At the award ceremony of
the "China Youth Toyota Environment-protection Award", sponsored by
the Central Commission of Communist Youth League of China and the
All-China Youth Federation and held in Peking University on the
morning of March 1, Qingpu High School's "Organic Vegetables"
project won RMB0.1 million. It is learnt that among all the awards,
it is the only one for high school students. How to spend the money?
The teachers and students have decided to introduce the project to
more students and let them enjoy the happiness of planting healthy
vegetables.
What are organic vegetables? Generally speaking, they are not
from transgenic seeds, and grow up without chemical fertilizer,
inorganic pesticides or plant growth regulator but with organic
fertilizer. So far, they have still been the "rare products" on the
market, twice the price of ordinary vegetables. According to Yang
Ling, the science and technology teacher in Qingpu High School, the
promotion of students' growing vegetables at their extensive courses
has twofold significance. One is to publicize the knowledge of
"organic agriculture" to the students, who will then talk about the
new concept to their parents. The other is create a natural and
agricultural environment for the students. "A lot of students can
not tell the difference between cabbage and celery cabbage; but
after planting, they can!" said Yang.
After the course of organic vegetables, a group of
"agriculture experts" appears in the Qingpu High School. They don't
buy organic pesticides from the market but carry out their own
research and development. To their surprise, the juice of green
Chinese onion and cucumber vine can also kill insects and bacteria.
What's more, the pesticide made of the juice has longer effect than
those on the market. The students also ferment the scraps from the
kitchen to make compost. Moreover, with their original idea, they
put their potted spice plants from the organic farmland to the
schools' water closets. So far, the deodorants have received good
comment.
"We want to promote the course of planting organic vegetables to
more schools and practice bases," said Yang, "Actually, through
soilless cultivation, downtown schools are also expected to open the
course." It is learnt that the students of Qingpu High School have
already helped a school set up an organic vegetable base. They even
bring the vegetables to the canteen for cooking. With a healthy
dish, they can taste the happiness of their own labor and research.
As for the future plan, Yang said that apart from the course's
promotion, they would also invite authorities to evaluate the
vegetables.
