I call it ‘Great Himalayas goji hoax’, because among those big hoaxes I’ve ever heard, this is a whopper one! I try to be conservative to make my statement, but I can not help crying out:
Stop believing in so called ‘Himalayas goij’ or ‘Tibetan goji’ because there is no such thing on the world!
My statement may offend many people, including some innocent goji customers who dedicatedly take ‘authentic Himalayas/Tibetan goji’ purchased online and can tell many testimonies on its health benefits. For these people I would like to say sorry – there is nothing wrong with taking goji as nutritional supplementary food, but the truth is 'Himalayas or Tibet goji' just don’t exist. It hurt feelings? Sorry but yes, truth hurt feelings, sometimes.
I was born in Zhongning County, Ningxia Hui-Autonomous Region in China. My family had lived in a village 15 miles east Zhongning city until I was 13. There was a 5-acre goji vineyard just in front of our old house. Every summer I played or helped adult picking goji berries in that goji vineyard. Later our family moved to town and I finished my middle and high school there. Goji, the major produce from Zhongning county, has been pride of local folks. When I entered college in Nanjing In 1986, I used to bring dried goji berries as gift to my roommates and friends. One of my roommate (and my closest friend at college) was a Tibetan, who happily accepted my gift. Like others it was his first time to see goji. 20 years ago, goji was only grown in a couple of counties in Ningxia, until it was introduced to other areas such as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang in 1990’s.
(A local girl posed in a goji farm in Zhongning county, Ningxia, China. Photo provided by Pengsheng Qing, Zhongning, China 2008)
From my childhood, I’ve never heard goji is related to Tibet or Himalayas regions. That’s why I was so shocked when one day I accidently googled “goji” (driven by curiosity) and found numerous online sellers are selling ‘authentic Tibetan Goji’. Am I too ignorant? Is there really true Tibet goji that has been developed but I am not sure what it is? I browsed many goji online stores, they claim ‘Tibetan Goji’ is different from Chinese wolfberry – ironically they still use ancient Chinese medical documents to prove 'Tibetan goji’s clinical effects. I started with my investigation. The first thing was I called my brother, who is working at local agricultural department in Zhongning -the ‘hometown of goji’. He wrote many articles on goji cultivation and served as goji consultant for many years. His said he knew Ningxia goji was sold in America as Tibetan goji, but it seems Americans prefer to believe Tibetan goji with unknown reason. He is not aware of any Tibetan goji in China. In China it is well known the best quality goji is produced in Zhongning, Ningxia. Any brands other than that are sold with discounted prices.
Recently there is a cooperative project going on between Ningxia local government and Tibetan local government, Ningxia provide goji cultivation technology aid to help Tibet to grow goji in some low valleys. I searched the internet and found a news (in Chinese)dated 7-21-2007 reporting Tibetan government thanked Ningxia government to help them grow goji in Tibet. From all the information I have, goji was probably introduced to Tibet very recently, it takes 3-4 years for a goji bush to fully yield berries, how come the goji market has already been dominated by ‘Tibetan goji”?
What I found on many online goji stores are only groundless claims like their product was 'certified produced in Tibet’, or ‘Tibetan goji is different from Chinese wolfberries and has Magic clinical effects, and so on….If you want more objective information source, Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia is a much better information source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfberry), though it does not crack the ‘Tibetan goji’ hoax.
I don’t want to spend too much time debating on a thing that does not actually exist. For reasons you can imagine they are selling non-existant ‘authentic Tibetan goji’ to innocent American customers. But here are my points:
1. There are no difference between ‘Chinese wolfberries’ and ‘Tibetan/Himalayas goji’, because we are compare a thing with nothing. Then where are these 'Tibetan goji' produced? Good question. I guess even the 'Tibetan goji' sellers do not know or don't bother to know.
2.Goji (or go-qi, or Chinese wolfberries) are primarily produced in Ningxia, inner mongolia and Xingjiang, with the best brand in Zhongning, Ningxia; 3. ‘Wild Tibetan goji’ is just sheer non-sense!
There are some land in Ningxia are reserved for 'green agriculture' or 'organic production' but the acreage is relatively small, and the meaning of 'organic' is a little different from the term we use here in America. 'Green agriculture' is administrated by Chinese government and certain low- toxic but more efficient pesticides are allowed in production. In recent years, goji farmers in Ningxia started to use newer pesticide of high degradation rate, which greatly lower pesiticide residues on berries to meet standard of chemical examination at customs.
4.
Goji, especially that grown in Zhongning, Ningxia has proven remarkable health benefits and clinically used in Chinese medicine to treat multiple illness.
Dreamland farm endeavors to provide goji information to North American goji customers. Please contact us if you have any questions.