Author / Lu Lei

“The cognitive impact of the breakdown of the social aspect of eating is huge…People now have a microwave, they buy a pizza, put it there, and they watch TV and eat it…then they throw it away…” During the conversation with the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) on the topic of sustainable food, Mr. Mike May, our respected visitor from Spain and international collaborator on environmental protection, expressed his concern with the present food culture across the world.

Dr. Zhou warmly acknowledged Mr. May’s concern and agreed that “there is much worth doing”. As a pioneer in the promotion of green eating worldwide, CBCGDF has so far obtained support and funding from the US and the food industry in China, and has established close relationships with the associate vice-president of Yale University, who is in charge of the restaurant of Yale and, as a prominent figure on such important matters as food ethics and sustainability, has a deep interest in popularizing green eating in China and was invited by CBCGDF to give a round-trip talk on sustainable food in Peking University and 9 other Chinese top higher institutions.

However, Dr. Zhou admitted that there is still a long way to go in terms of educating people “what to eat, how much to eat and how much to throw away” both at home and abroad. He expects CBCGDF to take the lead in the ongoing green revolution of eating and, more broadly speaking, in the reversing of the worrying trend of a disappearing traditional food culture, which has been so instrumental in history on the developing and consolidating of interpersonal interactions and the transmitting of norms and moral values throughout the entire social structure.

A forthcoming event, as mentioned by Dr. Zhou is that CBCGDF is currently assembling a team of 10 top chefs to visit the US before the 2018 Spring Festival. The goal of this trip is twofold: One is to show the world the Chinese Food Culture, and the other is for us to learn more about the concept of sustainable food and then introduce and diffuse it among Chinese citizens so as to enhance their environmental and cultural consciousness of eating. Both Dr. Zhou and Mr. May are optimistic about this idea of inviting ‘Super-star Chefs’ as the ambassadors for changing the way people perceive toward their dietary habits. It has to be admitted that green eating has not received as much attention today as other environmental issues such as climate change, but there is no doubt that it is what we should start thinking carefully about right now!

(Photo: CBCGDF)