'10 - Jan.'11 - Qingdao Expat Group

Are these eggs "organic"? Its hard to say. I do not know exactly what the term"organic" means in China, although plenty of food products bear the label, and the marketfor organics is growing. Not surprisingly, like other labels in China, some organics are counterfeit.A lot of expats, myself included, pay more at the supermarket for "organic" producewithout knowing if it is truly "organic", and without knowing if the "organic" produce is anymore organic than the "conventional" produce in the next aisle.That's one reason I was happy to visit Mr. Yang's farm. Mr. Yang's desire for transparencyis refreshing. He wants his customers to see his operation, and to be able to talk to himabout his methods, and to have confidence in his product. A Chinese interpreter would behelpful for the more complex questions, although Mr. Yang does speak English very well. Wesaw that his chickens range freely over the mountainous hillside, laying eggs in small nestingboxes scattered over the landscape. He explained that he does not buy commercial chickenfeed, rather, he grinds his own grain to feed his chickens. We don't know whether the grainhe uses is organic, but we do know that the feed does not contain antibiotics or hormones.Mr. Yang is happy to host visitors at his farm. We made a family day of it with three other familes,hiking, collecting eggs, and learning about the farm. We brought a picnic, and Mr.Yang even scrambled fresh-gathered eggs for us.Mr. Yang sells his eggs for 20RMB for a box of 10 eggs. He can be reached at136.0896.4286.Qingdao Expat Magazine 13