China: Leader In Organic Food Production [and not just the Coronavirus]?

The last, but surely not the least workshop at the recent Guelph Organic Conference  was perhaps the best! This writer is a little biased after living in Asia. With the worlds' eyes on China in terms of "development" and also pollution [and now the Coronavirus], it was a fascinating workshop. It was also a hope-full one: to know that the Chinese are also concerned about the food they eat as it relates to organic ag.

Organic tea farm in Hangzhou. 

Steffanie Scott and Zhenzhong Si shared their experience with growers, sellers, consumers and government officials in the organic sector of China. China is a leader in the organic field - #3 in area in organic production in the world - selling US $28.5B globally/yr. Canada imports US$400M/yr of food from China.

 While Canada is a larger country than China, China has 4.1M hectares in organic acreage. 3.1M hectares for crop production and 0.97M hectares for wild production  Canada has only 1.1M Ha mainly for pasture and forage, followed by field crops. China also produces 2.8M t of organic animal products and 4.8M t of organic processed food. This places China fourth in the world in terms of sales.

 The authors at the Green Cow farm in Beijing

The middle class is rising incredibly fast: going from 29M in 1991 to 531M in 2013! This translates to higher wages, being more informed about the health benefits of organic food and the ability to purchase it. People are also more aware about GMOs - and confused. Some consumers groups are actively supporting them, while others see them as part of a U.S. plot to control the Chinese food system. Yet packages are labelled if GMO - unlike in Canada/US where we must "trust" Big Ag and the government to "care for us".

But we must wonder how trust worthy the certification procedure is. I have worked with many Chinese who stress the "bribe factor" that runs the country. That is a concern for sure. Yet the national standards do include:

• Traceability
• Requirements for air, water and soil quality
• Fertilizer requirements/standards 

 Presently there are equivalency agreements with NZ and ones with the EU are being worked on.

The various structures of production include enterprises leasing in land, contract farming, CSA/alternative food networks, farmers' coops and being organic due to poverty and lack of funds to buy chemicals. It is the large scale operations that get more support both from the government and from the public.

Tu Sheng Liang Pin ecological restaurant in Nanning

Yet "Little Donkey Farm" won the country's affection and increased support for the 'little guy/girl'. But it is hard to start a small farm as there are few social supports. Some government funding is available though.There are also free bio-fertilizers for farmers. But the purity of them is suspect.

The government also considers these smaller operation to be mere "niche" and considers the yields to be too low. They seem to be too paranoid about food security without realizing that small farms can be very productive, employ more people per ha and pay more attention to building the soil. Unfortunately there are little attempts to counter this erroneous narrative.

Social media may 'save the day'. The popular platform "wechat" connects consumers with farmers and stores. People can purchase organic products enabling small scale farms to survive and hopefully thrive.

Anyone interested in more detail can purchase the book and see the authors' website here
Images from cited site and used by permission.