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My husband comes from the suburban area of Changzhou, a medium-sized city in east China's Jiangsu Province. He often complains about the poor taste of rice or fish we have at the dinner table and boasts about the delicious varieties he had in his early years living in the countryside.

He usually ends his boast with a sigh and complains the fish even there do not taste as good anymore now and it's all down to pollution.

I am no gourmet and have no idea how delicious the food was years ago. But when some research results come out, I have to agree that farm produce in Jiangsu, which was once called "the land of fish and rice," are not that healthy nowadays.

At a national agricultural production quality and safety conference held on Thursday, Nanjing Institute of Soil Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences released a report on its recent research on soil pollution.

The report shows that lead was detected in 88.1 percent of the wheat, rice and flour samples they tested, and 21.4 percent of them exceeded the national limit. Seventy percent was considered to exceed the safe limit of pesticide residue.

In Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province, arable land has decreased in the past two years by more than the previous 15 years. Mercury was above safe limits in the soil along the Qinhuai River valley and the toxic metallic element cadmium in the soil along the Yangtze River.

Researchers selected 93 soil samples around Nanjing and found they were seriously polluted by heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, zinc and chrome.

They suggested that many areas are no longer suitable for growing farm produce but should focus on building a better ecological environment and growing some ornamental plants.

As farm produce gradually loses its flavor, however, the province has seen a booming economy in recent years.

Last year, its gross domestic product (GDP) ranked second in this country only after Guangdong Province. Per capita GDP ranked sixth, exceeding US$2,000 - much higher than the country's average level of US$1,090.

Industrial development has enriched this region and its people but at the same time damaged the ecological environment and now poses a threat to human life.

The chemical industry is a key part of Jiangsu's industrial structure. Among the region's 15 industrial parks along the Yangtze River, 14 involve chemical industrial projects and 7 focus on it. But not all projects have an effective pollution control system or have their system in full operation.

The air, water and soil are all under threat. Plants, animals and human beings living here cannot escape the danger.

This is the sad story of Jiangsu Province, and may also be applicable to many other regions in the country.

Policy-makers, business people and everyone else should be aware of that, and be merciful to the environment, and to ourselves. Otherwise, the current tasteless rice and fish may become inedible, and we will be the biggest victims.

(China Daily November 6, 2004)