National Geographic

106 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC • FEBRUARY 2018fanxiang qingnian—young people returning tothe country side. They now have an organizationdedicated to supporting their interests, Wotu Sus-tainable Agriculture Development Center, and amagazine catering to them called SustainableFarming. China’s organic sector has boomed,with sales growing as much as 30-fold since 2006,according to a recent industry analysis. Research-ers say that at least 122 community- supportedagriculture (CSA) projects, with farmers followingthe same model as Jiang, have sprung up, but themovement claims there are hundreds. Nation-wide a few Western-style farmers markets areoperating, all in large cities.them. After beginning his business without pesti-cides and fertilizers, he now uses them sparingly;customers balked at pitted vegetables and un-dersized fruit. “I have this emotional bond” withfarming, says Jiang, who has a degree in socialwork. He worked three years in an office, whichhe hated. Eventually he returned to farming—much to the dismay of his parents, who equatethe fields with drudgery. “I cannot afford a luxurylife,” he says, and he’s OK with that.Jiang is part of a phenomenon of rural-born,college-educated Chinese going back to thefields. Though small in scale, it is still commonenough that there’s a phrase for its participants,,Q4XMLHLQVRXWKHUQ*XDQJGRQJ3URYLQFHFKLOGUHQHDWDKHDUW\EUHDNIDVWRIQRRGOHVHJJVDQGPHDWRXWVLGHWKHLUVFKRRO0DQ\IDPLOLHVQRZKDYHWZRZRUNLQJSDUHQWVOHDYLQJOHVVWLPHWRPDNHPHDOVDWKRPHWKHWUDGLWLRQDOZD\