In China, what you eat tells who you are

[n2doc]

In a nation reeling from tainted-food scandals, organic products are mostly reserved for the rich and political elite. Chinese government officials have exclusive suppliers, who do not advertise.

Organic vegetables grow behind a 6-foot fence at the Beijing Customs Administration Vegetable Base and Country Club. “Ordinary people can’t go in there,” a neighbor says. (Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times / September 17, 2011)

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
September 16, 2011, 3:28 p.m.

Reporting from Beijing— At a glance, it is clear this is no run-of-the-mill farm: A 6-foot spiked fence hems the meticulously planted vegetables and security guards control a cantilevered gate that glides open only to select cars.

"It is for officials only. They produce organic vegetables, peppers, onions, beans, cauliflowers, but they don't sell to the public," said Li Xiuqin, 68, a lifelong Shunyi village resident who lives directly across the street from the farm but has never been inside. "Ordinary people can't go in there."

Until May, a sign inside the gate identified the property as the Beijing Customs Administration Vegetable Base and Country Club. The placard was removed after a Chinese reporter sneaked inside and published a story about the farm producing organic food so clean the cucumbers could be eaten directly from the vine.

Elsewhere in the world, this might be something to boast about. Not in China. Organic gardening here is a hush-hush affair in which the cleanest, safest products are largely channeled to the rich and politically connected.

more
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-elite-farm-20110917,0,681885.story


Our future, if the T-baggers and Koch's have their way.....

[Safetykitten]

1. "Some animals are more....."

[ZombieHorde]

2. This is the type of behavior Communism is supposed to prevent. nt

[annabanana]

3. China hasn't been communist for decades..

or actually ever. It hasn't' even been trying for decades.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. China is communist in name only. They are authoritarian capitalists.

[BOG PERSON]

9. this is the type of thing the cultural revolution tried to prevent

[BOG PERSON]

10. dupe

oops

[mainer]

4. Not too different from the US, really

Organic produce costs more, and in the US the market for that produce is not the poor.

[n2doc]

6. Although if you check out the prices in inner city markets

You might find they aren't so different. Except that what limited selection they tend to offer is decidedly neither upscale nor organic.

[SpiralHawk]

7. The fact that the 'elite' chose organic, just like George AWOL Bush (R)

shows that the so-called 'leaders' are all acutely aware of how totally skankulous are the GMO-mutant chem-soaked, preservative perverted industrial food-like crapola 'nutritional' products set out for the masses.

Eat clean food, peeps. Eschew the mutant, chem-befouled crap. It is your health on the line. Grow it yourself -- or directly support someone who grows clean food. Otherwise, you are just slowly, steadily filling your body up with toxic, mutant crapola. Eventually, it all comes home to roost.

[MadHound]

8. China segregates with a fence and guards, we do the same using pricing methods

If somebody wants to eat clean organic food in this country, they have to pay through the nose for the privilege. Take a look at Whole Foods, known to some as Whole Paycheck.

The poor simply can't afford this, neither can the working class. Only the upper middle class and the rich can afford this. Unless you grow your own, or know somebody who does. One reason I moved out to the country, to start growing my own organic food.

The thing is, it really isn't more expensive to raise organic food, and in some cases much less. I get organic, grass fed beef from my neighbor. It costs me $2.30/lb, no matter the cut.

China culls with force, we cull with price.

[cali]

11. it's actually not the same thing. food systems in China are a lot more dangerous than here

wish I could pay on 2.15 a lb for grass fed beef. One of my neighbors raises it too but it's a lot more expensive than that.

[MadHound]

12. I'm not sure just how much more dangerous it is in China

Being raised around farmers, having a farm myself, I know the dark side of American agriculture. The chemicals that are sprayed on the crops and the soil, the diseases that lurk unsuspecting in the crops, the shortcuts in food processing, even the adulteration of food. Yes, we're better than China, but probably by a lot less than most Americans want to believe.

Why is your neighbor's beef so expensive to raise? No anti-biotics, no hormones, just graze and grass, not even extra labor costs:shrug: Perhaps it is because I live here in the Midwest, true beef country.

The US segregates their food by price, and if you're poor, you're stuck with eating crappy food that is ultimately not healthy for you.

[cali]

13. I suppose because he can get that much for it.

I don't think it's that it's expensive to raise.

Oh, and I'm poor and I don't eat crappy food. Yes, I have a garden but hey this is Vermont and I don't put up that much anymore.

Even if you're poor you can eat healthily. Yes, it takes work, but it's not really that hard to do. But it does take education and knowing how to cook.