For the highest quality produce, from restaurants to kitchen tables, green, 
organic, and fresh are the standard. The concept of "green" guarantees a 
certain quality of agricultural product, while flavor adds to the market value. 
In this regard, Chongming produce has a clear advantage as high-quality soil 
leads to high-quality crops.

Chongming's soil contains much less cadmium, mercury, arsenic, lead, chromium, 
copper, nickel and zinc. It's in line with the standard of the Ministry of 
Agriculture, with over 70 percent of Chongming's farmland using high-quality or 
above average soil.

Chongming is also the largest estuarine alluvial island in the world, with the 
land saturated with sediment carried by the Yangtze River. With less alkaline 
and sandy soil and rich in nutrients, the soil on Chongming Island provides 
fertile ground for the growth of rhizome plants such as yams, sweet potatoes 
and taros.

Chongming crispy taro has been cultivated for over 400 years and has already 
become a national well-known product.

In Luhu Village, half of the farmers grow crispy taro, a top-seller among 
downtown buyers. Gu Junjie, Party chief of the village, said that Chongming's 
crispy taro is highly recognizable both in appearance and taste.

"Someone tried to plant crispy taro in nearby Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, 
but the flavor was clearly different. That's because of our environment, land 
and planting methods, among other things," Gu said.

Dr. Du Hongmei, a research fellow at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has been 
paying close attention to Chongming crispy taro. Through various measurements, 
he found that the amylopectin content and other flavor substances in Chongming 
crispy taro is indeed higher than those from other plantation regions.

Besides crispy taro, white lentil, golden melon and rice are all Chongming's 
characteristic agricultural products. In recent years, Chongming has 
accelerated the development of seed sources, thus promoting the 
commercialization, scale and industrialization of these agricultural products. 
In addition to natural advantages, Chongming farmers are good at "cultivating 
soil".

The Shanghai Yingyu Fruit and Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Xinhe Town 
mainly grows honey pears. The cooperative has insisted on using only organic 
fertilizers for many years. Shi Liping, head of the cooperative, said the use 
of chemical fertilizers would not guarantee the quality of the pears, and would 
also make the soil hard. Shi's cooperative uses soybean as organic fertilizer, 
and prepares the land by growing grass. They then cut the grass with a mower 
and leave the clippings in rows. As the dead grass rot, it in turn nourishes 
the soil.

So far, Chongming has formulated stringent access standards for the inputs in 
agriculture to ensure the safety and sustainable use of farmland. It has 
established a green food chain mechanism and eliminated the circulation of 
unqualified agricultural material from the source.

It has also carried out agricultural pollution control, increased the 
adjustment of agricultural industrial structure, accelerated the resource 
utilization of agricultural production waste and orderly implemented soil 
remediation.

Source: Information Office of Shanghai Chongming District People's Government

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   Caption: Chongming produce has a clear advantage as high-quality soil leads 
to high-quality crops.

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   Caption: Chongming crispy taro