Economy
China's Pollution Problem Is Also a Food Safety Crisis
Eight million acres of Chinese farmland is so contaminated that it's now closed to farming.
Tests recently conducted on rice sold in Hong Kong found that grain imports from mainland China contained excessive levels of cadmium, a toxic heavy metal that can cause cancer and other health problems. Cadmium can originate from the slurry of waste materials that leaches into the ground from open dumps.
And for China, Hong Kong's rice is just one food crisis among many.