the Beijinger

One of the most disturbing aspects of living in contemporary China is the seemingly endless stream of food safety bad news stories. The past week has seen some real doozies even by China standards, with a CCTV investigative report claiming many disposable chopsticks are highly toxic, and allegations that the use of oil dredged from drains is rampant in Chinese restaurants.

Country Fair organizers Emi Uemura and Caroline Merrifield tell us how we can get acquainted with our local organic farmers.

How does Country Fair work?
Country Fair developed out of a need to connect Beijing’s organic farmers with the city’s consumers. The event – modeled after farmers’ markets like those in Canada or the US – works as a platform for consumers to engage directly with the people who feed them, and for farmers to practice direct marketing. Our hope has been that the Country Fair events will increase consumers’ understanding of our urban food system, supporting the efforts of Beijing’s small-scale organic producers. 

What did you eat on the way to work this morning? Was it an egg, mystery meat and lettuce sandwich from one of these taxi-coloured wagons? Don't lie. They're everywhere now. The rise of Beijing’s mobile breakfast booths has been meteoric. Well, as state-sanctioned snack wagon expansion projects go. Dongcheng, Chaoyang, Xuanwu ... no district is safe.

Food scandals are so common in China that they no longer offer shock or surprise to anyone that’s been here for any length of time. To wake everyone up from that dull slumber Chinese farmers have truly outdone themselves this time – exploding watermelons. Add to that drugged fish and counterfeit duck to round out the latest list to watch what you eat.

Time for today's depressing food safety story. According to a report in the Global Times this morning, “About 80 percent of the paper napkins used in Beijing restaurants have been tainted with poisoned chemicals and are unsafe.”

Starting from today you’ll be able to buy a nice crispy youtiao at KFCs throughout Beijing and around the country as the fast food giant has decided to add the traditional Chinese morning snack to their breakfast menu. The colonel is making a big deal of the fact that his KFC youtiao are safe, clean and free of the 明矾 (ming fan) or alum that a lot of the street vendors add to give their deep fried dough sticks that extra bit of puff.

Snacks with additives dominate the capital’s markets. Just check the packaging and you’ll discover that even so-called “healthy” wholegrain or cereal biscuits – no matter local brands or imports – are usually stuffed with preservatives, stabilizers, sweeteners and flavor enhancers. That’s why a huge sweet tooth like me usually harvests nothing from supermarkets.

During our visit to Liuminying Ecological Farm (留民营生态农庄), the most memorable scenes were rows of opaque greenhouses, dozens of Lego-like operating rooms with cheerful red roofs and yellow walls, blue skies and bright sunshine. Located in Daxing District, it is the first village applying ecology agriculture in China.

If you thought this post on subway escalators was the last of it, think again. China’s subways are making news left and right and not just for their escalators but for bad drivers and ever worse passengers. Feeling safer above ground? Just watch out for the fake food and fires.