University-Affiliated Farm Searched for Banned Pesticide

Matt Hopkins Posted by Matt Hopkins|7 October 2008

Officials from Japan’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry searched a Tokyo University-affiliated farm that they claim used a banned agrichemical containing mercury on crops such as rice and fruit. According to the ministry, the farm in Nishi-Tokyo used the pesticide to disinfect seed rice between 1997 and 1999; the sale of pesticides containing mercury was banned in 1973. The farm reportedly bought and stored the pesticide before the sales ban came into effect.

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