{"id":218,"date":"2011-05-18T22:45:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T16:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=218"},"modified":"2011-07-24T18:48:36","modified_gmt":"2011-07-24T23:48:36","slug":"what-we-can-learn-from-the-exploding-chinese-melons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2011\/05\/18\/what-we-can-learn-from-the-exploding-chinese-melons\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Can Learn From the Exploding Chinese Melons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many sources are now reporting that the cause of the widely reported exploding melons in China is the application of growth chemicals, specifically forchlorfenuron.\u00a0 Apparently the farmers, who were first-time users of the chemical, either applied too much of it or applied it at the wrong time in the growth process.\u00a0 According to a report from the BBC<\/a> the farmers were hoping to accelerate growth to get their products to market ahead of the peak, thereby increasing their profits.\u00a0 Other sources, including the Guardian website<\/a>, say that the exploding melons incident is just another in the continuing problem with inadequate farming practices in China.\u00a0 Several websites, including discovery.com<\/a> and yahoo.com<\/a>, also described how melons treated with forchlorfenuron can be identified–they are mishapen, fibrous, and the seeds are mostly white.\u00a0 It sounds like using the chemical affects the entire fruit, changing its color and even its seeds.\u00a0 Although the Chinese news agency has declared the treated fruits are safe to eat, how can we really know that they are safe to eat and also nutritious?\u00a0 What changes have been made to the melons that perhaps are not so obvious as the color and shape?<\/p>\n

What does the problem with Chinese melons have to do with us here in Houston?\u00a0 As you may have noticed many of our foods are imported from around the world, including from China.\u00a0 Most foods are now required to state on the label where the food comes from.\u00a0 We should read labels carefully to determine the source of the foods, whether fresh produce or canned or packaged food.\u00a0 Also, yahoo.com<\/a> says that, in the United States, forchlorfenuron is “registered for use on grapes and kiwi fruit.”\u00a0 This is another good reason to buy organic produce, even when the food source is the United States.<\/p>\n

And finally, this is another example of why we should, as much as possible, buy our food locally and know our farmers.\u00a0 If we have talked with the farmers and we know that they care about the land and the quality of what is produced, we can have much more confidence that the food we buy from them is as safe and as healthy as they can make it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many sources are now reporting that the cause of the widely reported exploding melons in China is the application of growth chemicals, specifically forchlorfenuron.\u00a0 Apparently the farmers, who were first-time users of the chemical, either applied too much of it …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,14,17,18],"tags":[25,38,31],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access-to-good-food","category-access-to-real-food","category-local-farming","category-organic-food","tag-food-rights-2","tag-local-food","tag-sustainable-farming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p70SEj-3w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}