres of China's farmland are really polluted, and what a proper cleanup job would actually cost.
Iceberg Principle
I speculate the cleanup cost will be in the $trillions, if done properly (but likely it won't).
One thing we learned from the financial crisis in the US, and continued bank problems in Europe is the biggest portion of the mess is continually hidden.
Call it the "Iceberg Principle" where politicians only reveal a portion of the problem with each admission.
Recall the initial estimates of the Greek bailout was something like €40 billion. In May of 2010 the Troika committed a €110 billion bailout loan. A second bailout loan a year later added another €100 billion. Talk is now underway regarding a third bailout.
Questions of the Day
One thing is for certain: China's growth at any cost policy came at an enormous price.
On the bright side they’ve found a way to market and sell toxic waste.
This is a concern.
China has five times America’s population, in a country roughly the same size.
That, combined with China’ stratospheric growth is a huge pollution concern.
Imagine! Millions of bodies that may not decay.
Finally a positive for free trade?
And the US has the safest food supply in the world but you wouldn’t know it listening to shyster lawyers, proglodytes, and the old media. I have tested Chinese made toys and indeed they are high in lead. Pet food was intentionally spiked with melamine and toothpaste with antifreeze, but hey, let’s all attack US agriculture.
Why worry? It is only the capitalists that are destroying the earth. The Eco-Nuts keep telling us, just like the mental giants that got themselves ice-bound trying to prove their point. The Captain of the vessel tried to warn them but they refused to acknowledge that little thing called reality, especially when the Antarctic is in it’s summer period.
And now they are requesting USCG ice breakers get down there in an attempt to get their ice bound vessels freed because the last I heard, one or two of the other ice breakers were also bound.
Sure would be entertaining to watch that ship just pop out of the ice like a champagne cork when the water under it freezes, somewhere close to our summertime.
‘After three decades of urban growth’ — umhmmm, and after millennia of Night Soil.’
A real disaster. But this is what happens when you lose respect for life.
One more item of interest: COOL labeling is under attack. That’s country of origin labeling so people know where their food comes from, and yet, Monsanto is the chief villain on the planet according to media reporters, because they have taken plant technology to the bench top to provide food for a starving world population. Go figure.
Plant alpine pennycress, harvest, smelt, and replant. The plant concentrates cadmium. Acidifying the soil helps it do so.
Other plants can help remediate soils, too, but they will not be fit for human or animal consumption (alpine pennycress can reach 8000 ppm (0.8%) cadmium in the leaves).
I'm all for labeling, but only if it is done privately. If you saw the soil of some of these American corn farms and what the growth would look like without the injection of ammonia gas, you wouldn't be so celebratory.
I won’t buy any food made in China.
I guarantee those are the first crops they ship to the USA rather than their own markets.
We should not import any food products from China. Anything that does get imported should be labeled “Grown in China; Eat at your own Risk”
Thanks to CONgress, the Chinese will now be processing our chicken. How comforting!
Maybe we should send them so of that genetically modified corn that the rejected to plant in that area.
I really wish FR had a like and dislike button so that the best comments could be sorted to the top.
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