A rather interesting tidbit about China, unrelated to the China Rover news, and it touches on an area often mentioned here - genetically modified foods. The last line in this brief article says, "It urged the U.S. authority to improve its inspection procedures to ensure that they comply with Chinese quality standards". How interesting! If China doesn't want it, maybe someone needs to yell loud about it not being used here too!!!!
http://www.ecns.cn/business/2013/12-20/93580.shtml
China has rejected 12 batches of U.S. corn shipments tainted with a genetically-modified (GM) strain not approved by the country's agriculture ministry, its leading quality supervisor said on Friday.
Shipments totalling 545,000 tonnes were found to contain the unapproved MIR162, a strain of insect-resistent transgenic corn, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement.
The administration said local entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureaus have returned the batches and it has notified the U.S. authority.
It urged the U.S. authority to improve its inspection procedures to ensure that they comply with Chinese quality standards.
QuoteIt urged the U.S. authority to improve its inspection procedures to ensure that they comply with Chinese quality standards.
I wonder if we have a believe or not thread? There are quality standards here? Wait till they start rejecting the chicken feet because the chickens eat this corn. We still can't get quality beef because of Mad Cow. They want a one way trade. Smart guys!
I wonder if they were afraid of what might happen when the GM corn came in contact with all the smog and pollution?
Speaking of which - found this little gem:
http://aqicn.org/map/
Quote from: WarToad on December 20, 2013, 10:57:21 AM
I wonder if they were afraid of what might happen when the GM corn came in contact with all the smog and pollution?
Speaking of which - found this little gem:
http://aqicn.org/map/
Wartoad, here is another news piece relative to China's air pollution - at least they recognize they have a problem.
http://www.ecns.cn/2013/12-20/93483.shtml
Cleaning air may cost 300 bln US dollars
2013-12-20 08:39XinhuaWeb Editor: Mo Hong'e
A visitor takes photo at the Bund in Shanghai, east China, Dec. 9, 2013. Heavy smog and fog continued to hit Shanghai on Monday. (Xinhua/Pei Xin)
A total of 1.75 trillion yuan (290 billion US dollars) will be invested from 2013 to 2017 to deal with China's worsening air pollution, an environment expert said on Wednesday.
Wang Jinnan, deputy head of the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, said at the 4th Caixin Summit in Beijing that the investment would drive up GDP by nearly 2 trillion yuan and create over 2 million jobs.
According to Wang, 36.7 percent of the investment, or 640 billion yuan should go on cleaning up industry, followed by 490 billion yuan (28.2 percent) on cleaner energy sources. Cleaning up motor vehicles will absorb 210 billion yuan.
The State Council issued the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in September to control PM2.5 (airborne particles of less than 2.5 microns diameter).
The action plan requires PM2.5 in populated regions and metropolises to be reduced significantly by 2017. The annual average of PM2.5 in Beijing would be expected to drop to 60 micrograms per cubic meter.
Smoggy cities to clear the air.
China has introduced various emergency responses and long-term measures against air pollution in the central and eastern regions. The air quality index (AQI) reading for Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, reached 500 on Wednesday afternoon, at the top of the AQI scale and indicating hazardous pollution, according to the national air quality monitoring website.