Composting is an easy solution for reducing your trash footprint AND creating nutrient-rich, organic fertilizer for indoor plants.  As a bonus, you even get to adopt some new pets.  This post is about my first experiment in composting in a small Beijing apartment, so far the whole system has only taken a two shopping trips and about ~150RMB.

Read the rest of this entry »

(This post was originally written for The China Nutrition Project as a guest article. The China Nutrition Project is a blog by Lua Wilkenson, a Fulbright Fellow and Registered Dietician studying in China, I encourage everyone to check it out!)

A look at the role of meat and dairy in the great Chinese nutrition divide, and how considerations of social equity and environmental sustainability should factor into the discussion.

Read the rest of this entry »

What connects Confucian economic theory, 20th century American agricultural policy, and the worldwide agroecology movement? This week I found out at a great talk in the Bookworm’s “Explore” series given by Jim Harkness, the President of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.  He covered two major Chinese contributions to modern sustainable agricultural theory, the Americans who popularized them, and how these ideas can help feed the world. Below is a brief summary of his talk.

是什么把儒家经济理论\20世纪美国的农业政策和世界范围内的农业生态运动联系起来的呢？这个星期，我在书虫的“探索”系列中找到了一个伟大的讲话，是农业和贸易政策研究所主席郝克明讲的，他提到中国对现代农业可持续理论的两个主要贡献，以及普及这些理论的美国人，并且讲到这些想法怎么养活全世界的。下面是对他的讲话的一个简要概括：

Read the rest of this entry »