Young Mao devotees lead an agricultural revolution at the Righteous Path Farm, Hebei

Each morning at Righteous Path Farm, young men and women assemble outside their dormitories at 5.30am and, as in the days of Mao Zedong's people's communes, are assigned work by a team leader. They then line up and jog in synchronised steps to the fields.

"During the slack season, we begin our day by reciting passages from Mao's teachings and works of classical Chinese literature," says team leader Li Zhe, a 29-year-old spacecraft-design graduate from Beijing Aeronautics and Astronautics University.

Located in Dingxing county, Hebei province, south of Beijing, Righteous Path is one of many organic farms that have sprung up over the past few years on the outskirts of the capital. Following a string of well-publicised food scandals - involving everything from tainted formula milk to pesticide-laced ginger and sausages made from rotten meat - a growing number of city residents have deserted their local vegetable markets and flocked to the suburbs, in search of safer produce.

What makes Righteous Path stand out from the other organic farms, however, is the Maoist ideology that underlies its operations.

Hanging on a wall at the entrance to the farm is a huge poster of Mao's model soldier, Lei Feng, and the words "Serve the People". In the Mao era, Lei was portrayed as an example of selflessness, modesty and devotion to the Communist cause for everyone to emulate.

Inside the main farm building, there is a room that contains a shelf of mainland-published books on Mao. The young people who work here share a deep admiration for the late chairman and call themselves Mao's New Educated Youth.

"In the times of Mao, he encouraged youth to go to the countryside. After some years, most of them returned to the cities. Now we feel we need to go back to the countryside because we need this kind of experience," says Zhang Xiuwen, 25, a real-estate-management graduate from Beijing Forestry University.