More environmental problems for China: food production

China's environmental problems - polluted water, polluted air, overuse of fertilizer - are becoming more obvious.  But the potential effect on food production - pretty important for a country of well over a billion people - has slipped under the radar, including mine.

Not anymore.  At least for me, because I read this article in the Huffington Post that described the food situation, namely that due to China's other environment problems, they have millions of acres of farmland they can't use because these millions of acres have polluted soil.

Thus, in addition to the direct effects of the pollution, which is to make the people unrestful about having to breathe  bad air and drink bad water, there is also this indirect effect, which can make their food more expensive (because it will have to  be imported) or just not available at all.

Clearly this would also be an unrestful factor.

The potential bad progression of this situation should be pretty obvious.

Millions of acres of Chinese farmland too polluted to grow food, highlighting growing threat

     The issue poses a dilemma for communist leaders who want to maximize food production but face public pressure to ensure safety after an avalanche of scandals over shoddy infant formula and other goods.
     The explosive growth of Chinese industry, overuse of farm chemicals and lax environmental enforcement have left swathes of the countryside tainted by lead, cadmium, pesticides and other toxins.
      Investigations by the Ministry of Environmental Protection have found "moderate to severe pollution" on 3.3 million hectares (8.3 million acres), Wang [deputy minister at the Ministry of Land and Resources] said at a news conference.

 I expect that sounds as bad to you, dear reader, as it does to me.