More About BioFarm!

Today I made it to BioFarm safe and sound after nearly 8 hours on various trains, subways, and a cab covering nearly 800 miles. When I arrived, there was just time for a few really brief introductions with some of the staff and a quick tour of the grounds. It was only a couple of days later that I finally got to sit down with Jane and figure out what I am doing for the rest of the summer.

This week I am trying out a bunch of different jobs on the farm, including, but not limited to: weeding, hoeing, picking sprouts, packing CSA boxes, sorting compost, feeding guests, and riding along on delivery runs. After that, I'm going to be focusing much more on some administrative tasks; rewriting  their English language presentations, developing a public speaking course for the workers, contacting schools and universities in Shanghai to look for volunteers, and travel with Jane to meetings and conferences to promote BioFarm!

Anyway, on a different note, near the farm is a small village, that has apparently been undergoing some serious changes in the past few years. Previously this area outside of Shanghai was host to dozens, if not hundreds, of farmers. However, since Shanghai has developed into a center of international business, land values have sky rocketed, and many of the traditional farmers have been all too willing to get rich fast and sell the farm to developers. The local government has tried to slow this turnover by setting aside some land for use in semi-urbanized agriculture. 

Just a few hundred yards from the front gate of BioFarm is an old, traditional-styled house which used to belong to a farming family. Apparently the entire neighborhood was once made up of these small Chinese homes. However, these artifacts are all slowly being ripped down by increasingly wealthy families who want more modern (and Westernized) homes. The process of stripping away relics of traditional Chinese culture is going throughout the entire country; in Beijing only a handful of areas contain the hutong style houses, most ancient city walls have been ripped down to ease traffic congestion, and minority groups are increasingly enticed or forced away from traditional farming or hunting methods in favor of participation in cartoonish cultural presentations for tourists. 

To me, all of this adds up to the beginning of a process of cartoon-ification of culture, rather than actual participation and preservation. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't enjoy seeing the Disney, candy-coated version of China, especially not at some of the world's greatest and most historic sites. For example, at the base of the section of the Great Wall that we hiked was a small strip mall, complete with a KFC, also at the Shao Lin temple (where Kung-Fu was created) Zen Buddhist monks hawked cheap prayer bracelets and meditation tools while their robes flap back to reveal Rolex watches and Nike sneakers. 

To end on a happier note, here are a billion pictures of Buddhas from the grottos.

Every figure was carved out of the mountain side over hundreds of years, and in total there are well over 100,000 figures ranging in size from about 1 1/2 inches tall to several hundred feet tall.

However, later on some of the emperors no longer supported the Buddhist religion and ordered the destruction of these figures, which is why many of their faces are now missing.

If you can see past the masses of tourists all clambering to see the figures, this is an incredible place to visit!