A woman picks grapes at a vineyard in Yinchuan, Northwest Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on Sept 25, 2015. [Photo/VCG] The top legislature has urged intensified efforts to fight pollution in rural areas to ensure food safety after a four-month inspection revealed tough challenges including soil pollution. Although it is illegal to discharge sewage, garbage, gas or other harmful substances at the places of origin of agricultural products, governments in many places have not strictly observed the law, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. The report, based on a national inspection of the enforcement of the Law on Agricultural Product Quality and Safety conducted between May and September, said 2.9 percent of China's cultivated land has serious or medium pollution, and the situation is getting worse in some areas. Specific information on Chinese farmland pollution, including the total area and distribution, is still not available, impairing supervision and restoration efforts, Ji Bingxuan, vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said on Wednesday while making the report to the committee. The inspection team suggested a national survey on soil pollution be completed by the end of the year to gain a detailed view of the size and distribution of polluted cultivated land and the impact of pollution on the quality of agricultural products, he said. Also, strict measures will be adopted to control the use of heavily polluted cultivated land. No edible agricultural products should be grown on it, he said. Intensified efforts will be made to punish enterprises that illegally discharge sewage containing heavy metal to stop it from flowing into farmland, he said. In some regions, especially where heavy metal mines are located, farmland is seriously polluted, which has caused food safety problems and aroused public complaints in recent years, Ji said. In November, a media report said rice growing in some farmland in Gangkoujie township in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, was found to contain cadmium at more than eight times the national standard, which caused a panic among locals. Investigations by local authorities later found sewage discharged by a local mine caused pollution of nearby farmland. Also, sewage treatment capacity in some cities had fallen behind demand, the report noted. Yu Fawen, an agricultural researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said environmental pollution is very serious in many rural areas of China, with treatment of sewage and solid waste at a significantly lower level than in urban areas, and more funding from the government is needed. A means of improving and maintaining the environment in rural areas should be established, so that different parties, including farmers, can participate in environmental protection, he added. cle usb bracelet siliconesilicone wristbands free shippingsilicone rubber braceletsrubber jelly bracelets meaningsfigured wristband
A file photo of US President Donald Trump. [Photo/Agencies] CIA Director Pompeo makes secret Pyongyang visit to prepare for summit US President Donald Trump said that high-level talks have started between officials of the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as he will probably meet DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-un in May or early June outside the US. In his talks with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida on Tuesday, Trump also said he had given his blessing to the inter-Korean talks aimed at formally ending the Korean War. We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels, with North Korea (the DPRK). I really believe there's a lot of good will; a lot of good things are happening. Trump later clarified the talks by saying: Let's leave it a little bit short of the highest level. White House Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: The president said the administration has had talks at the highest levels and added that they were not with him directly. US Secretary of State nominee and CIA Director Mike Pompeo had made a secret visit to DPRK over the Easter weekend and met with Kim, Trump confirmed on Twitter on Wednesday. Contacts between the two sides in recent weeks have involved US intelligence and State Department officials, according to the report. Trump said: We'll be having meetings with Kim Jong-un very soon. It will be - that will be taking place probably in early June or a little before that - assuming things go well. As to the venue of the Trump-Kim summit, Trump said the US is weighing five different locations, but none are located in the US. Trump, however, also said the summit might not happen. It's possible things won't go well and we won't have the meetings, and we'll just continue to go along this very strong path that we've taken, he said. But we will see what happens. Trump also said Seoul and Pyongyang are discussing an end to the war, and they have his blessing on that. Seoul and Pyongyang were scheduled to hold a summit on April 27, the first in 11 years. embossed printed wristbandsplastic rubber band braceletsrubber jelly bracelets meaningsanti bullying silicone braceletshow to do rubber band bracelets<%2fcenter>
