Organic farming is about more than just growing vegetables; building ecological trust is fundamental

Every week, Fujita, a Japanese housewife living in Beijing, receives a home-delivered box of organic vegetables, though she has always felt these vegetables taste far better than ordinary vegetables sold on the market. But it was not until she visited the production base of these vegetables herself that the mystery of their deliciousness was revealed.

⟦NL> In Daqiuzhuang, Jinghai County, Tianjin, more than 100 km from Beijing, vegetables of various varieties thrive in 30 solar greenhouses. Unlike those usually seen, these greenhouses let in light on one side, while the other three sides are brick walls built from thick mud and red bricks. Entering each greenhouse also requires passing through a long passageway.

“The bottom of each brick wall is 5 m wide and the top is 2 m wide; such thickness is meant to achieve better insulation. And the passageway is used to prevent temperature loss and keep out flying insects.” said Chen Lin, technical director of the Fuping Chuangyuan planting demonstration base. Not only that, the vegetables here never use herbicides, insecticides or soil disinfectants; the soil is not only deep-plowed 40 cm before cultivation, but is also entirely treated with homemade organic fertilizer. On the climbing vines hang many small paper bags containing small insects and yellow and blue sticky sheets, which are used to release natural enemies of pests and trap pests.

“China's environmental pollution and food safety conditions today are very similar to Japan's 40 years ago. I have promoted ecological organic agriculture in Japan for many years and very much hope this model will also be promoted in China.” said Kazuyoshi Fujita, founder of the Japan Organic Agriculture Association.

The Japan Organic Agriculture Association Co., Ltd., which has a 40-year history in Japan, is the partner and technology provider for this base. This enterprise, whose main business is producing organic ecological agricultural products, had sales in Japan last year as high as 1 billion yuan, with 2,500 contracted farming households and 90,000 consumer members.

In May 2013, ecological organic vegetables produced strictly according to the technical plan provided by the Japan Organic Agriculture Association were officially launched, exclusively for the Beijing market. “With full pesticide residue testing twice a year, none of the more than 200 pesticide residue indicators were detected in our organic vegetables.” said Dai Mingliang, deputy general manager of Fuping Chuangyuan Company, proudly. Due to strict management of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, vegetables grown organically have high labor costs and soil enrichment costs, and their selling price is 7-10 times that of ordinary vegetables. Even so, these vegetables are still welcomed by many consumers.

“Food safety is the common wish of Chinese producers and consumers, but in China there are still problems such as a weak foundation for ecological agriculture and a trust relationship between producers and consumers that has yet to be established.” In Japan, Kazuyoshi Fujita is known as the “godfather of organic agriculture.” Advocating organic methods of growing vegetables is not only an effective way to solve China's various environmental pollution and food safety problems and protect consumers' health, but can also effectively raise the income and social status of agricultural workers.

Many farmers in Daqiuzhuang have already benefited from this. A farmer woman surnamed Zang, in her 50s, said that previously she relied on growing corn and other grains on the land, with annual income of only four to five thousand yuan. Three years ago, she transferred the more than 2 mu of saline-alkali land under her name to the Fuping Chuangyuan farm at a price of about 800 yuan per year, and went to work on the farm as a laborer; that year her income reached more than 30,000.

On the one hand are rapidly growing consumer praise and foreseeable huge market potential; on the other is a clear improvement in farmers' income. The demonstration effect of the base has attracted attention from all sectors of society, and people aspiring to develop ecological organic agriculture have come in droves. Zhao Yuanchun, from a rural area of Xuchang, Henan, came specially to study here. She said, “I hope to find a way to help my parents and fellow villagers escape poverty.” Today, Fuping Chuangyuan's technology and development model have been successfully replicated to farms in many places, including Beijing and Fujian.

Over the past 3 years, Fuping Chuangyuan has opened dedicated organic vegetable sales counters in 4 high-end supermarkets in Beijing and provides long-term home delivery service to more than 200 families in Beijing. In January-June of this year alone, the company has already sold more than 100,000 jin of vegetables, and the base's production capacity has been almost entirely absorbed. Shen Dongshu, chairman of the company, predicts that along with rising market demand and consumer recognition, the Japan Organic Agriculture Association's cultivation technology will be replicated and promoted to more regions, and one year from now Fuping Chuangyuan's membership is also expected to reach 10,000.

Kazuyoshi Fujita said that in his view, organic agriculture is not merely about growing vegetables; what it establishes is a kind of trust based on ecology. In Japan, consumers who bought “Daichi” organic vegetables went through a transition from high-consumption groups to general groups. He said the power of example is crucial. “I hope consumers in China who can afford organic vegetables will become more aware of how their purchasing behavior helps their own health and the public good, and not just because it accounts for a relatively small share of their spending.”