About 40 percent of organic produce and products comes from overseas, including 300 operations in China, where human waste is a not uncommon fertilizer. The nation is a major supplier to Wal-Mart. About 200 Chinese farms and producers have been given USDA Organic certificates by the Organic Crop Improvement Association of Lincoln, Neb. Its executive director, Jeff See, said his company has built trust with its producers since it started in China more than 12 years ago, the newspaper reported.
In the view of Fred Gale, a senior USDA economist with a background of research into Chinese agriculture, it was "almost impossible to grow truly organic food in China."
He told the Dallas Morning News, "The water everywhere is polluted, and the soil is contaminated from industry and mining, and the air is bad." Yet China claims to have 8.6 million acres of organic farmland against the 2.2 million in the United States.
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