China is one of the biggest countries and fastest-growing economies on the planet, so given its enormous population and its influence on the world scene, its choices in agriculture can have a huge impact globally as well as locally. Although China is considered to be one of the major contributors in biotechnology research and development and the production of bio-engineered crops (GMO), Chinese organic farming is also booming, thanks largely to increasing foreign demand. Similarly to many other governments, the People’s Republic of China also established a regulatory agency for certifying and regulating organic food, known as the China Green Food Development Center and run by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture.

Contrary to many other certification and quality-control bodies, the China Green Food Development Center focuses less on the production and processing of food and more on what’s in the final product. For instance, pesticide residue tests and the like are employed in determining if a food can be labeled “organic.” Technically, this means that even if a crop was not grown by organic farming methods, but with the use of synthetic pesticides or fertilizer, for instance, as long as the government doesn’t find any noticeable traces of these chemicals in the end product, it will consider it organic. This is something to keep in mind if you are an organic food consumer and advocate and buy organic vegetables and other food products produced in China.

But the China organic food initiative is not alone with such problems of certification; even in countries like the United States or the member states of the European Union, organic food certification standards vary widely. There is no universally agreed upon standard to determine whether a product is organic or conventional. Nevertheless, the fact that these governments and the private sector are responsive to the increasing consumer demand to know where so-called organic food originates from and how it came to be is a sign of changing times.