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.
I farmed for 10 years; my degree is in agriculture. I am in the middle of ethanol country. I don’t like ethanol; only because it is an artificially created market with tax subsidies and now the EPA mandate to use it. Let the market decide.
Farmers generally do good job of taking care of the soil here. When I farmed; I used no till farming when I could.
Don’t bring Monsanto into this. If there is famine, its not from lack of food production, but from political forces. Monsanto ought to be willing to compete without government intervention on their behalf. They are not. Therein lies the Monsanto problem. China’s pollution problem goes to the heart of their government: socialist central planning without any credible checks or balances, because those people are already in jail.
COOL labeling is under attack by the same people who don’t want to allow the market place to decide on GMO,... but that would be, uh, Monsanto....
Sounds like typical ‘ecology’ scaremongering hype.
Not that one should trust China foods.
No surprise there.
I am in the middle of ethanol country.
My dad's family were among the founders of Pella, Iowa.
I don’t like ethanol; only because it is an artificially created market with tax subsidies and now the EPA mandate to use it. Let the market decide.
Agreed.
You have to understand that the work I do is on a scale of decades but the study in which I am engaged spans millennia. Currently, I am engaged in examining the desertification of North Africa and the Near East. Farming may be the culprit, not because of what it did to the soil but to how it drew nomadic people off the land and into settled life. In what was a mesic system at the time, vegetation management means everything in terms of maintaining the hydrocycle. It only takes one stupid fool messing with an alluvial soil to wreck an entire system over thousands of square miles, as the settler farmers along the Gila in Arizona soon learned.
Leftist food activists...
All you need to know. That includes _most_ of the garlic on sale, and many of the pet products.
So you have a problem with supplying nitrogen for corn. American agriculture is the shining star, the nations #1 industry, #1 export, and what is made in America. It is not like the government, you are free not to buy their products. Stop acting like a lib and be grateful for a cheap and abundant food supply.
I guess I don’t have a problem with capturing solar energy and converting it into a portable energy source. It is a bit overpriced though. Hitler ran a large part of his war machine using ethanol.
Ah, someone that knows something about modern agriculture. A breath of fresh air.
Well, I get tired of people knocking the nations number 1 export. It is something made in America—food.
Not following what you mean about private labeling?. Are you suggesting consumers should not know where their food comes from?
Don't put words in my mouth.
Stop acting like a lib and be grateful for a cheap and abundant food supply.
This has nothing to do with food and everything to do with the Farm Bill and ethanol mandates. Stop acting like a RINO whore and be grateful for free enterprise.
Consider the California Prop 65 labeling scheme.
Explain how it ruins soil. Are you a soil scientist? Do you produce food for a living? Take a lesson from heartland, he obviously knows about agriculture.
Not going to bother until you've read the thread.
Are you a soil scientist?
Close to it and a lot more.
Take a lesson from heartland, he obviously knows about agriculture.
That's his problem. His time horizon is less than ten years.
I’ll be going to composting toilets soon with the goal of making the whole human support system portable with minimal impact
I do research on native plant habitat restoration on a parcel that was once farmed. Farming it lost all the organic matter, clay, stored charcoal, and trace minerals. All that was left was sand.””
So, you don’t farm. You just condemn a modern success story; American agriculture. Tell me why “native” habitat is better. No-till farming does not remove organic matter. Record yields are not produced on ruined soil.
Again, why is native habitat better. Is living in a natural cave better than living in a house? You are from a town/city right?
Correction:
Chinese farmland is too polluted for export use. The Chinese citizen will shut up and do what the government minders tell them to do.
I do not buy ANY food item from China. I was browsing the store and there are a shocking amount of Chinese products in grocery stores. No thanks.
I have no tilled since 93. Monsanto’s technology has done more in terms of soil conservation, and lower pesticide use then any event in my lifetime. COOL labeling is for the benefit of the consumer. I for one, want to know where my food is grown. We have been eating GMOs for a couple of decades. No study to date has demonstrated adverse effects on human health from said technology. We have been genetically modifying plants for a thousand or more years. Doing it in the lab is simply a more efficient and selective method. Without this high tech, millions would starve.
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