12 Million Tons Of Chinese Grain Contaminated By Heavy Metals Annually - AFP

China's farmland is becoming increasingly polluted, with coal-dependent factories and polluted waterways causing billions of dollars in damages, state press reported Monday. Heavy metals contaminate 12 million tonnes of grains each year, leading to direct losses of more than 20 billion yuan (2.6 billion dollars), the China Daily said, citing the nation's environmental watchdog.

More than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres), or 10 percent of China's farming land, has been ruined, the paper said, citing other reports in the state-run press. China's coal industry, which supplies about 70 percent of the nation's energy needs, is having a major impact. More than two billion tonnes of coal is burnt each year, discharging around 2,000 tonnes of mercury into the environment.

Much of the highly toxic heavy metal ultimately seeps into the soil, the paper said.

Vegetables and fruit have also been polluted by excessive amounts of nitrate reaching the ground, it added.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Farmland_Across_China_At_Risk_From_Pollution_999.html

Getting fruit and other out of season products from Mexico or S. America is acceptable with some proof of health standards. I object to human fertilizer. It would be even better if we could depend on our own FDA to inspect more food operations in our own country. Bushies don't see that as all that important. Will this insanity ever end?

Oh that's right, agribiz killed that.

feed it to people.

I bet they sell it to us at a very competitive price. :sarcasm:

... and gods know what else.

This is personal for ALL of us.

Hekate

brrr

Hekate

from cancer, they can reprocess them into soylent green....

Has anybody considered the soils of say, New Jersey?

Coal plants have been spewing mercury at New Jersey for nearly a century.

Here's the mercury map of the US:



http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/models/maps/poster.html