Zhou Jinfeng: From the “Panda Guide” to Talk About the Ecological Responsibilities Carried by Good Food, It Needs to be Distinguished from the Localization of Exquisite Emphasis- 中国生物多样性保护与绿色发展基金会

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Zhou Jinfeng: From the “Panda Guide” to Talk About the Ecological Responsibilities Carried by Good Food, It Needs to be Distinguished from the Localization of Exquisite Emphasis

2020/7/19 19:31:00 本站

Following the last time, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) and Mao Feng, the CEO of "Panda Guide", had a good time talking about Good Food and "Delicious". Dr. Zhou received the book "Panda Guide" and read it carefully. Combining with the previous discussion, the concept and connotation of Good Food are further explained, hoping to provide a more "ecological" concept to the evaluation standard and system of the "Panda Guide".

On May 4, 2018, Mao Feng, the CEO of the "Panda Guide", visited and communicated with Dr. Zhou on "delicious" agricultural products. Dr. Zhou further explained the important value of agricultural product biodiversity and agricultural products the ecological significance carried.

In a colorful world, there are many opinions that are plausible, and there are also many paradoxes. We need to determine the right direction and uphold the right thinking.

Good Food, not equal to exquisite

When it comes to delicious food, many people think that "Food is too refined" is a measure, so the refined and artistic food has gradually become a trend. Here, we have to say that delicious does not mean exquisite. What do we emphasize? It is a sustainable diet; it is Good Food.

What is Good Food? In the past, people talked more about the traditional food safety field. Now, with the great abundance of materials and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, we have to talk about responsibilities for the future and sustainable development of the environment. This is the purpose of our promotion of Good Food and an important focus point of Good Food.

When it comes to responsibility for sustainable development, it seems a big concept, but it is actually everywhere in our daily diet. For example, when we eat mushrooms, if we talk about "delicate" eating, many people will choose good-looking mushrooms to buy and eat, because they think that good-looking mushrooms will be better; In fact, the mushrooms that look bad are not as inferior in terms of nutrition and taste. Such judgments and trade-offs from the surface of food often result in a lot of waste, both for the food itself and for the excessive packaging of food, which is a manifestation of unsustainable development. On the other hand, the excessive pursuit of food color, aroma, and taste has caused people to give up a lot of natural and essential content as food, and it has also led to a series of problems such as the widespread use of food additives and the excessive processing of food.

In terms of sustainable development, there is an expression called "intergenerational equity", which means that contemporary people and future generations have equal rights in using natural resources, satisfying their own interests, and seeking survival and development.

Falling into a small place, from the perspective of diet, excessive pursuit of exquisiteness, artistry, color and taste will inevitably lead to the problem of excessive consumption of resources or environmental pollution. The emphasis on the packaging is delicate, which will produce a lot of plastic packaging and other difficult-to-decompose garbage, and it will make a lot of food discarded because it is not delicate enough. Excessive additives and processing mean that humans need to demand and release more from nature. In today's world, human demand for soil, water, and mineral resources, as well as the pollution and destruction of the earth caused by own economic development, have endangered intergenerational equity, and humanity needs to make changes.

"Panda Guide" is to explore the original taste of food, return to local food, and return to the true taste of food. This is what we support. In the meantime, we should also avoid the above problems during the regression process. Because the essence of the return is to return to ecology and health.

Perhaps it is time to reposition the concept of food "exquisite". In the era of ecological civilization, "exquisite" should mean sustainable and nature friendly.

Eat local food to ensure diversity and health

A kind of kiwi is mentioned in the "Panda Guide". As we all know, New Zealand's kiwifruit varieties come from China. In 1904, a New Zealand female teacher brought wild kiwi seeds from the Yangtze River to New Zealand, and kiwi fruit took root and germinated in New Zealand. In the 1980s, New Zealand once again developed Golden Kiwifruit from the mother plant of kiwifruit from China. Now, New Zealand's kiwifruit has widely occupied China's consumer market.

Just like many people are keen to eat Norwegian salmon, foreign foods seem to “better chanting” at home and are more sought after by consumers from the perspectives of nutrition, taste and safety. Is it because the local food is not good enough? It’s not true.

In Taishun County, Zhejiang Province, fruit farmer Peng Shangjin has cultivated a new variety called “Huate” in his kiwifruit garden, which was selected by Peng Shangjin based on local wild kiwifruit after eight years of breeding. And obtained the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture named. After professional testing, the vitamin C content per 100 grams of Huate kiwifruit can reach 562.8 mg, which is more than 5 times that of traditional varieties, and the taste is delicate and smooth, and it has no residue.

What is Good Food? In addition to ecological and sustainable connotations, Good Food also needs to have a key point: good for health.

In the past, people ate refined grains and discarded coarse grains. This was not Good Food. The Norwegian salmon, which spans thousands of waters and thousands of mountains, is too expensive for the environment and cannot be considered Good Food.

The local high-quality agricultural products are more in line with the concept of Good Food. Naturally, it is the best. This also emphasizes what it means to eat local food.

Good Food also has a deeper and more urgent definition that needs to be resolved, that is diversity.

CBCGDF has been researching and protecting wild buckwheat varieties and their genetic diversity. This is a story somewhat similar to kiwi. Professor Ohmi Ohnishi at the College of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Japan, an internationally renowned expert on Fagopyrum germplasm resources, took wild buckwheat varieties from China, and the self-compatibility of this wild buckwheat was crossed with the self-incompatible sweet buckwheat of Japan, and the descendants of self-compatible sweet buckwheat were bred to obtain self-pollinated buckwheat, changed the low yield of buckwheat cross-pollination In Japan, the improved high-quality buckwheat varieties have been widely promoted in Japan.

Buckwheat and kiwi, both are abundant in varieties in China. But for more than 40 years, China's agriculture has been pursuing high-yield processes. High-yield single varieties are widely planted, and many rich and diverse varieties are ignored because of low output and low economic benefits. The singular promotion of this variety is also the process of the disappearance of the diversity of agricultural products.

A single variety, because of its similar genetic characteristics, has created conditions for the rapid spread of crop diseases and insect pests. It has become a huge potential crisis for global agricultural security, and it has caused people to lose their choice of food diversity. What's more serious is that the loss of the diversity of crop varieties will make humans completely lose the opportunity to recognize, discover and improve these varieties. What kind of changes and opportunities will these disappeared varieties bring to human society? There is no way to know.

Without diversity, humans will eventually lose Good Food.

In the last decade of the 20th century, China has solved the problem of having enough food, it has entered the stage of "low-level overcapacity of agricultural products". This "level" refers not only to the taste and safety of agricultural products, but also to the diversity, health and ecology of products.

It is gratifying that "Panda Guide", as a domestic brand, has paid attention to the origin of food and the importance of biodiversity. As a supplementary recommendation, it is hoped that in the standards of this Guide, more emphasis will be placed on the ecological and sustainable connotations of food.

(This article is organized according to Dr. Zhou's point of view, and the content is not verified by him.)