We finally arrived at a crossroad in a small village where was still covered by thick snow after 2 hours hard driving, a woman was waiting there with her electromobile, smiling and saying "welcome and follow me”. We did as she told and came to the destination——"Ke La Ke La” Farmland, a farmland that locates in Miyun District, Beijing. The woman guiding us is named Wang Guifang, the staff of the farmland.
Wang Guifang has been working in the farmland for 5 years, when asked about her thoughts of the food issues she could illustrate, she said " Many issues actually, but the first I hate most was occurred in 2008, the milk powder was contaminated by melamine, many infants were dead after eating the powder, that was really the issue should be condemned.” She continued to say that ever since then, food issues have been getting more serious and no one second should be wasted to address it. "I even didn't dare to buy vegetables from others, you never know how many pesticides they put them into the cabbages, carrots or tomatoes.”
Wang began to work in the "Ke La Ke La" Farmland 5 years ago. She thought it necessary to take advantage of the countryside as it is much more of good quality than the urban. “Many experts are talking about how to avoid food issues and how to get rid of the pesticides in the vegetables, but I believe controlling the supply source is very important and efficient.” Wang claimed the farmland has 200 acres, over 100 greenhouses. They plant the vegetables in the greenhouse, using the sun heat to keep warm and water them by drip-irrigation, in the morning they open the cover at the roof of greenhouse to let the sun heat in, and turn on the drip-irrigation to water the vegetables while at 4 pm they close the cover and turn drip-irrigation off. The point is, they use organic wastes to nourish the vegetables instead of pesticides. “You can see the goat and cattle manure there, those are what we use for the vegetables” Wang Guifang said while pointing to the ground. When harvest each day, they make a team and pack the vegetables with boxes in the afternoon, the regular client will sent a car to pick the boxes to the company. Wang Guifang told that the vegetables are intended for the stuffs in that company.
Wang talked her own ideas about one of the food issues, using too much pesticides. She knew those who often use pesticide well and claimed she understood them. "Of course it is improper to use pesticide too much, but truth be told I understand them, there are two reasons. " Wang Guifang said, “They have to use pesticides or other chemical things attributes to the weather and the price. ” Wang explained that if the weather is very bad, like extremely cold or drought, farmers have to use some special chemical to sustain the output, or if the price is very low, they do so as well. “I hope our government can promote their subsidy policies to increase the farmers' s income, even just directly by the payment, once farmers have money, they won’t take risks of doing that.”
