The Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is probably the most important meal in Chinese food culture. People who have been busy for a year have taken off the burden of work and hurried back home, sitting around a table, using food as a medium to fulfill this annual event.In the past when most people lived in poverty, New Year's Eve dinner was exciting because you would be able to eat chicken, duck, and fish that you usually couldn't buy, and reward yourself of. However, today's Chinese New Year's Eve meals are often unable to find its unique characteristics because meat, eggs and milk have frequently appeared in our daily lives, 3 times a day.When we are celebrating the New Year, we may not ask each other again, what did we eat on New Year's Eve?What else can be done to New Year's Eve? How to give it a new connotation and make it a topic to talk about at the dinner table or New Year greetings?When the ingredients and taste can no longer bring us new ideas, where should the revolution of Chinese New Year dinner begin?![]()
Chinese New Year is always inseparable from "resigning the old to welcome the new."On the physical level, we will clean up the living space; we will put on our new clothes and show people with a new look.On the spiritual level, we silently hope that in the coming new year, we can let go of the "mind burden" that we have accumulated in the past, pack lightly, and setup new.But on the diet part, even if we no longer have food scarcity, we have eaten a lot of fish and meat on weekdays. In the new year, we still follow the old rules and are reluctant to give our stomachs a vacation and continue to stuff them with even more food, following with long digestive cycle.Maybe, it is time to reverse this practice: in the past, when there was a lack of material, we usually had coarse tea and unpolished rice, and had big feast to reward ourselves at New Year's Eve. However nowadays, we might already have enjoy enough of the material life, and we have given life to countless diseases because we eat too much. A plant-based diet cleans up the mind and body, as a good start to the coming year.Many friends who have tried to fast or gone veg for a while might have this experience: body feeling lighter and refreshed. And if you once eat a lot of meat without restraint on a weekday, you will inevitably feel groggy and heavy.Now that we want to quit the old and welcome the new year in a refreshed way, why do we burden ourselves with heavy food?
The issue of climate change is heating up again in 2019. Ten thousand scientists worldwide warn: human beings are facing a serious crisis, and we must take proactive measures to avoid the crisis, or we will be punished by nature relentlessly.Swedish girl Greta indignantly asked the adults who are running the world at the UN Climate Summit said: How dare you? (How dare you continue to be so blind and let the children take on a near irreversible future?)It seems that overnight, humanity came to a turning point in life and death. Among the many factors influencing the global climate change, food plays a pivotal role. The livestock industry cannot ignore it because its total greenhouse gas emissions exceed the total emissions of all modes of transport.At present, the human food system is probably a cycle as described below:——Large and still rapidly growing consumption of animal products (The industrialized farming system that pursues production, has brought endless suffering and torture to animals, and we dare not face it at all)——Leading to the need for more grains to feed the animals (although herbivorous cattle and sheep do not want to eat and do not digest the grains well)——Thus, further deforestation, expansion of farming area, large-scale singular farming using chemical fertilizers and pesticides——After a few years, the soil will be extremely barren, and the output of the land will not only be unable to feed the animals, even the human share may not be enough; the earth will not see a few touches of green due to successive years of reclamation and human demands. We will only see bare and yellow land——It is too late to think of restoring ecology.More and more voices are telling us: There is really not much time left for humans! Not alarmist, but based on scientific data, we are very close to the critical point of ecological collapse, and the seemingly insignificant food consumption is a powerful lever to reverse the ecological crisis.
Therefore, in this coming New Year's Eve, in addition to the taste of food, we can talk to our children: what kind of future we are facing, how the food we consume and feed into our mouths is related to the entire food system, and what changes we can make to respond to this survival test that all humans face.
3. Launching the "Food Fashion" event at someone's home
Each culinary expert has his or her own specialty dishes, and each of the eight Chines big cuisines has its own representative dishes. However, if you look closely, you will find that whether it is "handy dishes" or "representative dishes", the ingredients seem to be inseparable from animal products, and some often based on animal products.
In our concept, it seems that we must include animal products to make a delicious dish.If you are interested in adding more plant-based ingredients to your plate for the next year and longer, do you also have some concerns about what to do to make it delicious?In January 2020, we would like to organize a "Food Fashion" Launch at someone's home, only to provide you with a solid foundation for the new year of diet. The demonstration will be down-to-earth and practical.During the launch, the Good Food Designers selected from contestents across the country will match the families of Beijing Xinzhuang Village and use the plant-based ingredients randomly prepared by the Xinzhuang family, to create "the first banquet Into the 2020s" for us.The dishes co-created by the Good Food Designers will be included in the "New Year's Menu" published at the "Food Fashion" event in 2020. After expert review, the providers of outstanding dishes will have the opportunity to travel to Harvard, Yale, John Huo Perkins, MIT and other well-known overseas universities and Google, to exchang and learn about the new dietary trends that are popular overseas.We look forward to giving you the event through dozens of Good Food Designers' practical demonstrations in paired ordinary home kitchens, to help you open up new ideas for dietary changes throughout the next year (including New Year's Eve of course).We also look forward to see your 2020 Chinese New Year table, and that you as a Good Food Designer at home, create your own "Food Fashion" masterpiece, with a new perspective on food beyond color, flavor and taste.
Challenge to Good Food Designers
We refer to the co-creators of this "New Year's Menu" as the "Good Food Designers" of the 2020s, and we are now recruiting potential designers from all across the country. Anyone who is interested, is doing research, has a innovative mind or has specialty in cooking is welcomed to apply.We will start the application in subsequent articles, with introduction of the detailed rules for this recruitment.For audience, this new "Food Fashion" Launch event in the 2020s will be a trend and reference guide for the new food fashion. And for the Good Food Designers involved in this co-creation, it will be a real challenge.You need to make outstanding cooking dishes with plant-based ingredients under the limited conditions of ordinary home kitchens, and the dishes need to be practicle enough for household cooks. Since after the dishes being included in the "New Year Menu", it would be used by families across the country for New Year's Eve dinner. You will become a leader of the new "Food Fashion".The culinary talents who are reading this article, are you willing to accept this challenge and open the gate to the 2020s with your own "Good Food" designs?Leave a comment to share with us your ideas and expectations for the event.
公益支持机构 Supporting Organizations
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Regarding food campaigns in China, the Good Food Fund of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation is a special presence. It systematically promotes a healthy, sustainable and compassionate diet. So far, it has held three Good Food Summits, bringing together active domestic actors. On June 24, 2019, the Good Food Fund released the Good Food Pledge in Beijing.
We believe that the following points are self-evident:1. Loss of biodiversity and climate change are common threats to humanity.2. No one should be hungry.3. No one deserves paying price of health and even life for a bad diet.4. One should not waste food.5. There is no justification for abusing farmed animals.We agree with the following points:1. Transforming the food system can actively and effectively mitigate global climate change, preserve biodiversity and improve public health, and better ensure food security and social equity in the case of population growth.2. A good diet can nourish the body and mind and the community. Good food production and consumption can maintain the balance of the ecosystem. Good food is the most powerful lever to improve public health and the ecosystem.3. Everyone should know where their food comes from and how their food affects themselves and the world.4. The scientific evidence of diet, health and environmental protection is very clear, and we need to act now.5. In the era of ecological civilization, every citizen has the right to green consumption.
We pledge and appeal to all non-profit organizations, families, and individuals around the world to join the following Good Food Pledge for the future of humanity: 1. Plant Forward –Plant-based dishes account for no less than 85% in each meal,2. Animal Welfare – Do not support products that are afflicted with animal abuse, such as cage-feed eggs.3. Healthy Eating - Choose whole foods, support healthy cooking, avoid high sugar, excessive salt and deep processed foods and beverages.4. Reduce Waste – Take/order what we can finish and finish what we take/order.5. Local Seasonal – Choose local and seasonal ingredients as much as possible, support ecological agriculture, and support small farmers.6. Circular Economy – Reducing the use of disposables, especially disposable plastics. Recycle and reuse.7. Preserve Biodiversity – Refrain from eating wild lives, choose sustainable aquatic products, and support sustainable and diverse ingredients.8. Food Education – Promote food education and participate in food education courses.
You are welcome to join the "Good Food Consensus" and "Good Food Pledge" family. This is our solemn commitment to ourselves and our best wishes to the planet and the next generation of humanity. Congratulations to you (and your institution) on being a contributor and leader of the future and prosperity of human civilization.
The China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation is a national public fundraising foundation. It accepts donations from all walks of life. For donation, please indicate the "Good Food Fund" and other relevant wishes. 01. You particularly agree with the "Good Food Consensus" and "Good Food Pledge", and you hope to support it as a whole. 02. In particular, you agree to either one of the eight Initiatives, and can set up special funding bonuses to support research and development, entrepreneurship, and communication in this field.The eight requirements of the Good Food Pledge are comprehensive and systematic, and each of them requires in-depth and professional support. We invite the partners to provide professional support to signed individuals, families and institutions based on the eight requirements. 01. You or your organization has the knowledge, skills and mature work experience in a certain professional field. 02. You agree and sign the "Good Food Consensus" and are willing to develop and provide professional "solutions" for the "Good Food Pledge". For example, you are a food education institution and you can provide solutions to 8th of the Pledge (Implementing Food Education). Another example is that you are an alliance of sustainable chefs, and you can provide solutions for the 3rd of the Pledge (Healthy Diet).03. "Good Food Pledge" partnership is an open platform, as long as anyone and institutions sign the Good Food Consensus, they can provide solutions for the Pledge. However, only those who are officially recognized by the Good Food Fund can be formally recommended and become partners. 04. Apply to the Good Food Fund. Applications that are not approved will need to be revised until approved by the Good Food Fund. The Good Food Fund will evaluate from the perspectives of integration, operability, and scientificity. We hope all qualified institutions / projects to join the family. 05. The partners who have been officially recognized by the Good Food Fund will appear in all future publicity related to the Good Food Pledge, so that the signatories can timely understand and choose the solution they need. 06. The solution provided by the partners can be nonprofit or paid. But the fees must be within the range approved by the Good Food Fund.
Email：info@goodfoodchina.net
｢Good Food Fund｣ is a public welfare fund focusing on food and sustainable development under the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation. It aims to lead the future of sustainable food development and create a better world through good food.
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