In the context of increasingly severe environmental pollution, food safety has become one of the most pressing livelihood issues globally and in China. Accelerating the development of green and organic agriculture and gradually making it the leading model of agricultural development is not only a fundamental guarantee for food safety and nutritional improvement for China's 1.3 billion people, but also a strategic move of milestone significance in the history of Chinese agricultural civilization.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
I. The Historical Inevitability of the Emergence and Development of Green and Organic Agriculture文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
Since the beginning of human history, agricultural production has roughly gone through the stages of primitive agriculture, traditional agriculture, petrochemical agriculture, and green and organic agriculture. In addition to relying on the massive consumption of petroleum products for power, modern agriculture also uses chemical fertilizers, pesticides, additives, and plastic films and other means of production that all rely on petroleum and natural gas as energy and raw materials, and is therefore also called “petrochemical agriculture.” Although this petrochemical agriculture equipped by industry and science and technology has greatly increased land output rates and labor productivity, the long-term excessive use of chemical substances such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides has led to increasingly serious soil degradation, excessive heavy metal residues, environmental pollution, and food safety problems. According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, 2 million to 5 million agricultural workers worldwide suffer pesticide poisoning each year, and 40,000 die.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
In the second half of the 20th century, after experiencing the bitter consequences of environmental deterioration brought by petrochemical agriculture, some Western developed countries took the lead in exploring ways to transform agricultural development models. British botanist Howard first proposed the concept of “Organic Agriculture” in 1931. In 1972, as the global green movement reached a climax, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) was established in France. Organic agriculture maintains and enhances the health of soil, plants, animals, humans, and the entire Earth as an inseparable whole, protecting the environment while safeguarding the health and welfare of current humanity and future generations. According to the 2010 report "World Organic Agriculture," 35 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide are currently used for organic agricultural production.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
As certified by specialized institutions, China has initially formed a green and organic agricultural industrial system that is pollution-free, safe, high-quality, and nutrient-rich. Among these, green food is divided into Grade A and Grade AA. Grade A requires the limited use of specified chemically synthesized means of production during the production process, while actively adopting biological techniques and physical methods to ensure that product quality meets the requirements of “green food” standards; Grade AA requires that no chemically synthesized pesticides, fertilizers, additives, veterinary drugs, or means of production harmful to the environment and human health be used during the production process, but rather that soil fertility be cultivated, pests and diseases be controlled, and product quality be protected or improved through the use of organic fertilizers, planting green manure crops, and adopting biological or physical methods and other technologies (the same as organic agriculture). Because both green food and organic food come from an environmentally friendly agricultural industrial system that limits or prohibits the use of chemical substances, people collectively refer to these two types of agriculture as green and organic agriculture.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
II. The Essential Characteristics and Advantages of Green and Organic Agriculture文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
Green and organic agriculture is a profound transformation of traditional agriculture and petrochemical agriculture, a qualitative elevation and leap in humanity's farming methods, and a new agricultural model that achieves harmony between humanity and nature and a win-win outcome for development and the environment. Its essential characteristics and advantages can be summarized as follows:文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(1) Standardization and normativity. One of the essential characteristics of green and organic agriculture is that, through a series of norms and guidelines, it standardizes agricultural technology and management—production has technical regulations, inputs have usage guidelines, products have dedicated labels, operations have certification and licensing, and any problems can be directly traced back to the place of origin. These standards, norms, and guidelines can ensure market demand within a certain period and product quality, safety, low consumption, and high efficiency. When technology or practice changes, the standards and norms are revised accordingly to incorporate the latest technological achievements and adapt to new needs in production, exchange, and purchasing and marketing. According to statistics from relevant departments, China currently implements a total of 152 green food industry standards. The state has even stricter standards for organic agricultural products, applicable to the entire process of organic agricultural production.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(2) Advanced technology. Green and organic agriculture not only adopts the intensive cultivation techniques of traditional agriculture and the improved seed breeding and advanced production and processing technologies of modern agriculture, but also creates higher-level technical models that conform to ecological, economic, and social livelihood laws. The technological content of each link—production, processing, preservation, packaging, transportation, and marketing—is far higher than that of traditional agriculture and petrochemical agriculture, thereby achieving a win-win outcome for both economic and ecological benefits. Nano-enhanced fertilizers developed by ecological economists can, on the basis of reducing the use of ordinary chemical fertilizers by 30%–50%, increase the average yield of crops such as rice, wheat, and corn by 10%, and increase the yield of vegetables and fruit trees by about 20%.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(3) High efficiency of output. Green and organic products have good quality, are pollution-free, and have high value and prices, with obvious efficiency advantages. The price of organic celery hearts in Baojia, Zhangqiu City, Shandong Province, is 30 yuan/kg, and premium celery sprouts are 180 yuan/kg, with an average income of 15,000 yuan per mu, more than 4 times that of ordinary celery. Finely packaged organic Chinese cabbage in Jiaozhou City sells for 45 yuan per head, and vegetable farmers have an average household income of 100,000 yuan. The “black peanut” cultivated by the Qingdao Nanzhai Apple Planting Professional Cooperative has zinc and selenium contents 48% and 101% higher than ordinary peanuts, respectively, and with selenium enrichment and green food certification, it sells for 50 yuan/kg. A 2009 market research report in Beijing showed that although organic food is much more expensive, most consumers are still willing to buy it. 文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(4) Circularity of resources. Green and organic agriculture emphasizes organic inputs and biological measures, resource-utilizing and reusing agricultural and human and livestock waste, thereby creating value and benefits while also improving soil fertility and optimizing the environment. It is a genuine “circular economy” model. Returning crop straw to the field and gasification power generation, biogas projects using human and livestock manure, the use of biological bacterial fertilizers, and biological pest control have all achieved good economic, social, and environmental benefits. Nanhu District, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, processes pig manure into primary organic fertilizer, which not only eliminates non-point source pollution but also generates economic benefits; moreover, grapes grown with this fertilizer have large berries, high sweetness, and good color, and their wholesale price is more than twice that of grapes grown with chemical fertilizers. Zhucheng City, Shandong Province, has promoted straw bio-reactor technology in more than 200 vegetable greenhouses throughout the city, using straw to replace chemical fertilizers, reducing costs by 50%, increasing vegetable yields by more than 50%, and increasing farmers“ incomes by more than 40%. According to expert estimates, green and organic agriculture, by not using or limiting the use of petrochemical material inputs, can reduce carbon emissions by 20%–50%, making it a veritable ”low-carbon agriculture."文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(5) Benefit to the people in production. Developing green and organic agriculture not only provides safe, pollution-free food, but also extends the industrial chain, expands employment, and has a remarkable effect in benefiting people's livelihoods. According to expert research, organic plant products contain more dry matter, minerals, and antioxidant micronutrients, more unsaturated fatty acids, vitamin C, iron, copper, zinc, and other trace elements, as well as secondary metabolites that resist cancer and prevent heart disease. Because green and organic agriculture emphasizes the collection and application of organic fertilizers and implements refined planting and breeding management and marketing, it has absorbed a large amount of rural labor for employment and entrepreneurship. The 11 green food standardized bases established in different regions of Gansu Province have cultivated more than 260 leading industrialized enterprises, more than 1,300 farmers' professional cooperative organizations, and nearly 10,000 marketing brokers, cumulatively achieving employment for more than 5 million laborers and generating more than 2.5 billion yuan in labor income. The income of workers engaged in the green food industry is twice that of ordinary farmers.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(6) Sustainability of development. Green and organic agriculture replaces chemical fertilizers with organic manure and replaces highly toxic and extremely toxic pesticides with biological technology, rationally allocates agricultural inputs, saves resources, optimizes the environment, and ensures the sustainability of agricultural development. Xiangyin County, Hunan Province, in developing green and organic agriculture, through ecological technologies such as carefully selected improved seeds, straw return to the field, the “pig-biogas-rice” ecological model, soil testing and formulated fertilization, and frequency-vibration insect-killing lamps to trap and kill pests, has basically achieved harmless treatment and resource utilization of domestic sewage, domestic waste, and human, livestock, and poultry manure in residential areas. The utilization rate of crop straw reaches 100%, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has been greatly reduced, and there are many species and large numbers of natural enemies of pests, mainly spiders. Aquatic organisms are dense in ditches, ports, and channels, and no pest damage can be seen in the fields, achieving high yield, high quality, high efficiency, and environmental improvement.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
III. The Current Situation and Prospects of China's Green and Organic Agriculture Development文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
China's green and organic agriculture began in the 1990s. In 2008, the national planting area and total physical output of green and organic products increased by 6.8 times and 13.3 times, respectively, compared with 1997. Among these, the total number of enterprises using the green food label has grown at an average annual rate of 24.7% since 1997. Green and organic food has become a “hot spot” for consumption by residents in large and medium-sized cities in China, a “highlight” of agricultural product exports, and a “growth point” for agricultural structural adjustment and optimization. However, the scale of China's green and organic agriculture development is limited, the number of varieties is also small, and the output of major bulk products accounts for only about 5% of the national total of similar products. Compared with the rapidly increasing domestic and international consumer demand, the existing variety of agricultural products, production scale, and supply capacity are all inadequate.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
China is rich in agricultural resources and has unique advantages and conditions for developing green and organic agriculture. These mainly include: (1) Rich and diverse species and natural resources. The cultivated plants, livestock and poultry, fish, edible fungi, insects, and others developed and utilized in agriculture nationwide have reached more than 10,000 species. Different regions have cultivated many agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery products with strong local characteristics and renowned at home and abroad. These regions have natural environments and traditional skills suitable for developing green and organic agriculture, and once developed can form a large number of well-known products and production bases with distinctive features, diverse types, and strong competitiveness. (2) Abundant organic fertilizer resources. According to estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture, the total annual output of organic fertilizer nationwide reaches 4.88 billion tons, including 2.04 billion tons of livestock and poultry manure, 2.02 billion tons of composted manure, 700 million tons of straw resources, more than 100 million tons of green manure, and more than 20 million tons of cake fertilizer, which can provide more than 60 million tons of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium nutrients. Vigorously developing and utilizing organic fertilizers can not only provide sufficient nutrients for crops, increase soil organic matter content, and improve soil physical and chemical properties, but also transform agricultural waste, fundamentally address non-point source pollution, improve the quality of agricultural products, and open up new growth points for agricultural development. (3) Agricultural product production and processing techniques and crafts rich in local and ethnic characteristics are found throughout the country. Fully exploring and utilizing these techniques and crafts and combining them with modern technology is of immeasurable significance for developing green and organic products and achieving product value-added and efficiency enhancement. (4) Urban and rural residents“ demand for and recognition of green and organic food are increasing day by day. The production methods, consumption concepts, and brands of green and organic agriculture have been recognized by more and more enterprises, farmers, and consumers. (5) The Party and the government have made strategic decisions on fundamentally addressing the ecological environment and building modern agriculture. The formulation and implementation of a series of major strategic guidelines, such as ”taking a new path of industrialization,“ ”establishing and implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development,“ ”accelerating the transformation of the development model,“ and ”developing a circular economy," will provide strong impetus and policy guarantees for the development of green and organic agriculture.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
According to predictions by relevant departments, during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, the development speed of China's green and organic agriculture will remain above 10%. By 2015, the number of enterprises effectively using the green food label nationwide will reach 8,800, with 23,000 products; the total number of organic food enterprises will reach 2,000, with 11,000 products; 300 new standardized green food raw material bases will be built, bringing the total number of standardized green food raw material bases to 800, with a total base area of 150 million mu. Supervision of green and organic products will also be strengthened, and the pass rate of product quality spot checks will remain above 98%. By 2030, the proportion of China's green and organic product planting area in the total cultivated land area may reach about 25%, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides will each be reduced by about 50%, the proportion of organic fertilizer use will increase to 70%, and soil organic matter will generally increase by 1 to 3 percentage points. By 2050, the proportion of green and organic product planting area in the total cultivated land area will rise to about 40%.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
IV. Countermeasures and Suggestions for Advancing the Development of China's Green and Organic Agriculture文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(1) Place the development of green and organic agriculture on the agenda of Party committees and governments at all levels and effectively strengthen leadership. The transformation from traditional agriculture and petrochemical agriculture to green and organic agriculture is a profound revolution in the agricultural field, of great and far-reaching significance, with arduous and complex tasks. Only when Party committees and governments at all levels place it on their agendas, keep it in their hands, and strengthen leadership can it be effectively advanced. This includes determining the development strategy for green and organic agriculture, proposing goals, tasks, and countermeasures; formulating plans and implementing them step by step; strengthening policy support to mobilize the enthusiasm of enterprises, bases, and farmers; and using typical demonstrations to drive the overall effort.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(2) Strengthen public opinion dissemination and unify ideological understanding. To develop green and organic agriculture, it is first necessary to establish advanced ideological concepts and master scientific and technological knowledge. Although people's environmental awareness and food safety awareness are gradually increasing, most people still know little about green and organic agriculture, and there are various one-sided understandings and ideological obstacles. Propaganda must be strengthened, including holding special lectures and report meetings, inviting experts, scholars, and professionals from certification bodies to give presentations; compiling teaching materials to popularize relevant knowledge; and organizing on-site meetings to summarize and promote successful typical experiences. Through multiple channels and methods, deeply carry out publicity and education on green and organic agriculture, inspire people to emancipate their minds and update their concepts, and truly turn the development of green and organic agriculture into the conscious action of rural cadres and the broad masses.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(3) Cultivate business entities and build supporting platforms. The characteristics of green and organic agriculture—standardization, normativity, industrialization, and high technological content—determine that the development of this industry must be led and driven by leading enterprises, professional cooperatives, or technology development institutions. To make green and organic agriculture bigger and stronger, attention must be paid to the construction of leading enterprises, and necessary support in funds and technology must be given to leading enterprises; scientific research institutions and personnel must be encouraged to participate in green and organic agriculture development; and leading enterprises must be guided to form a “community of interests” with bases, cooperatives, and farmers through contracts, services, and asset linkages. Actively promote the business model of “leading enterprise + professional cooperative organization + base farmers” so that the scope of close interest linkages is continuously expanded.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(4) Strengthen scientific and technological support and solve key technical problems. Green and organic agriculture limits or prohibits the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which places entirely new demands on agricultural science and technology and urgently requires scientific and technological innovation and support. Efforts should be concentrated on achieving breakthroughs in key technologies: ① Breakthroughs in organic fertilizer production and application technology. Focus on the conversion and utilization of organic fertilizer resources such as crop straw, agricultural waste, and human, livestock, and poultry manure, and strive for major breakthroughs in supporting technologies and equipment. ② Breakthroughs in biological pesticide development technology. With the popularization of chemical pesticides, the use of traditional Chinese indigenous pesticides has gradually decreased. In fact, through modern technological development, indigenous pesticides not only have good insect-killing effects but also cause no phytotoxicity. New technologies and methods for biological disease prevention and pest control should be vigorously developed to reduce and replace highly toxic residual chemical pesticides. ③ Breakthroughs in improved seed breeding technology. Protect locally unique varieties, strengthen the domestication of wild resources and the breeding of new varieties, and continuously develop new high-quality seeds and seedlings with strong resistance to pests, diseases, and stress and broad adaptability. ④ Breakthroughs in specialty product processing technology. Among the specialty product processing techniques inherited among the Chinese people, some have been transformed for new product development, some have stagnated, and some are on the verge of being lost. If traditional specialty processing techniques from various regions are improved and integrated with modern science and technology, they will greatly expand the market space for green and organic agriculture and the employment space for farmers. ⑤ Breakthroughs in operating methods. Relying on enterprises, associations, and professional cooperatives, integrate social resources and gradually establish a completely new operating model of unified standards, unified trademarks, unified marketing, unified prices, unified packaging, and unified legal assistance for different green and organic products.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(5) Provide support and protection for green and organic agriculture in policies and laws. Green and organic agriculture has high requirements for standards, management, and technology, and requires relatively large infrastructure investment, so it needs support and protection. The state and regions with the capacity should establish special funds for green and organic agriculture development; include relevant enterprises and farmers within the scope of fiscal support; give priority to providing special fund support and incentives for green and organic product base construction, brand creation, and research and development文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
(6)综合治理农田污染，为发展绿色有机农业创造条件。严禁高毒、高残留农药的使用；对化肥、农药等化学投入品进行环保安全认证，未经核准不得进入市场；积极推广应用生物农药、有机肥料和可降解地膜等高效、低毒、低残留的投入品；积极推行以改圈改厕改厨、建设户用沼气池为纽带，大力发展“猪—沼—菜”生态农业模式，实现资源无害化、产品优质化、效益多元化；适当扩大豆科固氮作物和绿肥作物面积；在北方旱作农业地区，推行秸秆覆盖、免耕播种、深松除草等保护性耕作技术；加快城乡污水、垃圾处理厂的建设步伐，改善农村生态环境。文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/
发展绿色有机农业，必须坚持“循序渐进、宁缺毋滥”原则，切不可降低质量标准。要广泛开展国际交流与合作，不断提高我国绿色有机农业的发展水平。文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11262/