Exploding Melons Are No Joke
Another case of toxic chemicals in China
It sounds almost comic: Fields full of watermelons blowing up … seeds flying like shrapnel. In fact, it’s just the latest serious example of dangerous farming in China.
In this case, farmers have been spraying their crops with forchlorfenuron, a fertilizer and growth accelerator that’s been causing watermelons to grow so fast they suddenly explode.
This particular food safety scandal follows many others, including the discovery of the heavy metal cadmium in 10 percent of the rice crop, with the potential to affect the nervous systems of millions of people; melamine in milk, which made thousands of babies sick, many of them fatally; melamine added to pet foods that were shipped to the United States and killed many companion animals; along with arsenic in soy sauce, bleach in mushrooms, and the detergent borax added to pork to make it look like beef.
These food scandals have become something of a “cause celèbre” in the Chinese media, where it was reported earlier this week that much of the fruit labeled in Chinese stores as “imported” – and therefore assumed to be safer than homegrown – is actually simply mislabeled.
What do you say? Do you try to avoid Chinese products, especially food items with ingredients from that country? Let us know in a comment below or on Facebook.
What you can do: Avoid Chinese products, especially food items with ingredients from that country!