When she returned to China in 2009 after her six month internship at Earth Right Farm, she founded her own CSA farm (CSA) in Su Jiatuo, a village in the Haidian District close to Beijing, and named it Little Donkey Farm.
Shi Yan discovered, however, as a young doctoral student interning at a community-supported agricultural (CSA) farm in the United States that the growing food safety concerns in China could open a market for organic food.
When the last government set up a Child Support Agency (CSA) in 1993, with the ability to pursue "deadbeat dads", it stirred up the mother of all rows.
FOR more than a decade the Child Support Agency (CSA), which is meant to secure maintenance payments for single parents on welfare from their ex-partners, has clung to the contested title of most hapless government agency.
Despite stories like those of Shi Yan and Gao Qingrong, the spread of CSA has been promising but fairly slow.
In Sichuan, for example, CSA and eco-farming has attracted migrant farmers to return home.
'But later, with the success of the Little Donkey farm and the spread of CSA in China, they came to support it.' In China, very few young people are interested in farming because of the low wages and social stigma attached to the farmer - they are regarded as backward, uneducated and often second-class citizens.
Since the village has been shielded from industrialization and relies heavily on agriculture, the local government decided to adopt a CSA program as way to raise economic productivity.
The government of Jiage in Jiangsu province recently learned of the Little Donkey Farm and asked Shi Yan to help them set up a CSA farm, which they named Big Buffalo.
In order to spread the word about CSA and organic farming, as well as to attract new young college recruits, Shi Yan gives presentations at local communities in the cities.
'These food safety issues are only a phenomenon,' says Shi. 'The real problem, and why food safety is becoming a more serious concern, is because consumer's lack understanding and knowledge about farming and farmers.' Local media coverage has also helped to spread word about CSA and eco-farming.
