China's Organic Revolution

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-02-20 09:41:00 UTC
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Organic farming in Langfang, Hebei province (Claro Cortes/Reuters via GlobalPost)

I just read a great post by fellow Northwestern University '06 grad Aleksandra Gadzala about the explosion of organic farming activity in China.

Apparently, between 2000 and 2006, China rose from 45th to 2nd in the world in terms of how many acres of land were under organic management. That's obviously a huge jump. What's really interesting to Aleksandra, however, is the potential for social impact:

Who would have thought? If the trend continues, it may potentially lead to cheaper organic produce worldwide (hooray!), and may likewise have far-reaching social consequences inside China. Most obviously, it may be the first among many steps in the improvement of food safety (and goodness knows how badly that is needed), and may also go some way in alleviating the burden of unemployment faced by the country's migrant workers...The industry does, of course, have some hurdles to overcome (think: government regulation, authenticity of allegedly 'organic' produce, farming woes more generally), but appears to be the next 'it' thing among the country's younger generation.

I would love to know if readers know more about this. Are the companies driving this move upstarts or established farms making a new bet?

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Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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