Food-safety measures selective in China
Yuanmou, — China - This is a rare place in today’s China. With no industrial pollution and a temperate climate, farms here produce some of the country’s best fruits and vegetables - famous not only for their taste, but mainly because they are uncontaminated.
There are no chemical-belching factories in this remote part of Yunnan province - no hastily erected cement plants, no brick kilns, and none of the air, water and soil pollution that blight the rural landscape elsewhere. The local rules about pesticides are a little tougher than other places, and farmers perhaps a bit more careful.
One large farm on the outskirts of the city exports its produce to several countries, but its finest is reserved for an in-country destination. A patch of golden melons, reputed to be the sweetest in the county and untouched by the chemical pesticides used on the rest of the farm, are flown 2,000 miles at their peak ripeness to Beijing’s Zhongnanhai, the walled compound where China’s central government leaders live and work. Nearby, at another large farm that develops hybrid seeds sold around China and Europe, the best beans, tomatoes and onions are reserved for delivery to the central government.
