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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPollution Rising, Chinese Fear for Soil and Food
CHENJIAWAN, China 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 childrens blood.
Of course Im 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 dont do physical checkups. If we find out we have cancer, its only a burden on the children.
With awareness of Chinas 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 countrys 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.
An alarming glimpse of official findings came on Monday, when a vice minister of land and resources, Wang Shiyuan, said at a news conference in Beijing that eight million acres of Chinas farmland, equal to the size of Maryland, had become so polluted that planting crops on it should not be allowed.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/31/world/asia/good-earth-no-more-soil-pollution-plagues-chinese-countryside.html?hp&pagewanted=all&_r=0
Brigid
(17,621 posts)We made back in the nineteenth century. And it isn't just on environmental issues either.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Johonny
(20,683 posts)and the population seems seriously concerned about pollution you wonder if the pollution problem will start to be worked on.
Heywood J
(2,515 posts)No details have been released about the allegations against him, but news reports say they include illegal payments, bribes, illegal contracts and sexual liaisons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/844786.stm
Reports said 97 officials had been punished, including one who was sentenced to death for embezzling more than $1m.
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/29/160231137/chinese-blame-failed-infrastructure-on-corruption
Two months later, a bridge in southern China's Fujian province collapsed, leaving one dead and 22 injured.
And in March this year, a bridge under construction in Central China's Hubei province snapped in half.
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Chinese have a phrase for these failing infrastructure projects: doufazha, which means "bean curd dregs."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-10/18/c_131198485.htm
Local prosecutors, closely involved in corruption investigations, discovered that bribery has become a regular part in many contractors' budget as "public relations expenses."