Organic produce presents challenges for farmers

ON a farm in Songjiang District, not a single machine sound can be heard instead you can hear buffalo, goats and chickens.

The chickens hang around among figs and goats chewing vegetable leaves in the sheepfold. It could be a traditional farm, except that the orderly lined vinyl houses tell a different story. This is a modern organic farm in suburban Shanghai.

Organic produce has become widely embraced as an increasing number of people care more about the quality, rather than the quantity, of food they eat. The organic trend has already swept Europe and it is now making inroads in China.