By David Clements
In China, a common social mode is people sitting around a round table, and taking food with chopsticks from a series of sumptuous dishes to be shared.
A few weeks ago I got to sit at many such tables in Yunnan Province. As well as hosting me, the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences was hosting 270 scientists from more than a dozen countries at the “Symposium on Exchange and Cooperation to Enhance Innovation for Agricultural Science and Technology in South & Southeast Asia.”
What a banquet! I got to meet fellow scientists from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal and many other Chinese Provinces. There were also representatives there from other far flung countries like Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Turkey and Australia.
It was an incredible time of sharing expertise aimed at developing more sustainable food systems. It wasn’t just about increasing the harvest, it was also about producing food in more environmentally sustainable ways.
It was also a matter of facing the tough realities of food systems in various countries — flooding in Bangladesh, diseases threatening the worldwide banana crop, and of greatest interest to me — the peril due to weeds.
I got my turn to share later at a training session for scientists from these various countries, discussing the ecology and management of the mile-a-minute weed plaguing many south-east Asian countries.
It is easy to be skeptical when governments announce sweeping programs to aid other countries. One might ask whether the ambitious “Belt and Road Initiative” China announced in 2013 is disguised self-interest. The initiative is to link nearby countries with over $20 trillion pledged by China to make it happen.
It is much harder to be skeptical when you are there yourself, seeing the energy of the Chinese scientists sharing around the table with scientists from near and far countries for mutual benefit.
I gained a new appreciation for Professor Aidong Chen, Vice Director for the Agricultural Environment Institute of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
I have shared the table with him often over the last seven years of annual visits. His diminutive figure was in constant motion at the meetings making sure everything was going OK.
The morning I was to do my session he said to me: “I know you are going to give a good presentation.”
“I hope I will,” I replied.
“We believe in you!” he replied heartily.
Everyone likes food, and to see others enjoy their food. It was very encouraging to see the sharing around the table in China, and I came back more hopeful that people in countries like Bangladesh can one day enjoy more reliable sources of good, nutritious food.
David Clements, Ph.D. is Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Trinity Western University