'Secret gardens' provide safe food for Chinese officials

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-07-15

A farm in Inner Mongolia. (File photo/Xinhua)

When a Chinese person had dinner at a high court cafeteria in Shaanxi province two years ago, he was informed that the court had its private farm located 30km from Xi'an and the produce grown on site was absolutely safe, according to an unknown source reported in the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly.

Other sources revealed that another secret garden in Guangdong province grew not only organic produce, but also raised pigs, fish, chickens and ducks.

The weekly reported that the 103 suppliers selected during the 2008 Beijing Olympics continued to be closely connected with government officials and organizations even after the Olympics.

The owner of the New Century Breeding Farm in Beijing, surnamed Sun, who provided chicken eggs for the Olympics, said that since water supply, livestock feed and air quality at his farm passed government tests a decade ago, he has been supplying products to central government officials.

Surrounded by 2m-high walls and secured by five guards, the Beijing Customs Vegetable Farm and Country Club, which supplies organic vegetables to Beijing customs officials, stretches for more than 200 hectares. The weekly reported that the farm has provided vegetables exclusively to the customs office for more than a decade.

To avoid chemical pollution, animal waste is used as fertilizer and pesticides sprayed in the farms are also organic. Agricultural produce from such farms are real organic products and the safety of the food is emphasized.

Qi Yanming, former deputy secretary-general of the State Council, rephrased the wording of a report from July 1960 on food supplies for senior officials and intellectuals from "non-staple food supplement" to "special supply." Since then, "special supply" has become a mysterious and prestigious term in the public domain, the weekly pointed out.

A source close to the matter revealed that, in addition to the food provided in cafeterias at government organizations, the households of some food officials are also stocked by such farms.

At these prestigious farms, files on vegetables are as detailed as those on personnel management. All details, from the planting date to pesticides used, are well documented.

Tight controls have also been implemented to monitor the quality. If any of the links were found to be sub-standard, the farm would be disqualified from participating in the prestigious program, the report said.

Farmers selected to provide produce for officials told the weekly that "it is an honor to be selected and the inclusion also guarantees income."

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