With regard to Chinese organics, I imagine the case illuminated in the following article to be typical:

http://www.gbcc.org.uk/28Anatomyorganicvillage.htm

I read the article you sent Rene. Very interesting and puts a different perspective on organic farming in China. I want to support those farmers, but my concern is how polluted the water, air, and soil are over there. I worry that it is all getting into the food. Eventually, the pollution over there will dissipate to the rest of the world, but it just seems so concentrated there. What do you think?

Another problem with supporting organic food grown in China, besides the certification problems mentioned in the first news story, is the distance it must travel to get to our tables. I agree with supporting organic farmers but again and again we struggle with getting food grown closer to us. I feel that if the food we are buying can be produced and grown closer to our homes than we should choose that first. (I was shocked that the food shown in the first news story was all food that the can be grown easily in our own country.) Obviously, the idea of buying as locally as one can is not always easy to carry out and presents challenges depending on where one lives.

Unfortunately, the story of farmers struggling to make a go at organic farming (and farming in general) is a struggle that farmers face everywhere. I believe the support of organic farmers must be both on a global scale and a local scale. Globally, by keeping informed about the organic movement abroad and supporting governments and organizations that encourage organic farming and certification. This way when we do make organic purchases that come from another country, we can do so in a more informed way. Locally, of course, we can support organic farming by buying our food as close to home as possible and making our voices heard on political and community levels.

It is encouraging to see that countries like China have places where the organic movement is trying to take hold. Who knows maybe this movement can influence China in other areas concerning the environment.

I agree with Stacy that foods grown locally, seasonally, & organically are to be preferred over distant foods.

I also think it's important to recall that, historically, the U.S. has been involved in soil-tilth destroying and toxic chemical agriculture for quite a bit longer than has China (post-WWII v. cultural revolution). Moreover, ecologically, toxic persistent chemicals used in one part of the world do not stay put, but travel the world clandestinely. Sandra Steingraber' book "Living Downstream" outlines the global ecological problem very well, as does her book, "Having Faith," in terms of our health, and specifically in terms of children's health risks due to chemical exposures.

I was interested in the concept of organic foods from China. We visited extensively 2 years ago and recently viewed a documentary about the relocation efforts along the Yangtze. The country is interesting, a mix of "showy" new buildings and traditional people trying to eek out a living on very little arable land. Although the countryside that you see is beautiful, the air is unbreathable, and the waterways we were on (even those "minor" waterways) were filthy with everyday items and pollution. We saw sewage, people washing boats with soap and swishing it all into the water, plastic containers of all shapes and sizes, and no where was the water other than a dirty brown. That being said, we watched greens being grown right to the edge and watered with water from the waterways. That was the only place that was arable.

Lest I overreact and just say that I'm not sure I'd trust an organic label from China, I searched on line to find a definition of organic used in the china context. You all know that there are various organic certifications. I encourage you, if you are interested, to read the standards on the levels, then, browse the site I found. It begins by talking about the evolution of Chinese agriculture, then discusses herbs, and finally, in part 2, discussed organic crops. See what you think. I agree with Stacy that I prefer to know my farmer. Here it is:
http://www.itmonline.org/arts/organics.htm