Farming, weeding, fertilizing, feeding livestock... Shi Yan, a post-80s girl who holds a Ph.D. from Renmin University of China and a postdoctoral fellow at Tsinghua University, is not inferior in her farm work.
She likes to call herself a farmer, and her Weibo name is "Nongren Shi Yan".
Shi Yan is inseparable from the land.
She has been dealing with agriculture for almost 20 years.
Shi Yan chose agriculture when she was admitted to the university; she chose to study in agriculture when she was admitted to graduate school; she still chose agriculture when she was admitted to the Ph.D. and post-doctorate.
Shi Yan, known as the "new farmer", runs a shared harvest farm that she dreams of: the farm does not use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and is planted entirely in an ecological way.
Consumers have to prepay the farm's production costs for a year at the beginning of the year and share the risk with the farm.
In the harvest season, the farm then delivers ecologically healthy food to consumers.
The layout of the farm is very special, not the traditional appearance of the big sheds and livestock sheds that are messy and messy.
On both sides of the path are tents and chairs built with logs. When night falls, the lanterns are turned on. The farm is like a small and fresh paradise.
Young people often hold weddings here, and some companies choose to build groups here.
In 2002, out of curiosity and love for agriculture, Shi Yan applied for Hebei Agricultural University.
At that time she just thought it was more interesting to do agriculture.
In 2006, Shi Yan helped Wen Tiejun, an expert on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, sort out letters sent by farmers.
The content of these letters made her feel the urgency of solving China’s three rural issues. “Agriculture is not only as simple as farming, but also at a deeper level to help millions of farmers to produce and live better.”
While studying for a master's degree at Renmin University of China, she followed her mentor to survey more than a dozen villages and sorted out the existing problems one by one.
Since then, she has been thinking about how to find ways to solve related problems.
In 2008, Shi Yan went to the United States as a publicly sent overseas student. Instead of entering colleges and universities, she plunged into a local farm and became an authentic farmer.
She went to work in the fields, working at sunrise, resting at sunset, eating vegetables on the farm, and gradually learned that the local farms adopted the ecological and organic planting philosophy, and did not fertilize or spray drugs.
She also learned that many farms in the United States adopt the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model.
This is a new form of agricultural trade. Farm consumers are also shareholders of the farm. At the beginning of the planting season, consumers pay in advance, and farmers must use ecologically sustainable planting methods to ensure food safety.
This form requires mutual trust between the supplier and the buyer, consumers get organic and healthy agricultural products, and farmers do not have to worry that the good things they grow will not be sold.
There is no middleman to make the difference, and the supply and demand sides establish the most direct and rapid communication bridge.
This new model has inspired Shi Yan, why not introduce this approach to China?
After returning to China, Shi Yan set out to build a community-supported agricultural farm with Chinese characteristics. She wanted to test whether this path could be made in China.
In 2009, at the foot of Fenghuangling Mountain in Beijing, the "Little Donkey Citizen Farm" officially opened. This is China's first "community-supported agriculture" farm established by Shi Yan. All the vegetables grown on the farm use farm manure. The breeding adopts natural breeding methods, while using microorganisms to decompose and ferment the feces and dirt to ensure that the pig house is clean and odor-free, and the feces are then used as agricultural fertilizers... This kind of circular ecological planting is quickly favored by consumers.
In 2011, Shi Yan graduated with Ph.D. She and her husband determined the way to go in the future and formally established a community-supported farming model.
As soon as she stepped out of the school gate, Shi Yan's feet stepped into the farmland.
At that time, Shi Yan was not the only choice to be a "farmer".
She considered staying in school to teach and got an offer from a well-known company, but in the end she chose the path of "farmer".
"I want to establish such a possibility, so that more people can see that they can have a good career and a high-quality life when they return to the countryside, and the rural life can meet their needs for modern life."
When the farm was first established, it was not accepted by consumers. They paid for one year in advance. Few people were willing to bear such risks.
In order to find members, Shi Yan and the team set up stalls on the street, visited the community, held promotion lectures, and invited consumers to visit the farm... In order to increase production, the team cooperated with farmers around the farm to plant, and the team provided technical guidance and sales. Planting.
As the harvest season was approaching, a farmer had no confidence in Shi Yan's planting methods and secretly sprayed pesticides in order to increase yields.
After Shi Yan learned about it, he did not hesitate to uproot half of the crops.
Shi Yan adheres to the principle of planting, even if the previous efforts are in vain, he cannot provide consumers with products that do not meet the standards.
After hard work, the first batch of vegetables from the shared harvest farm was delivered to the members' homes with guaranteed quality and quantity, and the farmers also got higher profits.
"This method works! The farmers have a bottom in their hearts." Shi Yan is full of confidence in the future.
This farm has now become an Internet celebrity land.
Shi Yan said that the annual turnover of the farm can reach several million yuan.
During the new crown pneumonia epidemic, home delivery of agricultural products developed rapidly, and sales were better than in previous years.
"People's consumption concepts have changed." After working in agriculture for so many years, Shi Yan felt that the agricultural industry has changed. More and more."
Since 2008, Shi Yan and his team have launched the "Social Ecological Agriculture CSA Conference" every year. The number of participants has grown from dozens of people in the first session to thousands of people, and many people have followed and participated online.
Through the conference, Shi Yan and his team continue to promote the development of ecological agriculture, attract more farmers to become new farmers, help them identify organic fertilizers, connect with testing agencies, and connect with consumer communities...
In order to further popularize agricultural knowledge, Sharing Harvest Farm has cooperated with Beijing Hujialou Primary School, Shunyi Yulong Primary School and other schools for 4 consecutive years, using the roof of the teaching building to open up a "roof-roof vegetable field" so that students can experience the joy of farming.
Each child has a 1 square meter vegetable garden, and they can grow crops through organic fertilizer soil.
In the weekly farm class, the staff revolved around the "food, clothing, housing, and transportation" in the farming culture, bringing the children closer and closer to agriculture.
This kind of farming experience also enters the lives of adults.
In the Beijing Indigo Shopping Center, Shi Yan's team worked with the property to build a farm in the mall for the employees of the mall. White-collar workers can also grow vegetables in the mall to achieve the purpose of healing through work.
Today, the agricultural model built by sharing the harvest farm is getting closer and closer to Shi Yan's ideals.
She said: "Agriculture can't be done in a hurry. Only when more people do it, can agriculture be better promoted."
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Zhang Min Source: China Youth Daily