Nostalgia fuels demand for honest food in China

Organic, healthy and sustainable are the new keywords for a breed of socially conscious consumers and producers in the major cities of China. Han Bingbin reports on back-to-basics food networks.

China is getting richer, but with the wealth comes the accompanying problems of urbanization.

To many, it means grappling with pollution from too many cars and industrial emissions, the loss of agricultural land to city building and an increasing concern about the food they eat.

There is also a nostalgic appetite for the natural flavors from a more simple life in the past.

This nostalgia has fueled a demand for healthier organic food in China, and in the major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, alternative food networks and production chains have emerged in the form of farmland rental, farmers' markets and organic restaurants.

In the capital, one of the most influential networks to have emerged is the Beijing Country Fair, an organic farmers' market that is rapidly gaining recognition among the city's widening strata of middle classes, who are willing to pay more for safer, natural foods without chemical pesticides and additives.

We recommend:
Those Xiaorenshu we read in childhood	Trip planner: four-day trip to S China	Wonderful snapshots of flying buzzards
Forever Shangri-la: China's heaven on earth	Top 10 ever-victorious generals in history	Dreamy log cabins among woods
Top 10 best airports in China 2012	Mysterious Zhongnanhai in Beijing	Top 10 Chinese 'Kung Fu Kings' in Minguo period