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Organic farming produces food that is priced two or three times higher than food without organic certification, but it is popular with consumers who see it as healthier.

This new - but essentially very traditional agricultural technique – excludes or strictly limits the use of manufactured fertilizers, pesticides, plant growth regulators and genetically modified organisms.

It relies instead on techniques such as crop rotation, biological pest control and "green manure" - a crop made up of items such as legumes and grass that is dug in to return nutrients to the soil or is cut and left on the surface as mulch.

Organic foods are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents or chemical additives.

A researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiang Gaoming, and his team have been learning organic farming on experimental plots in Punghu county, Shandong province, since 2007.

They used wheat straw as feed for stock and used the animal waste to fertilize vegetables. Trapping lamps were put out for insects, and farmers killed weeds by hand.

The researchers are trying to ascertain the costs and earnings from farming without chemicals, but Jiang said they don't yet have the details they need to issue a report.

He said widespread expansion of organic farms will require increased technical training, higher initial investment and, of course, more farmers willing to make the switch. But he remains optimistic.

"Less than one in a million people eat organic food regularly in China, which shows that there is great potential in the market," he said.

Questions:

1. Why is organic food popular with consumers?

2. How did the researchers kill weeds?

3. How many people eat organic food regularly in China?

Answers:

1. They see it as healthier.

2. By hand.

3. Less than one in a million.

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.