This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post on September 23, 2014.

Co-authored by Wanjira Mathai, director of the wPOWER Project at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace & Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi and Chair, Green Belt Movement

Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist and 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, was fond of recounting a children’s story she’d been told on a visit to Japan. A huge fire breaks out in the forest, runs the tale. The animals are transfixed and overwhelmed by the conflagration. All of them but a hummingbird, who resolves to do something. She flies to the nearest stream, dips her beak into it, and drops a bead of water onto the flames. The elephant, the lion, the giraffe, and the other animals laugh at her, as she flies back and forth over and over again. “You’re just a tiny hummingbird,” they jeer. “What difference do you think you can make?” The hummingbird replies: “I’m doing the best I can.”

For many who heard Wangari tell the story, the message of maximizing our abilities and passions for the greater good rather than descending into cynicism or despair was galvanizing. Wangari embraced this interpretation wholeheartedly. Yet it’s clear that a more challenging, even provocative message lies within it. That message has more relevance than ever as hundreds of thousands of people, us among them, marched Sunday in the streets of New York demanding their leaders take urgent action to address climate change, and as heads of government, industry, and civil society gather at the United Nations for an unprecedented global-warming summit.

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On May 2nd, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) of China issued Interpretations on food safety criminal cases. The next day, a spokesman of the SPC further elaborated on the Interpretations during a press conference. The judicial progress is certainly encouraging, but more efforts beyond the legal system are required to effectively combat food safety lapses. Read More

It has been a month since the first case of the human-infected influenza A (H7N9) was reported. By May 1st, the virus had been diagnosed in 128 people and has killed 27 people since March. Recently, a booklet called Don’t be Scared of Birds was published in China to inform the public about influenza A (H7N9) and how to protect themselves from it, although many details of the virus remain unknown. Read More

During an interview with Legal Weekly, Mr. Xu Zhijun, the initiator of the food waste campaign “Operation Empty Plate”, said he did not want the operation to become a movement. While the campaign received endorsement from Mr. Xi Jinping, the Communist Party’s new leader, and had been linked to Mr. Xi’s fight against corruption, the idea of a “social reform movement” (as embraced by the Global Times ) might have altered the original intention of the campaign in some ways.

Mr. Xi’s endorsement showed strong support and helped “Operation Empty Plate” achieve an unexpected influence. The food waste issue became part of people’s daily conversations, which is encouraging for every individual who cares about agricultural practices, natural resources, and climate change (Read also: Food Waste and Recycling in China: Too Easy, Too Hard ). Read More

On March 15, 2011, World Consumer Rights Day, the clenbuterol pork scandal was exposed in China and shocked meat-lovers with this health-threatening “lean meat powder” used to make animals grow muscle rather than fat. But in addition to being directly consumed, chemical residues from the livestock industry can affect our health via more diverse and complicated pathways.

We know that frequent use of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections can lead to resistance, to such an extent that the drug is no longer effective. Recently, research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal revealed that, antibiotics and heavy metals fed to pigs have significantly raised the level of antibiotic resistant microbes in the animals’ manure, manure compost, and soil. Today, China is the largest producer and consumer of antibiotics, with major buyers from the livestock industry. In large- and middle-scale factory farms, antibiotics and metal feed additives are applied frequently and at high doses for growth promotion and disease control.
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