Zhang Shaolan
Heinigou Village, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
Zhang Shaolan is a major player in Heinigou’s ecological farming community. As one of the early adopters of ecological farming methods and an avid participant in the monthly Cai Yun Farmer’s Market, she truly shows what it means to lead by example.
After many years of diligently farming her family’s mountainous land, Ms. Zhang has found a way to make her rough land give generous returns. At Cai Yun, her arrowroot, green cabbage, and radish are consistent hits with consumers. With a smile that stretches from ear to ear, Ms. Zhang cheerfully reports that though yields on the land are not always high, as a result of the tough terrain and the difficulties associated with ecological farming, she is still glad to be contributing to healthier lifestyles for her customers. The most important consideration, she says, is always human health.
Ms. Zhang says that though most people know how tasty ecologicallygrown food is, few know about the difficulties associated with practicing the methods. Yet despite how trying daily manual weeding can be, she is always cheered by the sight of a new ripe vegetable. “Without pesticides, my body really feels changed for the better,” she said.
“Though my income from ecological agriculture is not always high, I must continue planting ecological crops so that more and more people will come to recognize the importance of ecological agriculture for both the land and for health,” she added.
A Miao farmer who has been a leading participant in PANAP’s partner PEAC and Eco-Women’s pesticide-free farming program, Ms. Zhang never seems to be short of energy or a smile. Despite her long and hard workdays, made all the more challenging due to her dual commitment to ecological farming methods and the rearing of three children, she manages to keep up a contagiously upbeat attitude.
This attitude was on display at the recent Cai Yun Farmers’ Market, where she seemed to thrive off of the bustling chaos as consumers crowded her food stand, on top of which was pasted, among other things, a big photo of her smiling with a freshly picked ecological turnip in hand.
As city-dwellers came to buy anything from turnips to lettuce, she bagged, weighed, and collected money for their goods, always ensuring that they left with a smile like her own. Life as a Miao woman isn’t easy, but Zhang Shaolan makes it seem that way. She has managed to help her eldest daughter become Heinigou’s first college student, and she hopes her second and third children can follow suit.
All the while, she is farming in a way that is healthy for the earth and for those who buy her products.
