Seems rooftop and patio gardeners in New York City and other major U.S. cities have something in common with like-minded souls on the other side of the world in Beijing, China. A new generation of urban farmers in that densely-populated city are growing their own food thanks to goods now available to them via a major new trend in China: online shopping.
The combination of online shopping and concerns about the safety of the food grown in the country has lead to more residents between 25 to 35 trying their hand at urban farming, with online searches for vegetable seeds skyrocketing by a whopping 280 percent in the last year at Taobo, a popular online retailer.
“That means, every day, more than 6,000 people went to online shops at Taobao expecting to buy seeds and tools that can convert their balconies into a small vegetable garden,” said Lu Qi from Taobao. “They plant vegetables not to save money but to guarantee food safety.” The company also plans on adding farmland rentals to its website, assisting those who want to grow even more of their own food with access to bigger plots.
While China certainly has a massive population, 6,000 people a day searching to buy their own vegetable seeds is still an amazing statistic. In the U.S. we have seen some of China’s food safety issues pop up here in imported goods and we have had our own share of problems with food grown locally as well. An explosive growth in information available on the internet regarding those issues along with the availability of how-to gardening information, organic seeds, and changes in zoning laws has encouraged many people in the U.S. to start urban gardens of their own. Seems many residents of Beijing have also caught on to just how great it is to be able to grow one’s own food right at home.
[via AsiaOne]
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