Rice consumers in that country should be GRATEFUL that they are getting free supplements of vital minerals in their staples.
Regulating pollution will just drive the problem underground, where only C.H.U.D.s and mole people will benefit from these free minerals.
Also a nice cadmium yellow tint to the rice will eliminate the need to add expensive saffron…
Exactly!
These are the tangible, real-world benefits that the “tree huggers” and “environmentalists” and “doctors shocked by heavy metal poisoning” neglect to take into account when they insist on job-killing regulations to keep “known toxins and carcinogens” from food.
So how do I purify the cadmium from my rice for resale?
Also, why do those groups hate children?
Finally, and importantly, saffron cultivation is likely to encourage child labor and the producer associations must take steps to discourage it where it threatens overwork or staying away from school.
Meta Comment (Sorry)
Am I the only one who when visiting the original post: http://boingboing.net/2014/04/25/greenpeace-heavy-metals-pollu.html
The sign says: “Comments Closed”?
I think that kidneys are pretty good at separating heavy metals, so just invite a group of people over for a golden shower party and serve a lot of beer and rice.
(there might be some excess proteins from the “shredded” kidneys, but separating them should be trivial)
This is only the tip of the iceberg for China on environmental issues. The people there are fed up and I think the government is going to be forced to enact some actual environmental protection. Eventually we won’t be able to export our pollution to there anymore and will have to find some other country to setup dirty industry in.
Eventually we might run out of countries with exploitative and abusive governments and have to actually factor in the environmental costs of our products, but probably not in my lifetime. We still have most of Africa to exploit, not to mention South and Central America and the Middle East.
We will probably be on that list sooner or later… Or, at least, parts of US.
Taking off the satire hat:
There have been stories in the news over the last few years on how the Chinese elite import as much of there as they can, including produce, from overseas. They don’t just mistrust crops, but packaged and processed food. The context was the revelation about foods deliberately adulterated with melanine, but I’m sure they take pollution into account as well.
I hear that Appalachian coal country has been a dystopian exploitation zone since before industrial pollution was even a thing in China…
Never saw one of those…
Pants, yes, but never a hat…
China seems to be going through the transformation that the US did back at the turn of the last century. They need a Sinclair Lewis and Mother Jones. (and then we need to borrow them since the US seems to want to return to those times).
Edit: found a “satire” hat: That must get pretty warm…
Besides the obvious positive to cadmium rice: you can now power your smartphone!
There have been stories in the news over the last few years on how the Chinese elite import as much of there as they can, including produce, from overseas.
Maybe that’s the American conservative strategy of dropping our own regulations down to Chinese levels so the Chinese elite can get poisoned from our food exports?
In the meantime:
I drafted Cadmium Rice as a WR on my fantasy team.
Cliven Bundy would probably welcome polluting industries on his* land. He never had much truck with theories about elements beyond Earth, Air, Fire and Water and is pretty sure this cadmium stuff is a myth, much less toxic.
*Which his ancestors farmed since the waters of the great flood receded.
Depressing, but not a surprise. That said, the recent scare about arsenic (another heavy metal) in rice appears to me to be based largely on misunderstandings about how stable the arsenic compounds found in the rice are - I would want to know if cadmium levels in people’s bodies were rising. Though even if the amount absorbed was small, there could be a feedback loop, if treated sewage is used as a fertilizer…
China is violating the “don’t shit where you eat” rule. They’re polluting the fuck out of their country. Their rivers are all kinds of colors, their air is inbreathable, and now they can’t even eat their own food. Is “progress” worth it?
That said - “Cadmium Rice” would make a nice band name.
