By Nick Shaw, Katherine Crosby, and Ashley Cookey-Gam
Organic Chinese farmers face many difficulties with water and soil quality. “Modern agriculture consumes large quantities of chemicals… leading to damage to agricultural ecosystem, low sustainable production capability, poor product quality, and pollution and damage to the environment.”(Yi 2001:450) [Link: Food Safety] The main complication with organic farming is that it requires clean and sustainable soil, but with the modern agricultural system much of China’s soil and water supply is polluted by pesticides and fertilizers. According to “China: Food for a Billion Plus,” much of China’s pollution comes from the rapidly growing manufacturing industry.
“Of Trash and Skyscrapers” by ngader is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Quality of soil is taken very seriously when it comes to organic farming. Organic farming is defined as healthy, uncontaminated food, free of pesticides and chemicals. [Link: Chinese Organic Farming Introduction] However, with much of China’s water and soil being polluted from the manufacturing industry, it is very hard for organic farmers to find land. Thus, it is also difficult for the organic industry in China to be acknowledged by other countries.(Yi 2001:450)
Although the government is helping the organic industry, there is still a struggle with the small organic farmers. The government owns the land in China, so the government loans the land out to farmers, and they can grow whatever on the land. The one key problem is that the land is not cheap because there is not very much land that could be cultivated in China. If the farmer cannot afford to pay the rent, the farm eventually goes bust. China’s organic industry is still small-scale production. (China: Food for a Billion Plus 2002) Needless to say, China is working very hard to make improvements.
Bibliography
“China: Food for a Billion Plus,” Films on Demand, 25:00, by Films Media Group, 2002, http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=9151&xtid=35174.
Qian Yi, Xu Hui, Peng Bu-zhuo, and Jiang Xiliu, “Development Strategy for Organic Food Industry in China,” Ambio 30, no. 7 (Nov., 2001): 450-451.
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