Chinese vegetable grower: say thank you for feeding you

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

How do the Chinese grow greenhouse vegetables near Krasnoyarsk? Why are the maximum permissible concentrations of harmful substances exceeded in them? Why does the terrible word GMO not scare the comrades from the Celestial Empire?

To interview one of the Chinese vegetable growers working in greenhouses in the Berezovsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the RP correspondent had to work hard. Find a friend who has lived in China for several years and knows Chinese well. Stock up on expensive cigarettes. Disguise the voice recorder. Come to the greenhouse town and buy a decent batch of tomatoes and cucumbers in a makeshift shop. Only after that, one of the workers, a former construction worker from Qinghai province, agreed to step aside - to smoke and talk. And after talking, he began to answer questions.

- Tell me, why does your cabbage ripen in a month and a half, and at the dachas in the neighborhood not less than three?

- Because Russians grow completely different vegetables. We never use local seeds, we bring everything from China. They are much better than yours. Our agronomists are doing very serious work. They create varieties so that vegetables give a large harvest and grow quickly. You have a lot of land, you can plant a lot of cabbage and wait a long time for it to grow. We have little land, but a lot of people. Therefore, in China they are trying to develop varieties that ripen in weeks so that new vegetables can be planted in the vacant space.

Mr. Jan (as the interlocutor of the RP calls the owner of the greenhouses where he works - RP) said that when he just started working in Russia, he tried to plant Russian seeds, thinking that they are better suited to your climate. But these vegetables did not grow well, were constantly sick, and the harvest was very small. After that, he switched to Chinese, and everything worked out.

Now the Russians have begun to understand what good seeds we have. The man from whom Mr. Jan buys seeds says that now many Russians come to him and ask to sell them. He sells because next year they still have to buy them again. All our vegetables are hybrid. If you yourself collect seeds from ripe cucumbers or tomatoes, they will still not give good offspring. The harvest will be much less. Therefore, it is better to buy expensive seeds, bred and collected by Chinese agronomists, not to save money.

Advise how you need to take care of vegetables so that they grow faster and give a big harvest?

- First, you need to fertilize the soil very well so that the seeds have enough of everything in it. As soon as sprouts appear, you need to monitor them all the time: treat them from diseases, from pests, destroy weeds. It is imperative to feed the plants well to keep them strong. You have rich land, you can give less fertilizers than in China, but they are still needed. Once a week we spray the sprouts with fertilizer, which we also bring from China. It was created by our agronomists specifically for industrial cultivation in greenhouses in cold climates. Once you start using it, everything grows quickly and well. We also add substances the plants need to the ground - they help to increase the yield.

What are these substances? What do they include?

- I do not know. Let's take a look at the packaging (brings a small bag with some grains inside). Here is a top dressing for tomatoes. Here's how to use it. You need to sprinkle a few peas under each bush once a week. The composition is written here: superphosphate, urea, some other unfamiliar names. I do not know them. But I know that this is a very good top dressing, you start pouring it, and the result is immediately visible. Chinese agronomists are the best in the world, they know everything about vegetables, they have studied everything. We have the most advanced science, new discoveries are made every day.

We also use Russian fertilizers, because they are cheaper, but they do not give such a result. It is imperative to buy our Chinese feed and give it to vegetables.

What Russian fertilizers do you use?

“I don’t know, I can’t read it. Want to see for yourself. There they lie in the corner (leads to the 50 kg bags piled in a pile under the open sky). What it is?

This is ammonium nitrate, a concentrated nitrogen fertilizer. How do you use it?

- We sprinkle it on the ground, and then water it to be absorbed.

Saltpeter, packaged in bags. Photo: Nikolay Titov / Fotoimedia / TASS

How often?

- Once a week. One bag is enough for one greenhouse.

Do you fertilize all vegetables like that?

- Everything. What is it?

Ammonium nitrate cannot be used for feeding cucumbers: they will contain a lot of nitrates, they will become hazardous to health …

- As Mr. Jan tells us, that's what we do. If it's a bad fertilizer, why are you releasing it then? It's not made in China, but in Russia, right? We are offended when they say that we use harmful feeding. It is not true. Maybe your Russian fertilizers are bad, but ours, Chinese ones, are all good.

Tell me, if you don't like the vegetables we grow, why do you buy them? Why do you take out in whole trucks? If you don't like it, eat the ones that you raised yourself. If our tomatoes and cucumbers are dangerous to health, then why do you then pass them off as your own Russians? My friend and I once specially went to the market to see what vegetables they sell there. All ours lie there, but we recognize them - we raised them ourselves. Only the price is ten times higher. And the stores are the same - all the cucumbers and tomatoes are ours. Mr. Jan says that later Russian merchants assure that they did not buy the vegetables from us, but that they themselves grew or brought them from Europe. And the price is raised to the skies. And they themselves buy from us in the season for ridiculous money. Recently, we sold a whole truckload of tomatoes for only 5 rubles per kilogram, just to recoup the costs of boxes. And your merchants then ask for them 10 times more expensive, I saw it myself.

Some traders specifically ask us to grow huge tomatoes. They then pass them off as these your most famous tomatoes from the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory … I forgot what they are called …

Minusinskiy?

- Exactly! They say they are considered the most delicious here. If our tomatoes were bad, they couldn't be passed off as the best. And the merchants give it out, and no one complains, everyone likes it.

Do you yourself like the vegetables that you grow?

- Of course, they are not as tasty as in China. How else? There is little sun, little heat. We have to build greenhouses, heat the stoves so that the plants do not freeze. Feed them with fertilizers so that they have time to grow and give a crop. And in order for vegetables to gain flavor, they must ripen for a long time, under the sun. Therefore, we grow all vegetables for ourselves in a separate greenhouse. We do not feed them with anything, so as not to rush them. It tastes better this way. And we plant other varieties for ourselves - those to which we are accustomed at home. They give less yield, but we like them better.

Why not grow all vegetables in all greenhouses without top dressing and fertilizers?

- It will take a very long time, it will be unprofitable. If you wait for vegetables to ripen without using fertilizers specially designed for industrial cultivation, they will turn out to be very expensive. Then they will cost not 5, but 50 rubles per kilogram. And in order to work in Russia, the business must be very profitable. After all, here you have to pay not only for land and work, but also give a lot of money to officials. Mr. Jang said that he pays so that we are not caught and sent back to our homeland, so that we are not accused of growing bad vegetables, so that our greenhouses are not demolished by bulldozers - this has already been done. He pays all the time and is still afraid all the time. In Russia, the Chinese are treated very badly, they create problems all the time.

A Chinese worker in one of the greenhouses where vegetables are grown. Photo: Alexander Kondratyuk / TASS

And how are the locals? Do not create problems?

- We rarely communicate with them, only when suddenly we urgently need to buy something. They don't like us either, they very often behave impolitely. Many are offended that we have occupied their land. But who is to blame for this? They are themselves. You've been to China - have you seen how much land is idle in our country? Not at all. Everything is busy, everything is being processed, not a meter is free. Nobody will take the land from us, because all of it is being used. And in Russia huge fields are empty. If you don't need them, why not give them to those who want and know how to work? Who is to blame that the Russians do not want to work, but we do? That they don't know how to grow vegetables well, but we can? It would be better if they came and asked to teach us what to do and how, and not get angry with us. We could teach a lot, share our knowledge.

What, for example?

- Yes, at least what kind of film is needed for greenhouses to grow three or four crops per season in cold climates. Our scientists have created a very good material, it does not tear, it only stretches. It lets in a lot of light: even when it is dusk, it is as bright as day inside. Keeps warm well. In Russia, they do not know how to make such a film; they have to bring it from China. If the Russians learned to release it, it would be beneficial for everyone. But your officials, instead of sending capable people to adopt the Chinese experience, prefer to declare that our film is harmful. You have to bury it in the ground when the working season ends so that no one notices anything, otherwise they will find it and say that it is dangerous because they do not understand what it is made of.

Honestly, I believe that so many bad things are made up about us because they do not understand how we get such a good harvest. Therefore, they come up with the idea that we use harmful fertilizing, fertilizers. But our secret is extremely simple - you need to work hard. Get up early in the morning and work until sunset, do not straighten your back all day. We water the earth with our sweat. Russians do not know how to work and do not want to. They have lunch, then … how is that your word about idleness? Remembered: a smoke break. They also drink a lot. Therefore, they invent various nonsense about us. It’s easier to explain why it grows in our country, but not in theirs. We collect 100 kg of vegetables from one meter per season, and they are 10. So judge for yourself who knows how to work and who does not. We have only one worker who processes one greenhouse, and at least ten Russian workers would be needed.

The ruble will become even cheaper, it will become completely unprofitable to do business in Russia, and we will leave. Probably, only after that our work will be appreciated, when there will be no one to grow vegetables and the shops will be empty. Russians cannot feed themselves. So you'd better say thank you for feeding you while.

If it's not a secret, how much do you earn a month now?

- Very little. I come to Russia to earn money for the third year in a row. The first time it turned out a decent amount, it was enough to repair the house. The second time I earned less, but still twice as much as I received in China. And I don’t even know how many will be released this year. The ruble is getting cheaper all the time. I'm afraid I'll be left with almost nothing. If so, then next year I will not come. Of course, if I manage to find a job at home, otherwise I may not have a choice and will have to return here.

Photo: Alexander Kondratyuk / TASS

Do you understand that the Chinese go to work in Russia not because of a good life? It's very hard for us to live here. You work 16 hours a day, and even nowhere to wash normally. Mr. Jan says that he would like to build a nice house with all the amenities for the visiting workers, but there is no point. It is not known when your authorities will want to bulldoze everything and drive us off the ground. We have to huddle in temporary huts. Every year they have to build greenhouses in a new place, and start all over again.

I happened to visit the place where the Chinese greenhouses stood last year. Until now, nothing grows there - the grass is barely breaking through. Why do you think?

- Because we cleared the land of all the weeds very well, we were not lazy. The compounds that our scientists create help get rid of all harmful plants once and for all. But do not worry: they do not work on useful plants. So they are specially created. If, for example, tomatoes are grown on the ground from under our greenhouses, they will grow beautifully and give an excellent harvest. And there will be nothing harmful in them. Many locals accuse us of spoiling their land. But this is not so, we are only improving it. There is no need to be afraid of what you do not understand.

Aftertaste

The smiling and talkative worker happily sold to the RP correspondent glossy, shiny tomatoes and small, firm, dark green cucumbers with pimples. To check his words that all vegetables grown in Chinese greenhouses are absolutely safe for health, we handed them over for analysis to an independent laboratory of the Center for Biochemical Research LLC.

The content of nitrates in tomatoes exceeded the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) by 4 times, in cucumbers - by 9 times. DDT was found in all studied vegetables, and in an amount three times higher than the norm. This insecticide can cause the development of cancer. Its use on the territory of Russia is strictly prohibited.

In addition, benzopyrene was found in cucumbers, which should not be there at all. This carcinogen of the first class of danger destroys bones and liver, and causes malignant tumors. Arsenic and fluorine were found in tomatoes - in amounts twice the maximum permissible concentration. These toxic substances destroy human protein.

Also, unknown chemicals were found, the composition of which could not be determined in the laboratory. What influence they can have on the human body, probably only the mysterious Chinese "agronomists" know.