The cadmium rice plant in the hard-hit area was discontinued

After Yixian County was found to have exceeded the rice cadmium exceeded event in rice mills, in addition to the loss of the rice plant, if the situation continues, the most economically damaged farmers are farmers, especially farmers who have contracted large amounts of farmland. “This incident (refers to the rice cadmium exceeded) can not blame the farmers, they do not know where this thing comes from.” Said a person in charge of a rice plant in Jing County.

“Regardless of the government departments’ decision not to start the work, they cannot start work. The distributors in Guangdong side have been reluctant to sell Hunan rice. What do you want to do with rice?” May 26, Datong Qiaozhen Yimi Factory, Lixian County People told the Daily Economic News reporter.

Ganxian County is located in the east of Hunan, with a total area of ​​2,664 square kilometers and a population of 818,500. It is one of the "four major grain-producing counties" in Hunan. According to official data, the total area of ​​rice cultivation in 2012 was 995,000 mu and the total rice production was 484,400 tons.

On May 18 and May 21, 2013, relevant departments in Guangdong announced the dozens of batches of rice sampled in the Guangdong market twice, and found that rice produced in Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guangdong had exceeded the “cadmium standard”. Among them, the excessive cadmium in Hunan rice involved Zhuzhou, Hengyang, Quzhou, Yiyang, Changde, and other cities and counties, and among the 11 rice producers involved in Hunan rice cadmium exceedance, 5 were located in Zhuozhou County.

In the past few days, the reporter investigated and questioned the losses of rice mills, the sources of cadmium pollution, and the detection of cadmium in rice by various departments. Through this "Sampling County sample," people may be allowed to snoop into the causes and practical difficulties behind the excessive cadmium levels in rice in Hunan and throughout the country.

Rice planters in the Yixian County stop producing rice in a large area

“Daily Economic News” reporter sorted out five rice producers in Guixian that had been announced by relevant departments in Guangdong and found that these manufacturers are mainly located in the three towns of Neting, Datong Bridge and Shiyangtang in Ji County. The reporter’s investigations in the past few days found that the rice enterprises in the above three towns, whether they were found to have excessive cadmium in rice or were not identified, basically stopped production because Guangdong’s rice dealers were reluctant to sell in Qian County and Hunan. Produced rice.

The relevant person in charge of the Gansu County Agriculture Bureau and the Grain Bureau also confirmed to the reporter that the enterprises that had been found to have excessive cadmium in rice had been ordered to suspend production by the functional departments of the county, and that other large and small rice factories basically stopped production because the rice they produced could not be sold. The rice plant also stopped buying rice from farmers.

On May 25th, the reporter went to the Dongjing Rice Factory in the town of Jingling, Qixian County. The factory site was quiet and there were no ringing machines and no personnel activities. The reporter entered the gate of the factory and saw a man sleeping on the floor in the warehouse.

The man in his fifties told reporters that the factory has been shut down for a month and it is still not known when it will start. He pointed to a small pile of packed rice in the warehouse. He said that there was only a small output in the factory. There were only four or five workers. After the stoppage of work, the workers returned home and left him alone to see the factory.

Datongqiao Town Rice Factory has stopped acquiring rice from local farmers.

On May 26, when the reporter came to the factory, no workers were allowed to open factories. In the large warehouse, countless sparrows were feeding on the ground. According to the plant's proprietress, the factory can produce several thousand tons of rice a year, but after the Hunan rice “cadmium exceeded” incident, the factory has no production, and it no longer buys rice from the farmers.

Datongqiao Town Daban Rice Mill is a member of the “Daily Economic News” reporter investigating several rice plants in Lixian County. The factory and the factory area are the most formal ones. It is also a relevant department of Guangdong’s publishing the rice cadmium exceeding the standard twice. Rice factory. The reporter came to the company twice on May 26, but all the iron gates were closed, knocking at the door and calling nobody to answer. Only a clear bark was heard.

According to those who had contact with the company’s owner Liu Xing, the annual production of large-scale rice mills was about 3,000 tons. After the rice cadmium was found to be excessive, the factory had been ordered to suspend production by the relevant departments of Jixian County. Liu’s boss was in Guangdong. 30,000 kilograms of rice were detained by the functional departments of the Guangdong government. He is now under great pressure, his eyes are full of bloodshot, emotional, and that he is innocent, because rice mills can not be mixed with cadmium in rice.

Another Dabanqiao rice plant in Datongqiao Town has also been discontinued. The boss said that not only the distributors in Guangdong do not sell rice in Jing County, but also Changsha dealers are reluctant to sell rice in Jing County. The Tianxing Rice Factory in Shiyangtang Town is the company that was announced by the relevant Guangdong authorities in the list of excessive cadmium in rice and has also stopped production. As for the date when production started, the above-mentioned company-related personnel were in an uproar.

According to the reporter's understanding, the rice business in Jixian County is usually not very good at doing business. Using the words of a rice factory employee means “thin profits and risks are high.” The staff of Netling Zhendongjing Rice Factory told the reporter that the price of a bag of 50 kg of rice for the factory was 100 yuan, while the price of 50 pounds of rice was 65 yuan. Then some production and transportation costs in the middle were eliminated, and it was not much. money. When companies and Guangdong dealers do business, they have to “spread goods” first, that is, the rice is shipped to dealers. After the dealers are sold out, they are paid back to rice companies; if they are sold out, they can be returned.

The owner of a rice plant in Daban Village, Datong Town, said that his factory can produce 10,000 tons of rice a year. After the occurrence of excessive cadmium in Hunan rice, the factory stopped the maintenance of machinery and equipment. "If, after three months, the factory cannot start work, it will change to another business."

The director of the Yi County Grain Bureau Office told the reporter that the ordinary profit of the rice plant was thin. After the cadmium rice incident, their business was even more difficult to do, and some of them may even have to lose money. Now the county government is actively looking for countermeasures.

Yi Zhu said that after the rice plant was discontinued, the rice that the farmers originally sold to the rice plant may now be sold to the grain station. If the country requires the purchase price of the farmer's rice at the protection price, the grain storage capacity of the Xian County Grain Depot is only a dozen or more. Tens of thousands of tons, and the county's one-year grain production was nearly 500,000 tons. The grain storage capacity is also a problem.

Jixian rice can not sell out of farms or suffer

Jixian County is a large grain county in Hunan. According to the “Daily Economic News” reporter, in 2012, the county has a total area of ​​995,000 mu of paddy rice and 448,400 tons of paddy rice. The amount of rice sold in the year accounted for 76.38% of the total output. Except for local rations and a small amount of sales to Hengyang and Changsha, most of them were sold to Guangdong.

After Yixian County was found to have exceeded the rice cadmium exceeded event in rice mills, in addition to the loss of the rice plant, if the situation continues, the most economically damaged farmers are farmers, especially farmers who have contracted large amounts of farmland.

A number of farmers in the towns of Dalingqiao and Datong Town told reporters that at present, each farmer owns more than one mu of paddy fields, and each one mu of paddy field has early and late rice yields of about 1,000 pounds each. The cost of buying pesticides and fertilizers, arable land and harvesting are eliminated. Costs, 1 mu in two quarters to earn about 600 yuan. Now young people in the countryside have gone out to work, leaving only the middle-aged and elderly to farm at home. Farmer Liu asked the reporter: If the rice in Yixian County cannot be sold, what should the farmers do?

Luo Ju, director of the Agricultural Bureau of Jixian County, told reporters that farmers over the age of 50 in Jixian accounted for more than 80% of the farmers. If the situation of the discontinued production of rice mills continues, the biggest losses will come from large farmers.

Director Luo introduced that there are more than two hundred households of farm households with a farmland of more than one hundred acres, and several hundred acres of farmland have also reached dozens of households. According to statistics, the cost of planting an acre of early and late rice for large farms is around 800 yuan. If 500 acres of farmland are planted, the annual cost will be over 400,000 yuan.

An elderly farmer told the reporter that the biggest loser was the "big family" who contracted hundreds of mu of land. They spent a lot of money. If the rice sales did not go out, it would be even more troublesome. Datong Qiaozhen, a farmer who bought rural rice from rural villages for many years, told reporters that many farmers in Shexian County have contracted farmland ranging from 100 mu to 600 mu. The annual cost of farmland is in the hundreds of thousands, if the rice in Jixian County is sold. If they don't go out, they can be miserable.

“This incident (refers to the rice cadmium exceeded) can not blame the farmers, they do not know where this thing comes from.” Said a person in charge of a rice plant in Jing County.

The mystery of cadmium: fertilizer, soil into rice cadmium exceeded the culprit

Recently, relevant departments in Guangdong announced that the excessive production of cadmium in rice from Hunan has caused concern and discussion among the public about heavy metal pollution in Hunan. Some of them believe that river pollution, chemical fertilizer pollution, and high cadmium content in soil itself are the main causes of excessive cadmium in rice. the reason.

However, "Daily Economic News" reporter conducted field investigations in Li County, Hunan Province in the past few days and found that there is no evidence to support cadmium pollution in rivers. Ganxian County has announced that the rice cadmium exceeds the standards of the manufacturers are located in the town of Neting, Datong Bridge and Shiyangtang three towns, the three towns from north to south into a linear arrangement. The water system that flows through these three towns is mainly the Liquor River channel. The canal water flowed from the Jiulongjiang Reservoir in Pixian County to Surabaya, the largest river in the county. Surabaya re-enters the Xiangjiang River.

According to the official website of Ji County Land and Resources Bureau, Jiubu River Reservoir is located in the southeast of Jiuquanjiang Town and is a state-level large-scale reservoir with an area of ​​610 square kilometers. According to the reporter's knowledge, this reservoir has been listed as the second largest water source in Zhuzhou City. The reservoir is surrounded by mountains and green trees, and there are no industrial and mining enterprises. The clear water quality of the reservoir has become a local tourist attraction.

The reporter learned from field observations and learned from local people such as Netling Town and Datongqiao Town that there were almost no industrial and mining enterprises involved in the three towns involved in the excessive cadmium content of rice and the places where the upstream canal flows through. The Director of the Food and Nutrition Office of Pixian County told the reporter of the “Daily Economic News” that there were no heavy metal companies within 10 kilometers of the rice plants that exceeded the rice cadmium standards; and the monitoring of the groundwater by the Yu County Environmental Protection Agency has not been found. There is a problem of excessive cadmium metal.

Fertilizer or one of the "culprits" for rice cadmium exceeded. The relevant person in charge of the Agricultural Resources and Environmental Protection Management Station of the Hunan Agriculture Department told the reporter of the “Daily Economic News” that the fertilizers used by the farmers when farming the fields include certain fertilizers such as nitrogen fertilizers, phosphate fertilizers, and Jia Jia fertilizers, which will be continuously provided for many years. Applying large amounts of the above chemical fertilizers to farmland will play a role in increasing the cadmium content of rice.

Tong Qianming, professor of the Geological Institute of Hunan Province, told the media that in some areas of Hunan, phosphorus fertilizers will be used in large areas in order to increase production. Phosphorus fertilizer applied to the field, will lead to excessive levels of cadmium in the soil after a certain degree, and eventually caused excessive crop cadmium.

The reporter learned from interviews with farmers who had farmed many years in the above-mentioned three towns in Shexian County that the local farmers gave them "composite fertilizers" (that is, the combination of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers). An elderly farmer in the town of Neting told reporters that it is now necessary to apply a pack of 50 kg of “compound fertilizer” per acre of land. Many years ago, farmer's manure was used, but due to feed for pigs in recent years, farmyard manures such as pig manure cannot be applied to the fields because the farmer's manure only grows and grows less rice and is also prone to insects.

The director of Luoxian Agricultural Bureau Office Luo said that farmers in Jixian County used “compound fertilizer” mostly because there were fewer households raising pigs and there was insufficient farmyard fertilizer. Besides, using farmyard fertilizers also consumes more manpower than using chemical fertilizers.

For the farmer to fertilize rice fields all year round, the above person in charge of the Hunan Agriculture Department felt helpless. She said that the practice in some foreign countries is to replant paddy fields one or more years after the rice fields, because there are many people in the fields. However, the lack of arable land in Hunan does not have the same conditions as in foreign countries. Instead, it has to continuously plant rice every year. In order to reduce production, only fertilizers are used every year. Accumulated over many years, the cadmium content of rice is also increasing.

However, the local rice factory officials in Yixian County questioned if the fertilizer caused the rice cadmium to exceed the standard, and why fertilizers were also applied elsewhere in the province. Why did it not exceed the standard? The above-mentioned Hunan Agriculture Department officials believe that applying fertilizer on farmland is only one of the factors that lead to excessive cadmium, and the soil itself also has a certain amount of cadmium, and the addition of the two may lead to excessive cadmium in rice.

According to reports, Hunan is known as the "hometown of non-ferrous metals," and various non-ferrous metal deposits including cadmium and lead are abundant. In particular, the heavy metal reserves in Zhangzhou, Hengyang, Zhuzhou, and other places in southern Hunan are predominant. The relevant Guangdong provincial authorities announced that the cadmium produced by the rice produced in many places in Hunan exceeds the standard, and the vast majority of rice factories involved are located in the aforementioned three places.

A responsible person of the Minxian County Environmental Protection Bureau told reporters that according to his understanding, the water in the Xiangjiang River could not be polluted to the farmland in the above-mentioned three towns in Shexian County. From the distribution of mineral resources, Shiyangtang Town distributes a lot of gold. The mine is currently undeveloped but the cadmium content in the soil may be relatively high.

Luo Ju, director of the Agricultural Bureau of Lu County, said that the Bureau of Agriculture had already extracted the soil samples of Lu County and sent them to provincial-level units in Hunan Province for testing. The results have not yet appeared. Therefore, it is still not possible to determine whether the soil contains high amounts of cadmium.

China's "standard" is stricter than international standards

The source of pollution has not yet been clarified, and the "national standard" for the amount of cadmium in rice is also in dispute.

According to the relevant regulations of the Chinese Ministry of Health, the content of cadmium in rice cannot exceed 0.2 milligrams per kilogram. For this standard, the relevant person in charge of Hunan's agricultural resources and environmental protection management station thinks that Japan, the United States, and other developed countries are all set to be strict. For example, the standard for rice cadmium in Japan was previously set at 1.0 mg/kg. The UN Food Standards Commission's rule is that the cadmium content per kilogram of rice should not exceed 0.4 milligrams per kilogram.

"Daily Economic News" reporter statistics Guangdong authorities announced that the rice cadmium in Lixian County, Hunan exceeded the number of cadmium found that most rice mills produced rice cadmium content of 0.4 mg per kg. If measured by this standard, many rice brands will not exceed their standards.

Tong Qianming, an expert from the Institute of Geology of Hunan Province, recently told the media that China's current definition of cadmium in rice cannot exceed 0.2 milligrams per kilogram, which is unreasonable. This is higher than foreign standards. The standard for foreign rice is 0.4 milligrams per kilogram. The so-called Dongting Lake rice cadmium content is only a few milligrams per kilogram, and there are no foreign standards exceeding 0.4 milligrams per kilogram.

According to an official from Hunan's grain system, the national level may consider raising the detection standard for cadmium in rice in the future, which will be in line with the relevant standards of the United Nations, otherwise Hunan’s food security will become a big problem.

For the national standard of rice cadmium content, which department should be tested in daily work? "Daily Economic News" reporter found through interviews with relevant departments in Hunan Province and Jixian County that the amount of cadmium contained in rice, agriculture, food, quality supervision, and the Bureau of Industry, Food, and Food, and Food and Drug Control have the right to inspect, but actually No department is "more truthful," and there is a situation in which "Kowloon Water Management" cannot cure water.

The relevant person in charge of the Ganyu County Bureau of Agriculture told reporters that the agricultural department is conducting inspections in the production of rice, but the conventional test is the detection of pesticide residues, and there is no detection of heavy metals such as cadmium, because cadmium is not a mandatory inspection item. In addition, the detection of heavy metals such as cadmium requires specialized testing equipment, which is not available in the agricultural sector but can only be submitted for inspection but the cost is high.

The relevant person in charge of the Ganyu County Grain Bureau stated that the grain department will test the “raw grain” when it receives grain, but most of them conduct routine tests on the moisture content of the grain, and do not detect the contents of heavy metals such as cadmium. Because cadmium and other heavy metals are not mandatory inspection items, the grain department does not have any special testing equipment; there are many types of heavy metals, and if all are detected, the cost is also very large. After the rice cadmium exceedance event occurred, the Gan County Grain Bureau has selected rice from some households as a sample and sent it to relevant units in Hunan for testing. It is not yet clear whether the cadmium content will be used as a test subject in the future. However, from the actual situation, it is very difficult to implement it.

"Daily Economic News" reporter did not find a person in charge of checking the cadmium content of rice in the County Bureau of Quality Supervision. A deputy director said that he wanted to find an office, but the office told the media that he wanted to find the county government.

The Hunan Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau interviewed reporters in response to the interview request. It also adopted the practice of “kicking the ball”. The Hunan Provincial Food Safety Administration stated that the provincial government requested the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision to verify and report on “Cadmium rice” incidents in Jing County and other regions. , but there is no relevant news.

The Hunan Food and Drug Administration also told reporters that routine testing of catering units did not include the detection of heavy metals such as cadmium.

For the phenomenon of “national standard” without any government functional departments performing an inspection, an official from a functional department of the provincial government in Hunan Province stated that excessive cadmium in rice in Hunan is not a new topic. The cadmium in rice has been exceeded in many places for a long period of time, but it is impossible in the short term. The solution, while Hunan is a large agricultural province, the announcement of rice cadmium exceeded the situation will only affect Hunan's agricultural economy, there is no other use, so even if some departments detect it, it will not be announced.