Exploding Watermelons

There are scenes of violence towards fruit located below.  Reader advisory.

First the story; Exploding Watermelons, and on the Guardian, and the Toronto Star.  All three outlets tell the same story with minor differences in emphasis.  The AP story seems to be so goofy due to the voice over that sounds like a Monty Python skit.  The Guardian focuses on "Oh dear, what are we going to do about the Chinese and their tainted milk and exploding watermelons".  Good old Toronto Star...sigh, at least their crack team has discovered that they are feeding the melons to pigs and livestock.

Aside from my concern of feeding plant growth hormone to livestock, I am left with real problem of the idea of rapidly exploding watermelons and pigs.  I wonder what the impact of these additions to the watermelon do to taste?  Of course, these are used in North America, just used correctly. But let's not talk about why the additives are there and the impact on these additives to food taste and nutrition.  So, the real crux does seem to be a little bit like the Yellow Scare.  They have no health regulations (hello rampant market capitalism). They are poisoning us (and themselves).  They are sending food to our shores (due to free trade).

I am wondering more and more, if many of these stories especially around food production are partially tinged with xenophobia.  It is not to say that exploding watermelons are not an awesome and scary thing just that maybe exploding watermelons are underreported in this country?

Update: Good just posted a scientific explanation with echoes of the concerns around future consumption.