The whole story begins with farmers using too many growth chemicals in a rainy season, which caused the watermelons to start bursting and create a strange scene.
Wanting to grow bigger watermelons for a larger profit, the Danyang city farmers started using forchlorfenuron growth accelerators in the Jiangsu province, leading to 115 acres of lost watermelon.
Forchlorfenuron – What exactly is it?
According to the US EPA, forchlorfenuron is “a cytokine that increases fruit size, fruit set, cluster weight andimproves cold storage in grapes and kiwifruits”.
According to Wang Liangju, a professor at the College of Horticulture at Nanjing Agricultural University, the exploding watermelons are not a normal occurrence, since the chemical is deemed safe to use – if proper usage is adhered to. Prof. Liangju was on the scene when the whole incident took place and he states that the fault is to be found in the farmers, since they started using the chemical in late season and the rain raised the chances of watermelons bursting. According to him, if the farmers used the chemical when the watermelons were still not ripe, they wouldn’t have burst open.
“The melons that were planted were a thin-rind variety which are in fact also called ‘ the exploding melons’ since they have a tendency of splitting”, – says Liangju.
Forchlorfenuron has been approved by the regulatory bodies in China and it is also legal in the US for grapes and kiwi fruits. However, Chinese farmers have been long misusing both legal and illegal pesticides, fertilizers and chemicals, all for the sake of increasing profit.
How safe is the chemical?
From what the EPA has on their record, this chemical doesn’t seem to be 100% safe for use:
- It leads to higher mortality rate in pups and lower litter sizes in rats
- It’s moderately toxic to freshwater fish
- It’s slightly more toxic in birds
Finding out whether your fruit has been treated with growth hormones or pesticides
According to The Environmental Working Group¸out of 3,015 samples from produce tested in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, two thirds contained residues of pesticides, and there were 165 different pesticides found on most of the vegetable and fruit samples.
Produce with the highest levels of pesticide residue:
- Strawberries
- Snap peas
- Grapes
- Apples
- Peaches
- Potatoes
- Nectarines
- Cherry tomatoes
Produce with the lowest levels of pesticide residue:
- Pineapples
- Cabbage
- Sweet corn
- Onions
- Eggplant
- Asparagus
- Papayas
- Grapefruit
- Frozen sweet peas
- Kiwi
- Cantaloupe
- Mangos
- Cauliflower
- Avocados
- Sweet potatoes
One of the easiest ways to recognize whether your vegetable or fruit is free of pesticides and organic is the noticeable lack of taste. This is due to the farmers using growth hormones which stimulate faster cell growth but also eliminate the natural flavor of the produce.
It is a fact that farmers don’t only use forchlorfenuron, but also other dangerous growth hormones and pesticides which are really bad for your health. One example is oxytocin, which is immensely used as a pesticide and fertilizer in India, despite that there is a public ban on its sales. Other commonly used growth agents by farmers around the glove are calcium carbide (known to cause many health problems) and ethylene (known to contain traces of arsenic).
That’s why the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones is to always go for organic food. If you can’t buy everything organic, at least try to buy those vegetables and fruits which are known to have high level of pesticides. If you still end up buying non-organic products, make sure that they are properly decontaminated by being thoroughly washed and peeled.
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