One-fifth of Chinese farmland contaminated by unregulated industry

Chinese farmland (Credit: Laika ac, via Wikimedia Commons)

China’s Communist Party has announced that one-fifth of the nation’s farmland is contaminated due to unregulated industrial activity, NPR reported.

Toxic heavy metals such as cadmium and arsenic pollute 16.1 percent of China’s soil and 19.4 percent of its farmland, according to a report by the Environmental Protection and Land and Resources ministries. The report contained data from a 2.4 million square mile soil survey.

The report, which was previously classified as a state secret, identifies China’s east coast and southwest regions as especially contaminated. Industrial heavy metal pollution is believed to have stricken several villages with above average cancer rates.

Image: Chinese farmland (Credit: Laika ac, via Wikimedia Commons)

One Comment

1. 

   Maranda

   April 25, 2014 at 9:34 am

   So what does that mean for the people who eat the crops from those fields? Should I be on the lookout for any produce traded from China in my grocery store?

   Reply