TechnoViews #16. 'An Ecological History of Modern China' | Stevan Harrell (U. of Washington)

Stevan HARRELL, interviewed by Loretta Ieng-tak LOU on 9/December/2023

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

This episode features a conversation with Stevan Harrell about his recent masterful overview of China's environmental processes from the twentieth century to the present. The author discusses how the ‘ecological history’ approach differs from more conventional approaches to environmental history. The conversation then touches on two of the many topics covered in the book, food and population, to illustrate the value of approaching the past through the concepts and frameworks of systems ecology. A variety of food-related topics are discussed, from the early struggles to feed China’s population, to the recent effects of meatier diets on China’s agriculture and feed imports, to alternative food movements among China’s urbanites worried about food se ...