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时间：2023-07-07 09:03
1 By Yang Guang Updated: 2009-09-15 07:59
India's Mahatma Gandhi once said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." And that, says Shi Yan, is the inspiration behind the 5.3-hectare Dondon Farm in Beijing's northwest - China's first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm.
Shi, pursuing her doctorate studies at the School of Agriculture Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University of China, traces the beginnings of the CSA story to her half-year stint as a farmer in the United States.
In April last year, on the advice of her research advisor and with the help of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Shi took up the opportunity to work as an intern on the Earthrise Farm in Minnesota to learn how a CSA farm is operated.
An urban girl from a well-off family in Hebei province, Shi calls her experience as one of a "foreigner sent to the countryside," a reference to the "reecation" of youth ring the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).
"I chose to study agricultural economics and rural development because I wanted to do something substantial and down-to-earth," Shi says, "but I had neither lived in the countryside nor had I done any farming".
In the beginning, Shi was indeed a little hesitant, especially when she learned a team of five would have to manage all the work on the 5.3 hectares of land.
But the moment she landed at the farm in Minnesota on April 18 last year, Shi made a promise to herself.
"From now on, I will discard my petty-bourgeois lifestyle and prepare to get my hands dirty."
And she did, throwing herself enthusiastically into all aspects of running a CSA farm - sowing seeds, watering, weeding and harvesting, cleaning proce, and doing packaging and delivery.
Weeding, she recalls, was the most arous of all these tasks. Weeds were rampant because no chemical herbicides were used, says Shi. Crouching in the scorching sun and pulling out the endless weeds one by one, Shi says that sometimes felt "disheartened and discouraged".
On June 18, 2008, the Madison-based The Western Guard published a full-page article on Shi's life at Earthrise Farm.
"A slight girl from Beijing, China, has a very ambitious goal - to return to her home and start the first CSA farm in China. She has already broken one tradition - as she is the first graate student to come to the US not to study at a university but to be a farmer," it said.
When Shi returned to China in October last year, she began to mull ways to adapt CSA to the Chinese situation.
"Land in China is managed on the basis of a household contract system. The proce from the land of one household can only support one or two families. Therefore, it would not do to experiment with CSA in indivial households," Shi says.
"Besides, Chinese people don't tend to spend much on food consumption, but the low proctivity of organic farming, especially in the beginning, typically leads to higher prices and could create sales problems."
She turned her attention to Dondon farm, a proction, teaching and research base developed jointly by the Haidian district government, Renmin University and Beijing Hongda Borui Investment (Group) Co Ltd, that began operating in April 2008 but was fumbling.
CSA first emerged in Germany, Switzerland and Japan in the early 1960s and took root in the United States in the 1980s, in response to rising concerns about food safety, the impact on the environment, urbanization of arable land and fairness of trade between consumers and growers.
Its defining characteristic is its cohesive community of consumers. Before each planting season, community members sign a contract with farmers, sharing benefits and risks with them, and paying in advance for the proce of that season.
The advantages of CSA are manifold: Farmers are provided with adequate cash flow and relieved of sale pressures; community members are ensured healthy proce at a reasonable price; agriculture is sustained and the environment protected because little pollution is generated by organic food proction.
Each farm has what are called "working share subscribers" and "non-working share subscribers".
Each working share subscriber is responsible for all the labor in his allocated 30-sq-m plot, for which he pays 1,000 yuan ($146) in annual rent.
The seeds, organic fertilizers, farming tools, water and required technical support are all provided by the farm.
The non-working share subscribers enjoy a 20-week (between June and October) supply of organic vegetables of about 10 kg per week, for a capital input of 2,500 yuan ($366).
Whatever proce is left after meeting this is made available to the working subscribers.
By April this year, Dondon farm had 17 work-share subscribers and 30 non-work subscribers.
Lu Yarong, a working share subscriber, started farming in early May in her plot called guazuo douyou - literally "melon on the left and bean on the right" - and harvested the first batch of vegetables just two weeks later.
Every Saturday, Liu Bingheng, Lu's 4-year-old son, badgers his parents to get to work, because "the cucumbers we grow ourselves are especially sweet".
On a usual day, after working for three hours from 9 am to noon, the Lu family can take home 5 kg to 7 kg of freshly picked vegetables, ranging from cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplants to beans, peppers, and radishes.
Lu, herself a lecturer in Agriculture Economics at Renmin University, points out that the CSA farm gives full play to the multiple functions of agriculture.
"It provides consumers with green and healthy vegetables and that's agriculture's economic function; it's a place for urban residents to relax and labor and that's agriculture's cultural function; it further offers children like my son the opportunity to get to know about farming and that's agriculture's ecational function," Lu says.
Besides five managers and 12 farmers, Dondon farm also has a dozen committed interns.
"The half-year intern program began in April. Some are college students interested in agriculture, while some have resigned from their regular jobs to learn about organic agriculture," says Huang Zhiyou, executive manager of Dondon Farm.
Lei Peng, a 23-year-old postgraate student, interns here ring his summer vacation. Except for Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, when he joins the other interns for lectures and discussions, Lei works two sessions every day - 8 to 11 in the morning, and 3 to 6 in the afternoon.
"I grew up in the countryside, so I have a strong emotional connection to the Earth and farming. What I've learned and done on the farm will help me in my further studies in Agriculture Economics," says Lei.
However, CSA in China is still at an experimental stage. Even at Dondon, there remain issues that require urgent attention.
Cheng Cunwang, a supervisor, says: "We need to provide working share subscribers with at least sunshades and seats. We also need to figure out better ways to preserve the easy-to-rot leafy vegetables, since we have already received complaints from non-working share subscribers."
Some people dismiss CSA, saying it is too small-scale to emerge as a viable alternative to mass food proction.
But Shi and her fellow supporters point out that CSA gives growers security, ensures food safety and promotes fair trade between the two.
"Through CSA and Dondon Farm, we want to establish a harmonious relationship between man and man, and man and earth," she says.
2
Warming threatens aquatic resourcesBy Li Jing
Updated: 2009-09-14 07:37
Global warming might endanger aquatic life in the source regions of the Yangtze River, a recent research report on fishery resources found.
Although the ecological environment and fish resources remain in good condition at the source regions of the Yangtze, a group of leading Chinese scientists on aquatic animals found that global warming has forced some fish species upstream, which can have damaging implications.
The Yangtze, the country's longest river, originates from glaciers at the foot of Mount Geladandong on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Qinghai province.
Extending over some 159,000 sq km, the Yangtze sources comprise Tuotuo, Dangqu and Qumar rivers. The average altitude is between 4,400 m and 4,700 m.
Near the Tuotuo River Bridge, the research team caught several Bilobed-lip schizothoracins, with the largest weighing more than 750 grams, which historically have not been found in that area.
It is a stark contrast with other fish species, which usually measure only about 10 cm, living in the Yangtze sources "These small fish are endemic species on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," said Tang Wenjia, an engineer with the Qinghai Provincial Fishery Environmental Monitoring Center.
"As an adaptation to the extreme weather conditions and high altitude here, they grow at a very slow pace, only about 1 cm per year," he said.
The larger Bilobed-lip schizothoracin originally lived in Jinshan River on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, according to Chen Yifeng, a researcher with the Institute of Hydro Biology (IHB) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
"Usually, this species is rarely seen at an altitude higher than 4,000 m," Chen said. "Perhaps it is the rising water temperature incurred by global warming that has forced them here."
The research team caught another batch of Bilobed-lip schizothoracins in Qumalai county in southwestern Qinghai province. Most weighed more than 500 g.
"This means the species has already moved upstream in a relatively large quantity," Chen said.
Hard-hit plateau
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is among the regions hit hardest by global warming, which will have direct and long-term effects on the aquatic animals living in this area, said Wang Ding, a veteran expert from IHB.
Statistics show that the temperature in the Tibet autonomous region rose by an average of 0.32 C every 10 years between 1961 and 2008.
That rate of warming was much faster than the average across China, where temperatures rose by between 0.05 C and 0.08 C every 10 years ring that period.
The situation is similar in neighboring Qinghai province.
The rising temperatures have led to the continuous melting of glaciers, scientists have found.
After the Arctic and Antarctic, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has the third-largest number of glaciers.
But 82 percent of glacier surfaces on the plateau have retreated, and the glacier area itself has decreased by 4.5 percent ring the past 20 years, according to Qin Dahe from CAS.
Qin is the former head of the China Meteorological Administration, and he is former co-chair of a working group for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"Due to global warming, glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are retreating extensively at a speed faster than in any other part of the world," Qin said.
"In the short term, this will cause lakes to expand and bring floods and mudflows," Qin said.
Another threat from warming is the degradation of permafrost, or perennially frozen ground, Qin said.
"Permafrost plays a vital role in protecting the ecological environment and hydrological cycles. But it has been breaking down ring the past 50 years," Qin said.
All these events could mean catastrophic changes for the aquatic animals in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, as they are very fragile to any slight alteration of habitats, according to Chen of IHB.
Upsetting the balance
"Changes of topography and river directions are common in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau," Chen said.
"But the wetland degradation as a result of warming may threaten the fate of aquatic life," he said.
Introcing new species forced upstream also might lead to upsetting the ecological balance in the river sources.
"The result is still hard to predict at the moment," Chen said.
The survey was jointly concted by the World Wildlife Fund, IHB, Yangtze River Fishery Resources Management Committee and the Qinghai Provincial Fishery Environment Monitoring Center.
This is the first time that Chinese scientists have concted a thorough survey of fish resources in the source regions of the Yangtze, said Wang Limin, deputy conservation director of the World Wildlife Fund.
"This survey will help to give us a panoramic view of the fishery resources in the source regions of the Yangtze, and help us understand the impact of climate change on aquatic life in the river," Wang said.
"The Yangtze River is facing different challenges posed by global warming at different river sections," she said. "Knowing what is happening in the source regions will help us better mitigate and adapt to the changes."
3
Robust growth through purified waterBy Yang Cheng
Updated: 2009-09-11 08:13
To be in Haidian is to be better positioned for the world.
- Slogan for the Zhongguancun Haidian Science Park
The saying reflects a common dream of ambitious entrepreneurs at the park - to join the ranks of internationally competitive hi-tech companies that are revolutionizing business in almost all sectors. Some might even dream of changing the world.
Wen Jianping, chairman of Beijing OriginWater Technology Co Ltd, is one of park's promising trailblazers who has developed a visionary proct.
He has built the company into one of only three in the world that can make state-of-the-art membrane bioreactors to purify water.
Wen chose Zhongguancun for his base at the company's startup after earning his PhD in Australia in 2001,
"It (Zhongguancun Haidian Science Park) is a land to realize my dream. For people who hope to instrialize their technology, they need a strong cultural atmosphere and a broad international horizon."
More often simply called Haidian park, it one of the nation's first "core" independent innovation sites, and a place Wen says was ideal for his enterprise to evolve.
Haidian park is the leading area in the larger Zhongguancun Science Park, which was one of the first national innovation "model" parks. It has five parks under its administration.
Haidian park's national status shows it has great backing and strength.
"It has a top policy environment and tailored services for enterprises," Wen said.
What impresses him most is "the administrative committee's sincere support for enterprises exploring their markets".
From his perspective, preferential policies supply "nourishment", but real support at the park comes through assistance in acquiring more business, often in an intensely competitive environment with foreign counterparts.
The Beijing municipal government began a program this year to purchase independently innovative procts from Zhongguancun park on trial basis. Most of the procts were born at Haidian park.
The approach has given hi-tech companies more opportunities along with recognition of independent property rights and research. The municipal procurement plan also helps shoulder some of the park administration's risk.
Wen and other entrepreneurs laud the move. He was delighted that OriginWater won the bid on a 60 million yuan water treatment plant on the Beixiaohe River north of the fourth ring road in Beijing. He said the company can help the government save hefty funds and create a much cleaner water environment in China's capital city.
The first phase of project was built by German engineering giant Siemens, one of OriginWater's top rivals.
Another opportunity came through a visit by Wen and some 30 company delegates to Wuxi in Jiangsu province last year led by the park's administrative committee.
The Wuxi city government found Wen's water treatment technology would improve its water environment and inked a project with OriginWater.
"Before the official trip, we had tried very hard to knock down the doors of local authorities - but generally they didn't believe in my technology," he said.
The chairman said he is not only a beneficiary, but also a real witness to Zhongguancun's rapid development.
Wen has seen enterprises "evolve from small to giant, from strength to strength, and their vision became much broader".
"The instrial structure has been upgraded," Wen said. "In its early days, the park was a concentration of IT enterprises, but it has now developed a complete instrial mix including new energy, environmental and cultural companies," Wen noted.
Rapid development
Eight years ago Wen set up his company in Zhongguancun with a registered capital of 2 million yuan, which has now grown to 110 million yuan. The company's net profits hit 70 million yuan last year, and driven by follow-on income from projects associated with 2008 Olympics Games, is expected to exceed 80 million yuan for 2009
OriginWater now has 60 percent of the market for such water purification equipment in China. Its main rivals are Siemens and a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co, which have exported their technologies to the Chinese market for decades.
OriginWater has won a number of accolades including as National Innovation Enterprise, the 2006 and 2007 Excellent Environment Engineering Company and named to Forbes magazine's list of China "Up and Comers" in 2009.
Its projects include the water treatment system for the National Center for the Performing Arts and an important Olympic infrastructure project that brought water from the Wenyu River to the Chao River in Beijing.
The project is now the world's largest facility using membrane bioreactors to treat 100,000 tons of water daily, significantly improving the city's water quality, scenic setting and underground water.
OriginWater also built the nation's first membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment facility, in Miyun county in Beijing, which can handle 45,000 tons of effluent a day.
It is planning to build a 14,000-sq-m R&D lab at the Life Science Park in Zhongguancun expected to go into operation next August.
It also has a 55,000-sq-m fabrication facility in Huairou county that required an investment of 500 million yuan.
Wen said his company's bottleneck now is its current proction scale, which if it can be expanded at faster pace, will enable the company to extend its reach further, and then overseas.
The chairman has been able to attract many top professionals who were laid of by rival international companies e to the global financial crisis.
In the company's early years, Wen did extensive research as part of a plan to take OrginWater public on an overseas market.
He still has the data and plan and hopes to list the company on Growth Enterprise Board in Shenzhen.
Wen was invited to this year's Davos Forum, but cannot attend e to work commitments. Market insiders say he often keeps low profile and is dedicated to his company's progress.
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热心网友
时间：2023-07-07 09:03
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