CEF and Circle of Blue Launch Choke Point: China Part II
The China Environment Forum and Circle of Blue are undertaking a new round of research and reporting on the water-energy confrontations facing China. The new research will delve into how food and water pollution pressures are also impacting the water-energy nexus. Choke Point: China Part II will also include the formation of a U.S.-China Water-Energy Research Team. This second phase of work is being supported by the Skoll Global Threats Fund, USAID, and Vermont Law School.
In China, Every Square Meter Counts
Friday, 01 June 2012 14:12
Circle of Blue’s senior editor wraps up his first of three weeks reporting in the field from China, finding a wealth of promise in fields of golden wheat.
XIN XIANG, Henan Province — The fields of Henan Province, one of the important centers of global wheat production that is located in east-central China, spread beyond this city’s high-rises, a prairie of dusky grain in every direction to the horizon. Every mu — a Chinese measurement of land expanse equal to about 270 square meters (or 7 percent of an acre) — is taken with ripening wheat.
The harvest has begun. Workers cut stalks with long blades and haul the wheat out of the fields on their backs. The streets serve as long, linear threshing tables as farmers spread the straw and seed heads on the just-built broad boulevards, relying on trucks and cars to roll over the piles. Then, with pitchforks, men and women stab hard at the crumbled piles and toss the grain high in the air, the wind carrying the bits of straw away from the seeds.
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Since 1997, the China Environment Forum's mission has been to forge US-China cooperation on energy, environment, and sustainable development challenges. We play a unique nonpartisan role in creating multi-stakeholder dialogues around these issues. Read more
