TURIN, Italy -- It seems that history, when it comes to food production in China, is repeating itself -- much like every rice harvest.
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.
