Exploding watermelons

[abcdefg]

From The Guardian -- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/17/exploding-watermelons-chinese-farming

Headline: Exploding watermelons put spotlight on Chinese farming practices

The flying pips, shattered shells and wet shrapnel still haunt farmer Liu Mingsuo after an effort to chemically boost his fruit crop went spectacularly wrong.

Fields of watermelons exploded when he and other agricultural workers in eastern China mistakenly applied forchlorfenuron, a growth accelerator. The incident has become a focus of a Chinese media drive to expose the lax farming practices, shortcuts and excessive use of fertiliser behind a rash of food safety scandals.

Another interesting observation occurs later in the article:

Many farmers grow their own food separately from the chemically-raised crops they sell. "I feel there is nothing safe I can eat now because people are in too much of a hurry to make money," said Huang Zhanliang, a farmer in Hebei.

[kongli]

See I try not to think about it.....then stuff like this happens.

[hbuchtel]

A 2nd opinion from BBC:

The overuse of a chemical that helps fruit grow faster was blamed in one report by China Central Television.

But agriculture experts were unable to explain why chemical-free melons were exploding. They cited the weather and abnormal size of the melon as factors.

[crazy-meiguoren]

Just goes to prove that using artificial means to grow bigger melons isn't always safe.

[my3rdlang]

I have probably eaten half a dozen watermelons this month.

After seeing the news and chatting with Chinese colleagues who told me that many watermelons sold in spring are often "injected" to speed up growth and taste sweet, I conclude that it's better to wait till June before consuming any more.

Prices are lower in summer too so I better be patient.

[gougou]

But agriculture experts were unable to explain why chemical-free melons were exploding. They cited the weather and abnormal size of the melon as factors.

So the size of the non-injected melons is abnormal?

[Meng Lelan]

Incredibly this made news in San Antonio papers here, which normally report on only two things - the Texas budget disaster and the Mexican drug wars.

[Yang Rui]

The quote from the farmer should be added to the recent food safety topic here. Amazing to hear it straight from the people who are best placed to know what happens down on the farm.

[abcdefg]

It's better that they explode on the ground instead of inside my guts.

[xiaocai]

Interesting. But one thing I think worth mentioning is that "plant hormones" are not the hormones we normally head about which are used in places like chicken farms. The physiology of plants are so different from animals that some chemicals have virtually no effect on human metabolism, such as ethylene, are surprisingly found acting as "plant hormones". Forchlorfenuron has been used as a plant growth regulator for quite a few years, and China is not the first country started using it. I am not an expert in this so no comment on the safety. But as far as I know we have yet found any solid evident to prove that it should be banned in agriculture. As for why the watermelons exploded, there might be more reasons behind such as the cultivars of the watermelons, the soil they were grown in, other fertilisers used, the amount of forchlorfenuron used, etc.

Many farmers grow their own food separately from the chemically-raised crops they sell. "I feel there is nothing safe I can eat now because people are in too much of a hurry to make money," said Huang Zhanliang, a farmer in Hebei.

I'm not saying that it is unnecessary to be more cautious to all these, but I'd just like to share a true story here. When my dad was little, electricity was introduced to rural China. It made everything so much easier for farmers: with electrical mills, pumps, saws, some tasks which used to take days to finish how only needed a few hours. However, believe it or not, many of them refused to drink the water pumped by electrical pumps, eat the flour milled by electrical mills, build their houses with wood sawed by electrical saws, because they thought that all those stuff prepared by electrical apparatus would carry "electricity", which would "shock" you or "burn" you if you have had too much of it. But you can't blame them, for they did not understand. Many things are like this: the more we understand them, the less we are scared of them and the more we know how to put them into better use.

[aristotle1990]

Related story: A Chinese friend once told me that unscrupulous watermelon merchants will often inject water (dirty tap water that you shouldn't be consuming) into watermelons to make them juicier. I mentioned this once to another friend in front of a watermelon dealer; he overheard me and claimed that shooting water into watermelons would let air in and ruin the freshness. Dunno who to believe.

[imron]

Unscrupulous watermelon vendors won't care that they're selling unfresh watermelons either

[gougou]

On a related note, did you know that beef can absorb its weight in water? If you're not eating watermelons because of the tap water, put beef on the list as well...

[Brian US]

I just read an article about shopping habits and tips on finding safe fruit:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/18/china.food.safety.reporters.notebook/index.html?hpt=C1

The writer's friend living in Beijing said they only buy fruit that has been nibbled on by insects, "I figure if the fruit is good enough for the insect, it's good enough for me."

Does anyone use this or a similar strategy? I always went for the shiny red apples, but this scares me a little even after a good washing. Reminds me of a similar tip I got when I first arrived to China. I was concerned about the safety of street food when my friend from HK noted that the stalls normally don't have rats. I only have to worry about spoiled food, which should always be a concern at any restaurant.

[langxia]

The writer's friend living in Beijing said they only buy fruit that has been nibbled on by insects, "I figure if the fruit is good enough for the insect, it's good enough for me."

Does anyone use this or a similar strategy? I always went for the shiny red apples, but this scares me a little even after a good washing. Reminds me of a similar tip I got when I first arrived to China. I was concerned about the safety of street food when my friend from HK noted that the stalls normally don't have rats. I only have to worry about spoiled food, which should always be a concern at any restaurant.

You still don't know if the insect is still alive AFTER eating from the fruit.

[aristotle1990]

Unscrupulous watermelon vendors won't care that they're selling unfresh watermelons either

They'd lose money pretty quickly selling watermelons that aren't fresh.

[imron]

How long does a watermelon take to lose its freshness with a needle-sized hole poked in it? You could probably also seal the hole without too much difficulty either.

[Kenny同志]

Fortunately, we can grow our own foods at home.

[xiaocai]

http://edition.cnn.c...dex.html?hpt=C1

It has always been very entertaining to read the comments of such articles.

How long does a watermelon take to lose its freshness with a needle-sized hole poked in it? You could probably also seal the hole without too much difficulty either.

Trust me, not that long at all in a hot summer day. The bacteria is more likely to be introduced through injection. I think it is normally done to make the watermelons heavier so they can charge you more for each. But not too many people doing this nowadays already.

I always went for the shiny red apples, but this scares me a little even after a good washing.

I think the shining skin is from polishing. And I think the one of the main concern is pesticides residues on the peel. Apparently you will need to wash it with certain detergent to get rid of it because most pesticides are not very soluble in water. I can't confirm the source of this info though.

[my3rdlang]

Does anyone know the variety(ies) of the watermelons that exploded? I tried searching for it without luck.

I have been consuming the 南汇 and 特小凤 varieties this month. I noticed the rinds on 特小凤 are very thin, so are they considered "exploding watermelons"?