Going green a booming for Beijing restaurant

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As ordinary Chinese begin to have more disposable income in their pocket, they are willing to spend more on their health and the environment by picking organic food, like their European counterparts.

Dong Li Farming, a restaurant that sells dishes made out of vegetables, meat and eggs from its own organic farm, opened two outlets in recent years in Beijing to meet the surging demand.

"I like the idea represented by Dong Li, and it's a very convenient choice for young people like me who pay special attention to healthy eating but who cannot afford the time to cook themselves," said Chen Chunhua, a PhD candidate working on the last chapters of her graduation thesis.

Tongzhou on the suburb of Beijing has been famous for its fertile land for centuries and is now home to Dong Li's extensive farmhouse, where traditional farming practices are followed without the use of any chemical fertilizer, pesticide, anti-biotic, genetically modified seeds or chemicals.

Products from Dong Li's farmhouse are 25 percent to 500 percent more nutritious than ordinary food, claims Dong Li's signboard.

"I also like to buy fresh vegetables and eggs at Dong Li because they taste better and retain their original flavor," said Chen, while picking a dozen of eggs off the shelves inside the restaurant displaying and selling newly harvested vegetables and other produces arriving each afternoon from the farm.

Dong Li doesn't use any preservatives either during the two hour or so daily transportation of the produces from the suburban farm to downtown restaurants outlets.

Besides getting dishes and fresh produces at a discounted price, Dong Li members can also visit the farm themselves and adopt small plots of land or pigs and chickens and track their growth through Dong Li mobile application.

"I hope in the future they will expand the restaurant and have a more skilled cook," said Xu Jian, who approves the idea of healthy food but frowns upon the crude preparations of the dishes.

In Dong Li's vision of development, they plan to acquire one million mu (66,666 hectares) of farm, 10,000 clients and 100 million yuan ($15.07 million) of production value in five years.

Organic food often contains more elements like iron, magnesium and calcium, and Vitamin C, but less chemical substances like heavy metal and carcinogenic nitrate, according to studies.

With the improvement of living standard, Chinese people now want not only to feed themselves but also enjoy more diversified and healthy food, said An Yufa, a professor of agricultural economics with China Agricultural University.

People on regular diet of healthy and green food can feel their immune system improve, which is a natural result of discharge of internal toxins.

The concept of organic farming, which was invented by English Baron Walter James (Lord Northbourne) in Look to the Land in 1939 in opposition to chemical farming, which relies on imported fertility and isn't an organic whole.

Organic food stores first appeared in Germany in 1970 and provided consumers with purely natural cereal, oatmeal and nuts.

"If we take into account environmental pollution and soil damage caused by use of chemical fertilizers, we will find organic food may be even cheaper than ordinary food despite their sales prices," said An.