News

Millions of Chinese farmland acres too polluted to farm

A Chinese Cabinet official says 3.33 million hectares (8.22 million acres) of China’s farmland is too polluted to grow crops. The area represents 2 percent of China’s arable land however some scientists say as much as 60 million acres are too polluted to farm.

Wang Shiyuan is vice-minister of land resources, he told a news conference on Monday the land is polluted with heavy metals and chemicals the result of overuse of farm chemicals, rapid industrial growth, improper disposal of household garbage and lax environmental enforcement.

The minister says the Chinese government is working on a long-range plan and will probably spend billions of Yuan per year on cleanup efforts.

This year, inspectors found dangerous levels of cadmium, a cancer-causing metal, in rice sold in the southern city of Guangzhou. The rice was grown in Henan, a major heavy metal-producing region.