China's pollution-fighting farm An innovative project uses a
hydroponic vegetable farm to clean up China's Dianchi Lake.
Story by Mary Kay Magistad, PRI's The World. Listen to audio
above for full report. China has some of the world's worst water
pollution. And the country's farms are responsible for a big
part of that problem. So there is a certain irony in visiting a
farm here that purports to actually help reduce pollution from
other sources. But that's the claim of a 100-acre hydroponic
farm in China's southwest. The farm on the edge of Dianchi lake
grows some 30 types of vegetables, including long green rows of
lettuce and spinach that sway in the wind and float on platforms
with their roots in the water. Where other farms would need
fertilizer to provide nutrients for their crops, the vegetables
here get their nutrients from sewage that's been dumped in the
water by the city of Kunming and its environs. Sales
representative Cao Jiangrui said that's all the fertilizer they
need. She said government inspe