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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Chinese minefield

The link between the exploding watermelons of China and the blurrrting cows of Southland was made by Dunedin correspondent Nick, who sent this link to alert readers here to the dangers of pumping up the production more than is natural.
The article, published in the Otago Daily Times points to the dangers of over-stimulating growth in the watermelon growing industry, while Nick draws the parallel with our dairy industry. He doesn't say 'urea' but I read between the lines, and while our cows aren't blowing-up and bursting like the watermelons, their pat-production can rightly be described as explosive.
The article is short and I hope the ODT won't mind that I paste it here in full.

Exploding watermelons plague Chinese farmers

The overuse of a chemical that helps fruit grow faster is causing a rash of exploding watermelons in eastern China. An investigative report by China Central Television found farms in Jiangsu province were losing acres of fruit to the problem.
It said farmers sprayed too much growth promoter, hoping they could get fruit to market ahead of season and make more money.
China is battling rampant misuse of pesticides, fertilizers and food additives, like dyes and sweeteners, meant to make food more attractive and boost sales.

5 comments:

Shunda barunda said...

Take a look at this Robert:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/budget-2011/5017285/Is-the-rural-sector-paying-enough-tax

Makes my blood boil!!!

What a pack of hypocrites!!

robertguyton said...

It's alright Shunda - Federated Farmers have assured us that farmers are the backbone of the country and quite poor in fact - that's why they don't pay much tax.
Shame on you for your disbelief!

Anonymous said...

Ha! silly Chinese, they'll never catch up. We've had too much of a head start and we have got poisoning our food down to an art.

robertguyton said...

We helped them along a but with the melamine issue - collaboration, right there!

Shunda barunda said...

Steady on fellows, farmers are the back bone of the nay-shun!! they wouldn't put us wrong!

The National MP for the WC just said how disgusting all those smelly freedom campers are, apparently they poo all over our beautiful country!!
Gosh! the least they could do is hold on till they get home!!

We don't like sh!t on our countryside!!.................