A project of the Furman University First Year Seminar taught by Dr. Tami Blumenfield
//Hannah Tyson, Darcy Waskiewicz, Stephen Reynolds
Introduction and Health Concerns
Imagine walking outside and choking on the air you breath. Think of a world where you have to put a mask on your children to protect their lungs. Seeing the sun is a rare occurrence for you due to smog and pollution. This is not an imaginary world, this is China.
//By Caroline Wolcott, Lena Dufresne, Anna Walters, and Graham Robbins
Contaminated baby formula, water contaminated by sewage, and unsafe swimming conditions are frightening realities in China. These issues span over numerous aspects of everyday life including people’s eating habits, health, and lifestyle. A large percentage of this contamination can be attributed to many years of uncontrolled industrial pollution, seeing as though industry is a large majority of the Chinese economy.
A woman overlooks the polluted Yangtze River. Courtesy: Getty Images
Continue reading “Water Pollution: It Affects More Than Just Your Tea”
//By Vanessa Chambers, Austin Saggus, Grant Schuermann, Christen Sikora
Has the Chinese Government stopped or slowed down progress for environmental activism in China? Is China trying to stop or dilute this sort of activism? Is China polluting environmental activism? The answers may surprise you. Pollution in China is a serious issue and needs to be dealt with as this issue continues to grow at an alarming rate.
Continue reading “Is China Polluting Environmental Activism?”
//One way to address myths and misunderstandings about China is to view films and discuss them with experts from a range of fields and backgrounds. In February 2015, Furman hosted the Chinese Environmental Film Festival to accomplish this goal. Students from Debunking the Myths of China, a First Year Seminar class, helped coordinate festival publicity, refreshments, and logistics. Faculty participating in the Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment (LIASE) exploratory grant and LIASE Student Fellows also helped make the festival a success. Festival sponsors provided financial support and helped procure the films needed for the festival screenings.
Read more about the festival
//By Graham Dabbs and Caroline Gunter
Some people hold a stereotype that China is a dirty and polluted country. I decided to investigate this and find out about Chinese air pollution. The first thing you have to understand about air pollution is how it is measured. Pollution levels are measured using the air quality index or AQI. This takes into consideration particulate size as well as concentration in the air. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s the reading outside of Beijing Embassy was seven hundred and fifty five. To put this into perspective a reading about three hundred and one is considered an extremely hazardous emergency situation. This means the particles in the air are large enough to “travel down into the lungs and bloodstream and potentially cause severe damage in the organs” (World Affairs Journal). This air pollution also has a cultural impact. According to online chinese retailer (taobao.com) the word “mask” was searched 5,300% more than usual. There was also an increase in the air purifiers business. This indicates not only that the Chinese people were aware of the problem, but also interested in fixing the issue. But the real question is what action is the Chinese government taking to bring awareness to and correct the problem? “in 2012, in response to growing public pressure, Beijing started to regularly monitor and publish its own AQI readings for air around the country. Now there are more than eighty monitoring systems in place in China’s major cities and this year, for the first time, officials issued emergency warnings and allowed pollution to be covered on state-run television.” (World Affairs Journal). As you can see, the air pollution in China is at a dangerous levels, but with the growing environmental movement people are becoming aware and working for a change.
//By Ashley Cookey-Gam, Katherine Crosby, and Nick Shaw
Organic farming and food safety in China go hand in hand when dealing with the production, processes, and manufacturing of food. Traditional Chinese farming definitely has its faults due to the lack of strict food regulations. Often times “…many of them (manufacturers) are out to make a quick buck regardless of public health…” (Ang 2012: 215) The lack of carefulness leads to the continuous problems in food safety because the manufacturing is not always in the best conditions in terms of sanitation. [Link: Difficulties of Organic Farming]
Audra Ang’s book To the People, Food is Heaven: Stories of Food and Life in a Changing China gives several accounts about what goes on in the production of food in China. One instance occurred when Ang tried to observe a family-owned noodle business. She witnessed a worker not exercising proper hygiene as he “…picked his nose and used the same hand to pack a bag (of noodles).” (Ang 2012: 215) Many people have no idea how their food is treated or prepared; they simply just partake in the consumption aspect of the food without realizing what they are actually putting into their bodies. “…eating in China was a little like playing Russian roulette with food.” (Ang 2012: 215)
“Yuanyang hani farmer” by “Takeaway” is licensed under Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
As seen in other parts of the world, so many unnatural additives are involved with farming in China. “…beans treated with banned pesticides, cooking oil recycled from gutters…watermelons exploding after being boosted by growth accelerators, and pork passed off as beef after being soaked in a detergent additive” (Ang 2012: 215) are just a few examples. In addition to the dangerous substances being used with the food, loyalty and trustworthiness between farmers and their customers are broken as farmers may not be completely honest about how their food is being produced. Therefore, it is very imperative to remember that “For food, safety is all-important.”
To help ensure food safety, organic farming was introduced to China in 1990. [Link: Chinese Organic Farming Introduction] “Since then, the movement has gained momentum, fueled by a growing network of young and educated Chinese who are joining or starting organic farms in an effort to control what goes into their bodies in the wake of tainted food scandals.” (Ang 2012: 215) The amount of organic farms in China increased during the 2005-2006 time frame. During this year the amount of organic farmland went from 740,000 acres to approximately 8.6 million acres.
“Raw Pork Meat in Bloody Butchery of Corpses” by epsos.de licensed under CC BY 2.0
China has come a long way in the farming realm. It has established more regulations to better the quality and safety of food production. The true problem lies with making sure that those standards are carried through across the board. Overall, China’s organic farming system is thriving and continues to improve as well as appeal to a broader group of people.
Bibliography
Audra Ang, To the People, Food Is Heaven: Stories of Food and Life in a Changing China (Guilford: Lyons, 2012), 215.
See also:
Chinese Organic Farming: Introduction
Chinese Organic Farming: Difficulties Encountered by Organic Farmers
//By Ben Yetman and Plicca Watt
Attracted by cheap labor and lax regulations, many companies from all over the world have outsourced the production of their products to massive Chinese factories. The benefits of inexpensive production costs do come with a steep price, however. According to a CBS News article citing the World Bank in 2007, 16 of the top 20 most polluted cities in the world were in China (Lagorio 2007).
More recently, in January of 2014, an article in the New York Times illustrated how widespread pollution in China directly impacts the rest of the world. Based on a study led by nine scholars, published in the prominent scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study found that strong global winds called westerlies act as catalysts to intercontinental pollution. The westerly transport black carbon and other pollutants across the Pacific and deposit this toxic matter into Californian valleys and other areas of the Western US. Black carbon poses an especially high risk as it remains in the air even after rainfall. Cities such as Los Angeles suffer at least one extra day a year in which smog levels exceed federal ozone limits as a direct result of Chinese factory pollution (Wong 2014). Although the impact of Chinese pollution on American cities is small compared with America’s domestic pollution, when paired together it compounds the toxicity of the air we breathe each day. American cities are not alone in this, as many European and Asian countries are also impacted by the massive amounts of toxic air pumped out in China on a daily basis.
Works Cited
Lagorio, Christine. “The Most Polluted Places On Earth.” CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 06 June 2007. Web. 05 Apr. 2014.
Wong, Edward. “China Exports Pollution to U.S., Study Finds.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2014. Web. 05 Apr. 2014.
//By Nick Shaw, Katherine Crosby, and Ashley Cookey-Gam
Organic Chinese farmers face many difficulties with water and soil quality. “Modern agriculture consumes large quantities of chemicals… leading to damage to agricultural ecosystem, low sustainable production capability, poor product quality, and pollution and damage to the environment.”(Yi 2001:450) [Link: Food Safety] The main complication with organic farming is that it requires clean and sustainable soil, but with the modern agricultural system much of China’s soil and water supply is polluted by pesticides and fertilizers. According to “China: Food for a Billion Plus,” much of China’s pollution comes from the rapidly growing manufacturing industry.
“Of Trash and Skyscrapers” by ngader is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Quality of soil is taken very seriously when it comes to organic farming. Organic farming is defined as healthy, uncontaminated food, free of pesticides and chemicals. [Link: Chinese Organic Farming Introduction] However, with much of China’s water and soil being polluted from the manufacturing industry, it is very hard for organic farmers to find land. Thus, it is also difficult for the organic industry in China to be acknowledged by other countries.(Yi 2001:450)
Although the government is helping the organic industry, there is still a struggle with the small organic farmers. The government owns the land in China, so the government loans the land out to farmers, and they can grow whatever on the land. The one key problem is that the land is not cheap because there is not very much land that could be cultivated in China. If the farmer cannot afford to pay the rent, the farm eventually goes bust. China’s organic industry is still small-scale production. (China: Food for a Billion Plus 2002) Needless to say, China is working very hard to make improvements.
Bibliography
“China: Food for a Billion Plus,” Films on Demand, 25:00, by Films Media Group, 2002, http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=9151&xtid=35174.
Qian Yi, Xu Hui, Peng Bu-zhuo, and Jiang Xiliu, “Development Strategy for Organic Food Industry in China,” Ambio 30, no. 7 (Nov., 2001): 450-451.
See also:
//By Katherine Crosby, Nick Shaw, and Ashley Cookey-Gam
China has practiced traditional agriculture for centuries, feeding over twenty-two percent of the world’s population with only seven percent of the world’s arable land. However, China’s traditional agriculture is unsustainable.
These are Chinese Tea Workers on a traditional tea farm in China.
“Scenes of China” by Cory M. Grenier is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
No changes were made to this image.
The Chinese have overused chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides with a negative impact on the environment, including contamination of water and erosion of soil. “…[T]he government reported 43 percent of state-monitored rivers are so polluted, they’re unsuitable for human contact.” (Wan 2010)
In the early 1980’s, the Chinese government began promoting Chinese Ecological Agriculture, which emphasized crop rotations, organic fertilizers, and limited use of pesticides and herbicides. China’s Ministry of Agriculture began certifying “green food” as “A” or “AA” for domestic consumption. In 1994, the China Organic Food Development Centre began certifying organic food. The first exported organic food was green tea. (Sanders 2006: 215-216)
Here are some people growing organic plants by a body of water in Shanghai.
“Shanghai Organics” by kafka4prez is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
No changes were made to this image.
Today, organic farming is a trend, popular with young urban professionals who are reversing the massive urban migration and returning to the countryside to become organic farmers, despite facing difficulties. [Link: Difficulties of Organic Farming] Chen Shuaijun, a young banker, and his wife have rented eight acres on Chongming Island. Chen’s neighbors ridiculed him, and his parents, who had labored as farmers, were angry. Not using pesticides or fertilizers has meant that he has had to catch insects by hand, endure endless hours of weeding, and haul foul-smelling organic fertilizers. His neighbor, Han Guojie, gave up a high-paying job as a water quality engineer to become an organic farmer because he believes the traditional farmers have destroyed the land. (Wan 2010) In Sichuan province, Luo Yu, a former stockbroker who earned several thousand U.S. dollars per month, owns an organic farm. He hangs plastic water bottles filled with sugar water to catch insects. His parents told him he was going back to ancient times, but he is committed to improving the ecosystem and growing safe food. (Luo 2008) [Link: Food Safety]
Over fifty different products are grown organically in China today. These include “potatoes, rice, maize, wheat, tea, beans, herbal medicines, vegetables, sesame, honey, eggs, and peanuts.” (Sanders 2006:216)
This is an organic spiky cucumber grown on an organic farm outside Beijing.
“Chinese Farming” by IvanWalsh.com is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Domestic sales have increased as organic food has become popular with the young affluent urban professionals, although the majority of the Chinese cannot afford it. Organic exports have also increased and totaled $350 million in 2005. China has 5.7 million acres of certified organic farmland, ranking only behind Australia and Argentina. (Liu 2007)
Bibilography in Footnote Format
Juliana Liu, “Organic Farming Grips China,” BBC news release, October 4, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7012056.stm.
Yu Luo, interview by Melissa Block, National Public Radio, broadcast audio, April 4, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90448284.
Richard Sanders, “A Market Road to Sustainable Agriculture? Ecological Agriculture, Green Food and Organic Agriculture in China,” In China’s Limits to Growth: Greening State and Society, ed. Peter Ho and Eduard B. Vermeer (Maiden: Blackwell, 2006), 215–216.
William Wan, “Young Chinese Farmers Sowing Seeds for Organic Revolution,” The Washington Post, November 1, 2010, accessed March 29, 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/01/AR2010110106322_pf.html.
See also:
Chinese Organic Farming: Difficulties Encountered by Organic Farmers
