White Collars and Green Thumbs: Chinese Urban Middle Class Engagement with Alternative Agriculture and its Social, Cultural, and Environmental Implications

– 5:00 AM 5:00 AM

New Street Courtyard, Chao Yang Lu Fu Lu, GuoMao, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing Shi, China, 100026

Media Cafe

Beijing Energy Network

Gutter oil, “garbage vegetables”, toxic additives, poisoning from pesticides– eating in China can often feel like navigating a minefield of hidden dangers and health risks. In recent years, widespread anxiety about food safety has pushed more and more urban middle class people in China to seek out safe, organic food sources they can trust. But finding such food sources is easier said than done, and in many cities in China, consumers have begun to join together to source safe food. These new projects and communities range from buying groups, to social enterprises linking producers and consumers, to entirely new “ecological” farms founded by so-called “white collar farmers”. Taken together, this proliferation of small-scale local projects constitutes an emergent and dynamic sector of Chinese civil society.

Abigail Bok has spent the last eight months researching this new phenomenon in Chinese society. Based primarily in Guangdong, Abigail has relied on anthropological research methods to investigate in depth the motivations, specific challenges, and social dynamics of some of these projects. In her presentation, she will share her initial findings from her research and some thoughts on their broader implications for social organizing and environmental consciousness in Chinese society.

About the Speaker: Abigail Bok is from Boston, MA, and graduated from Yale in 2014 with a degree in Environmental Studies. Abigail is a current Fulbright Scholar affiliated with Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, and has been in China conducting her independent research project since March 2015.  She feels privileged to have the opportunity to use this project to combine two long-term passions of hers– sustainable agriculture and food system reform, and studying the intricacies and complexities of modern Chinese society.

Event Location:

Media Cafe |  媒体人咖啡

New Street Courtyard Bldg. 8, West Side, Chaoyang Road |  朝阳路新街大院甲8号西侧二层

Closest subway stop: Jintaixizhao |  最近地铁站： 金台夕照

Networking begins at 7:30, talk begins at 8.

Posted from Beijing Energy Network