TURIN, Italy -- It seems that history, when it comes to food production in China, is repeating itself -- much like every rice harvest.
Traditional Mongolian beef jerky wasamong items featured in the first booth representing China at Slow Food's Salone del Gusto (Ark of Taste) (Courtesy of Archivio Slow Food) Joining a new trend toward what is loosely termed "rural regeneration," Chinese students are once again going to work in the countryside and "learn from the peasants," -- as they did the Maoist Cultural Revolution of the 1960's. In the past year, small groups of urban youth, concerned about creating a new model of farming that is safer and more sustainable, have left China's major cities for periods of between one month and a year, in study trips organized by Beijing's Liangshuming Rural Reconstruction Center, Under a coordinated scheme, they aim to support and promote farming communes that are rotating crops and using ancient forms of pest control -- as well as give renewed importance to those who still work the land.
