Discovering a life of harmony
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Ever since graduation, Elyse Chen has shifted to a vegetarian diet and rides a bike or take public transport to work. Even as demand for automobiles is exploding, Chen says she will not buy a car because of the pollution it generates and the unsustainable spending on fossil fuel and maintenance.
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Sheri Liao (front), founder of NGO Global Village of Beijing, joins local farmers working for the Life of Harmony (LOHO) Community of Daping Village in Sichuan Province. |
Chen, age 27, is one of a growing population of young urban white collars who are attracted to LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability).
LOHAS tackles major problems of modern living, including eating based on meat and processed foods, pollution and destruction of the environment. Another problem is the loss of connections between body, mind and spirit in stressful city living.
"I started off not eating meat because it felt more comfortable and because I wanted to protect animals," says Chen, who works in a Beijing-based corporate social responsibility consultancy and is passionate about environmental and social issues.
"But then I found out that meat production pollutes even more than cars, so I switched completely to vegetarian. Sometimes I feel the end of the world is near with so much commercial pressure. I feel it's my duty to try to relieve that pressure," she says.
LOHAS first developed in North America and Europe where, some argue, values are increasingly shifting to a post-consumerist age. As a holistic lifestyle, LOHAS emphasizes the quality of life rather than the quantity of consumption.
Now these concepts have found their way over to China.
Last week the second international LOHAS forum was hosted in Beijing, drawing more participants and media interest than last year.
According to Dr Shen Li from Beijing Normal University, one of the pioneers of the movement in China, LOHAS' popularization is driven by negative forces such as high-profile food safety scandals and pollution.
"LOHAS is much needed here because problems in food, agriculture and pollution are severe," says Li.
Chinese tradition
In the West, organic farming and supermarkets have developed to address food safety and pollution, and they are also influencing China. But pioneering local organizations and companies are finding their own unique solutions with Chinese characteristics.
LOHAS would seem to resonate particularly in China, with a deeply agrarian history and emphasis on balance between man and nature. Traditional Chinese medicine, for example, with its concept of holistic treatment lends itself particularly well to LOHAS.
The Phoenix Farm on the outskirts of Beijing, for example, combines Western biodynamic farm practices with Chinese TCM food therapy.
First developed in the 1930s, biodynamic farming recognizes that chemical fertilizers and pesticides degrade the soil. It is a form of organic farming with homeopathic compost enriched with fermented herbal and mineral preparations. Thus, it restores nutrition to the soil as well as the link between soil, plants and animals.
But in addition to these methods, the Phoenix Farm produces mainly vegetables considered crucial for health in TCM such as the Chinese yam. The farm also has a TCM food therapy center and organic tea house which encourages visitors to become educated on how illnesses can be prevented with the right healthy foods.
"Western medicine treats the symptoms of illnesses, but TCM recognizes that many illnesses, such as diabetes, can be prevented by a change in diet," says Lee Yan, founder of the farm.
"We are lucky that with TCM traditions, the idea of treating a farm as a whole living organism is easily accepted," says Lee. "We also avoid overemphasis on the quality of the soil that's prevalent in biodynamic farming - soil is only the foundation on which to understand how to unlock the body's natural balance."
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