Fields of watermelon burst in China farm fiasco

[kristopher]

Fields of watermelon burst in China farm fiasco

BEIJING, China (AP) --

Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of "land mines."

About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon, China Central Television said in an investigative report.

Prices over the past year prompted many farmers to jump into the watermelon market. All of those with exploding melons apparently were first-time users of the growth accelerator forchlorfenuron, though it has been widely available for some time, CCTV said in the report broadcast Monday night.

Chinese regulations don't forbid the drug, and it is allowed in the U.S. on kiwi fruit and grapes. But the report underscores how farmers in China are abusing both legal and illegal chemicals, with many farms misusing pesticides and fertilizers.

Wang Liangju, a professor with College of Horticulture at...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/17/international/i030801D13.DTL&feed=rss.business

[vandelay]

1. "exploding" as in cracked rinds. sheese. NT

[iemitsu]

2. the story rings funny to me.

even though i know that the farmers have lost their crop it was only the greedy farmers who wanted to "pad" the weight of their melons who were affected.
the idea of a field of melons exploding is monty pythonesque.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Has anyone considered that had they not exploded, some of those watermelons would have

been on the plates at some Memorial Day or Fourth of July picnic?