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Get up close and personal with food

2013-06-25 11:05 Shanghai Daily Web Editor: Wang YuXia
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Increasing concern over food safety is attracting more people to organically produced food, and new farmer's markets let shoppers meet local growers to find out where every egg, sprout and apple comes from.

At one market at M-Town Mall last Saturday, visitors thronged around a dozen stalls selling local, seasonal organic food, including vegetables, fruit, eggs and rice.

Free brochures explained exactly how food is grown and produced organically and sustainably. A chef and nutritionist demonstrated healthy cooking with local ingredients.

Most of the food comes from small farms in Pudong New Area and on Chongming Island (County). They are either certified "organic," a costly process, or they strictly adhere to principles of organic farming.

"As you can see, the eggs here are of different shapes and different colors, rather than the identical eggs normally seen at vegetable markets," said Chen Yanhua, the owner of Tian'ai Farm in Chongming.

"The egg color is determined by what the chicken eats and we give chickens freedom to choose what to eat, from what we provide, as they walk around. So they lay different eggs on different days."

This farmer's market is organized by GoodtoChina, a local NGO that encourages sustainable, eco-cycle farming and lifestyle. The first market was held in March and the aim is to hold one twice a month. The NGO so far has around 20 member organic farmers.

"They are not just planting vegetables without using chemicals, but also being responsible farmers and not harming the land, rivers and people as well," says Susan Evans, founder of GoodtoChina.

Unlike most produce markets, this one includes the farmers themselves, like Chen, who tell the story behind every product.

Rich variety

Jane Tsao of the Bio Farm at Chuansha in Pudong New Area describes a rich variety of produce, more than 300 kinds of fruits and vegetables grown annually on 200 mu (13 hectares) of land.

"Though we don't have huge annual output, we have a lot of variety," she says. "As for tomatoes alone, we have 17 different kinds. Isn't it exciting to taste tomatoes in 17 different flavors?"

Six-year-old Daisy Jiang had a great time at the market since she saw a chicken flying for the first time - on a cell phone video shown by an organic chicken farm owner. She thought chickens only walked around a bit and sat down laying eggs.

"They told me their chickens fly onto their roosting shelves when the sun sets. My mom promised me a visit to that farm someday," the girl says.

Organic farming and markets are nothing new to Westerners, and they are being more familiar and desirable to Chinese who want to pursue a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, especially in Shanghai.

Evans from GoodtoChina says that in one of their surveys, 95 percent of respondents in Shanghai expressed concern over food safety.

"People all over the world have these concerns but here in Shanghai right now the percentage is huge," Evans says. That represents a huge potential market. "Eating organic foods and living healthy is a good choice for them and we are seeing more and more Chinese faces at our markets."

Eating local seasonal organic food - the core of an organic lifestyle - is consistent with health-maintenance principles of traditional Chinese medicine, observes Hu Kenan, the nutritionist at the market.

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