Your mango has bomb element!

[OhioChick]

22 May 2008, 0422 hrs IST,TNN


JAIPUR: What is common between your favourite summer fruit - mango - and your most hated nasty thing - a crude bomb? Have you ever thought both of them contain calcium carbide.

The chemical is used to make crude bombs as well as for wielding purposes. But it is also widely used by greedy wholesalers and retailers at Mahuna fruit mandi in Sanganer to fasten the ripening of mangoes in order to make a fast buck.

This method also helps make mangoes look more attractive, agrees Ramesh Sharma, a fruit-seller at the mandi. Misuse of this chemical is banned.

This correspondent visited half a dozen wholesalers and retailers at the mandi to gauge the extent of use of this illegal method and was surprised to find that almost all the fruit-sellers were using calcium carbide to ripen the mangoes.

The chemical is widely available at the mandi at the cost of Rs 40 per kg. "Nearly 200 kgs of mangoes can be artificially ripened by using only one kg of calcium carbide," said a mango retailer.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Your_mango_has_bomb_element/articleshow/3061308.cms

Nice.....Aren't we still trading India nukes for mangoes?

[OhioChick]

1. ...And Mangoes for Harleys

NEW DELHI: It's going to be mangoes in return for Harley Davidson bikes. In a quid pro quo, India is going to allow the import of a specified number of the iconic motorcycles at lower duty, while US is finally going to announce the entry of Indian mangoes.

While the various Indian agencies involved are nearly ready with notifications that will allow the use of tariff rate quotas lower import duty for a specified number of bikes, the announcement on mangoes is expected during US Trade Representative Susan Schwab's visit for the India-US Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meet next month.

Though the government had linked the entry of Harley Davidson bikes, which will be required to comply with Euro III norms, with permissions to SBI and ICICI Bank to open more branches in the US, it has had to give up on its demand. Even the decision on mangoes is over a year old and is finally fructifying now.

Besides, officials said, the delay by the US has meant that Indian mangoes may not be able to reach American shores since the season is weeks away and exporters are yet to tie up with US stores.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India_Business/India_to_allow_Harley_Davidson_import/articleshow/1807216.cms

[izquierdista]

2. Wouldn't banana peels be cheaper?

And I don't mean in a carbide cannon.

[angrycarpenter]

3. I hate mangoes

I used to have two large mango trees in my yard. Every years these trees would drop hundreds of pounds of fruit in the yard.

The fruit would quickly start to rot in the Florida heat. Flies would arrive in clouds. The stench was incredible.

The trash pick-up would not take them because a trash can full could weigh over a 100 pounds.

I tried to bury them once. A clump of mango saplings came up that took 3 years to kill back.

They fell on top of the house when I was trying to sleep. They stunk in the yard all summer long.

I hate mangoes. Hate them.

[OhioChick]

4. Wow....

Can't say that I blame you. :wow:

[tjwash]

5. We are in your mangos...stealing your intertubes.

[mike_c]

6. this is a common practice in one varient or another....

Lots of fruits are picked green and riped before market with either ethylene gas (which is a plant growth regulator) or with acetylene gas, which is an analog produced by mixing calcium cabonate and water. Most americans have likely never tasted naturally ripened bananas, mango, pineapple, or for that matter, oranges.

Ethylene and calcium carbonate/acetylene are both routinely used for force flowering cut flowers, too.