Pollution wrecks Chinese farmland

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Wang Shiyuan, vice-minister of China's Ministry of Land and Resources, has confirmed what many in China and around the world have feared: pollution is severely damaging Chinese farmland. The Associated Press reports that Wang told a news conference that investigations by the Ministry of Environmental Protection found "moderate to severe pollution" on 8.25 million acres of farmland, and that "these areas cannot continue farming."

Rapid industrial growth, overuse of chemicals on farms and a lack of environmental enforcement have left large portions of China's soils contaminated with heavy metals and other chemicals. The AP reports that tests conducted in the spring of last year found cadmium, a carcinogenic metal readily absorbed by rice, in almost half the rice in the major city of Guangzhou.

Last February, the government came under criticism when it declared the results of a countrywide soil pollution survey a state secret and refused to release them to the public. Even the current numbers are being questioned, with some scientists putting the estimate of polluted land as high as 60 million acres, or one-fifth of China's arable land.

At the press conference, Wang said that the Chinese government is working on a long-range plan to reduce heavy-metal pollution and will dedicate several billion dollars a year to the effort. An increasingly frustrated populace may just hold them to their word. Last year saw several thousands-strong protests of planned industrial plants. BF