Green Tomatoes for Mao’s Heirs – A German Eco-pioneer in China

WDR Worldwide
A film by Frank Sieren
30 minute documentary
First broadcast: Tuesday 02.04.2013 22.00 on WDR
Biological farming and species appropriate animal husbandry – in China? After all the country epitomizes pesticides, plastic toys with poisonous additives and a not exactly prissy handling of animals. The German organic pioneer Klaus Griesbach knows that things can be done differently. At the beginning of the 1970s he opened one of the first health food stores in Germany. Today the by now 70 year old works as a consultant in China’s fast growing organic sector. The visions of the German of the old school left and those of the new Chinese capitalists are on an unstoppable collision course.
For Griesbach it is a great adventure. Global author Frank Sieren accompanies the German on an inspection tour of an organic farm in the picturesque southern Chinese province of Yunan and to the customers in the shops in Beijing. Jute instead of plastic is certainly not an issue for them. With a Louis-Vuitton bag on the shoulder they load up their sport utility vehicles with organic apples. The new organic reality of China is sometimes even too much for Griesbach: he would never have dreamed that the alternative Muesli culture would one day evolve into an Asian luxury. His youngest employer is even listed on the New York stock exchange.