Brighter Green
ChinaFit Expo 2016: Vegan Health Trending?
Wanqing Zhou (second from right) presenting on a panel at the Vegan Forum on June 15, 2016
Brighter Green Associate Wanqing Zhou traveled to China in June and attended the 5th ChinaFit Convention and Trade Show in Beijing. She was one of the lead panelists at the Health Nutrition & Vegan Forum.
Wanqing reported that around 10,000 came to the larger expo and 180 bought tickets to the Vegan Nutrition and Health Forum. She shared her photos and experiences from her trip to Paraguay in November 2014 (including deforestation, soy plantations, and related struggles for indigenous groups), eco-agriculture in the U.S., and farm-to-table examples in Japan.
She remarked that “people paid attention” and “some said they never thought about [these topics]…” For example, she mentioned how industrial fruit and vegetable plantations provide vegan foods but “might still pose negative environmental impacts,” but encouraged the audience that these same farms can implement eco-friendly practices to “get it right”and effectively feed the world.
[Clockwise from top left]: Day 1 panel including Dr. Yu, owner of Vegan Hut in Beijing (far left);
WANG Zi’er, host of the Vegan Life Show, introducing Will Tuttle’s The World Peace Diet in Chinese;
Food from the Day 1 charity dinner;
Day 2 panel featuring (L-R) Qi Siqing – PETA Asia, Dr. Xu – PCRM, Hazel Zhang – VegPlanet, Wanqing Zhou – Brighter Green, and Dr. LI An – China University of Political Science and Law;
YAN Sihai (second from left in white shirt), the head of ChinaFit, and other forum leaders
WANG Zi’er announced the release of the Chinese translation of The World Peace Diet by Lantern Books author Will Tuttle. Each guest received a copy of the book (pictured to the right is a promotional poster and copy of the book at Vegan Hut in Beijing a few days later). Wanqing attended a charity dinner that evening, and all the food was vegan.
On the second day, Wanqing spoke on a panel about industrial animal farming, which covered the history, food safety, animal rights, environmental impacts, social impacts, and implications for people and the government in China. She talked about What’s For Dinner? and the audience was so interested, the Q&A session went on for nearly an hour overtime. Hopefully there will be twice as many participants at next year’s vegan forum!
Photos courtesy of Wanqing Zhou and Jian Yi