Lesson 1: Widespread use of pesticides and preservatives

(Baonghean) -It can be said that many types of food, agricultural products, fruits... on the market today are abused with stimulants and toxic additives that seriously affect human health. Due to this "snatch and grab" business style, some products have been "boycotted" by consumers, causing damage not only to producers but also seriously affecting the locality.

We have been to large vegetable growing areas in Dien Thanh commune (Dien Chau), Quynh Luong, Quynh Minh (Quynh Luu)... where people carelessly use a wide range of toxic pesticides and stimulants that are not on the permitted list, while the local authorities cannot manage them. Recently, in Dien Ky commune - (Dien Chau), we learned that growers "used" stimulants to "inflate" the melons to make them "super" big and "super" fast growing...

Along National Highway 1A through Dien Ky commune, there are many "stall" selling melons on the roadside. Among them, many melons are unusually large. Ms. Tran Thi C. in Hamlet 1 - Dien Ky said: "When growing vegetables and melons, almost every household uses stimulants and pesticides. My family grows 5 sao of melons, spraying in 2 stages, the first stage is about a few weeks of spraying stimulants to strengthen the roots of the plants, the second stage is sprayed when the melons sprout fruit.

Pesticides and growth regulators are sprayed on melons.

We went to the melon field and saw the packaging of various pesticides and stimulants that people had thrown away after use along the edge of the field. There were packagings with the titles "super fruit setter, big fruit", "lots of flowers, fruit setter, big fruit, sweet fruit, anti-falling young fruit"; the uses were also for lychees, longans, oranges, and tangerines. The packaging had pictures of tomatoes, cucumbers, custard apples, and lychees with big, plump fruit printed on them. According to the instructions printed on the packaging, spray every 5-7 days, and can be used with plant protection drugs. Origin: Kyoodai Agricultural Chemical Joint Stock Company (Cao Vien - Thanh Oai - Hanoi).

Going to another melon field, we picked up another bag of Senca greendelta 21 "strong roots, fast sprouting, super flower bud awakening, extremely strong activation". We went to the melon field that had just been sprayed and picked up the ANSUCO bag, this type is advertised as "one-time killing of pests", mainly killing red spiders, cotton-eating worms, thrips, stink bugs, branch borers... for tea, mango, orange, grape... Raw material manufacturer Hebei Tongsheng Agrochemical Co. Ltd... Ms. C. also said: "Almost all melon growers buy these drugs from Ngoc Tan dealer, we sprayed them ourselves without any guidance. This crop of melons achieved a fairly high yield, about 700kg - 1 ton/sao, the current price of 20,000 VND/kg also earned 14 million VND/sao"...

Dien Thinh commune has long been famous as the largest peanut "barn" in the province, however, in recent years, the export turnover of peanuts here has been very limited, mainly sold through unofficial channels. The reason is that before selling peanuts, some farmers and businesses often use the trick of "spraying" water on peanuts to increase their weight and have quickly been boycotted by many purchasing places. Ms. Pham D. in hamlet 3, Dien Thinh commune said: Her family grows nearly 2 sao of peanuts, this crop has a yield of about 1.5 quintals of peanuts/sao. After drying, they are mainly sold to traders in Dien Thinh commune. Regarding spraying water on peanuts, people said: "Spraying water only prevents the peanuts from breaking when ground, but it doesn't increase the weight much."

Additives used by traders to color fresh bamboo shoots.

Bamboo shoots are also causing a stir because they are soaked and marinated with chemicals. This season, in rural markets such as Roc market (Trung Thanh), Veo market (Lien Thanh), Mo market (Phuc Thanh), Bong market (Bao Thanh), there are many bamboo shoots. Ms. K. is selling bamboo shoots at Roc market in Trung Thanh commune enthusiastically: "Buy bamboo shoots, bro, the bamboo shoots just got from Tan Ky are very fresh and delicious." Ms. K. asserted: "Bamboo shoots ripen naturally, that's why they are so beautiful and yellow. Many people cook bamboo shoots with lime water to cook them quickly, I don't cook lime water, I just use a little bit of colorant." At Yen Thanh town market, we said we were "genuine" bamboo shoot buyers, wanting to buy chemicals in large quantities to make goods, Ms. M revealed to us: "There is only this one type left. But remember to add the colorant when the bamboo shoots are just boiled. When the water is still hot, the color will penetrate from the outside to the inside." After showing us how to use it, Ms. M gave us a pack of cigarettes introduced as "special color", with 4 lines of Chinese characters, printed on the package with a picture of a jet plane, produced in My Hoa 2 - Ho Chi Minh City; ingredients Trartrazinne. The yellow powder (coloring agent) is contained in small plastic tubes. The special thing is that this additive clearly states that the expiry date is 2 years from the date of manufacture, however, there is no date of manufacture on the package...
(To be continued)

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