Soil in China’s leading rice-producing region shows high levels of heavy metal contamination, in a study [by Greenpeace East Asia] that suggests that the proximity of mining and industry to agricultural areas is posing serious threats to the country’s food chain...[R]esearchers found soil containing cadmium levels more than 200 times the national health standard, adding to a growing body of evidence that parts of the country’s soil are heavily degraded after decades of fast industrialization and high economic growth...“Cadmium rice” is a well-known term in China since a...Guangdong Province government report that 44 percent of rice samples had excessive levels of cadmium attracted attention. But the...study extended the concept by listing “arsenic rice,” “mercury rice” and “lead rice”...Last week, the Chinese government disclosed for the first time that one-fifth of China’s farmland was polluted.