It shouldn't be much of a surprise after all of the scary problems related to food products that were exported abroad. Even in the US, farm runoff is a terrible problem. Anyone who lives near the Chesapeake is familiar with the chemical runoff problems including fewer fish and higher levels of cancer in the area. Claims that the Chinese pollution is near its peak is about as believable as the claims that the government is not triggering an economic bubble. The Guardian:
Farmers' fields are a bigger source of water contamination in China than factory effluent, the Chinese government revealed today in its first census on pollution.
Senior officials said the disclosure, after a two-year study involving 570,000 people, would require a partial realignment of environmental policy from smoke stacks to chicken coops, cow sheds and fruit orchards.
Despite the sharp upward revision of figures on rural contamination, the government suggested the country's pollution problem may be close to - or even past - a peak. That claim is likely to prompt scepticism among environmental groups.
