Plant Futures DKU: Nature’s Little Helpers
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Group photo from our trip to Yuefeng Island Organic Farm So here’s the thing about farms: they’re simultaneously exactly what you’d expect and nothing like you imagined. On May 11th, 2025, our DKU community garden crew ventured to Yuefeng Island Organic Farm, which sits beside Yangcheng Lake like a bookish teenager at a school dance: quietly impressive but not making a big deal about it. ...
Mr. Wang Jingkang (second from right) visits Kunshan Duke University’s community garden. Recently, environmental advocate Wang Jingkang toured the DKU Community Garden. We at CGSC seized the chance to sit down for a short interview about his philosophy and hands-on experience in community-garden design. Below is the full transcript. Further reading: Wang Jingkang, “Everyone Is a Designer— Gaia Ecological Construction Inspires Civic Action” https://www.meipian.cn/1xsw99sy ...
Community Garden in May 2025 The Community Garden Steering Committee (CGSC) of Duke Kunshan University (DKU) consists of volunteers responsible for the day-to-day management of the Community Garden. To help garden participants connect with the appropriate CGSC members, here are our introductions. Contact Information: Microsoft Teams: https://tinyurl.com/garden-dku Email: dku-garden@proton.me Committee Members Xing Shi Cai (蔡醒诗) Xing Shi Cai Responsibility: Membership Management I’m an assistant professor of mathematics at DKU and have served as the adviser for the DKU Plant Futures club since 2023. Our club promotes plant-based diets and products to protect the environment and support animal welfare. In 2024, I initiated the restart of the Community Garden at DKU to encourage people to connect with nature and develop gardening skills—abilities that may become increasingly valuable in the future. ...
This is written for the archive of DKU by Xing Shi Cai. The Garden in Jan 2025 As the faculty adviser for Plant Futures since 2023, I’ve had the privilege of working with students passionate about plant-based living and environmental sustainability. In spring 2024, while brainstorming new initiatives for our club, several students with gardening experience proposed an exciting idea: creating a community garden. We discovered there had already been a garden between the IB and WDR buildings, adjacent to the campus’s southern boundary. At the time, only a handful of people were utilizing this space, leaving much of it untended. With optimism and perhaps a touch of naivety, I envisioned a simple approach to starting our community garden: create a grid system using Excel, where each cell represented one square meter of land, and let community members claim their plots. ...
DKU ECO-FEB 2025 Speaker Series Join us for the DKU Eco February 2025 Speaker Series, a thought-provoking exploration of how ethical choices lead to meaningful action for a better world. Hosted by Duke Kunshan University’s Plant Futures Club, this series examines how our everyday choices—particularly around food—impact global well-being. Note: This is an online event which will be conducted in English. What to Expect: 🎤 Insights from Maggie Baird (Feb 21st, 9 AM Beijing Time / Feb 20th, 19:00 CST): Maggie Baird, founder of the plant-based advocacy non-profit Support + Feed, will share her journey of activism and her dedication to promoting plant-based eating as a means to combat environmental degradation and animal suffering. Through Support + Feed (supportandfeed.org), Maggie empowers communities to make sustainable food choices while supporting local, plant-based food systems. Learn how small, intentional decisions—like transitioning to a plant-based diet—can contribute to a healthier, more sustainable world. 🌱 ...
Itinerary of DKU ECO-FEB 2025 Get ready to start the new year with the planet in mind! DKU’s Plant Futures EcoFeb is bringing you three weeks of exciting events focused on sustainability, ethical living, and environmental action. 🌍💚 📅 Week 1 (Feb 10th - 16th) 🍦 Free Oatly Ice Cream Date & Time: Friday, 02/14, 9-11 AM Location: Performance Café Try out Oatly’s latest flavors for free! Leave a review on the Abillion app, and donate $1 to support animals. 🐾 ...
I happened upon a New York Times article titled This New Year, Resolve to Green Up Your News Feed, which recommended the climate news website Grist. Highlighting climate solutions and climate justice, Grist works “to show that a just and sustainable future is within reach.” Even as it provides much-needed encouraging news—Indigenous people defending their land and fighting for climate justice, for instance, or a new insurance model for flood-prone communities—this site’s reporting pulls no punches in revealing underreported bad news or efforts toward sustainability that just aren’t panning out. ...
Veganuary The logo for Veganuary This week, I stumbled upon a rather intriguing article, Meat-eaters more likely to be disgusted by meat after taking part in Veganuary, study reveals. The premise, as outlined by the Guardian, is that: Meat-eaters who abstain to take part in Veganuary are more likely to think that meat is disgusting after giving it up for the month, researchers have found. Studies by psychologists at the University of Exeter also found that some people identify less as meat-eaters after trying to avoid animal products during January. ...
The cover of H is for Hope by Elizabeth Kolbert We’ve talked before about Elizabeth Kolbert, a writer whose words have reshaped how many of us see the planet we inhabit, her voice, sharp and measured, carrying the weight of a climate in crisis. This week, I read her latest book, H Is for Hope, a brief but potent meditation on the precariousness of our existence. The audiobook, which I listened to, clocks in at just over ninety minutes, far shorter than Kolbert’s previous works, but that’s intentional. Ordinary citizens don’t need endless pages of data — we need to feel, to feel the crisis as something visceral, immediate. ...
Zizaige/自在阁 This vegetarian buffet is a celebration of traditional Chinese food, offering dozens of dishes, including Suzhou-style noodles and the hands-on fun of a DIY mini-hotpot called Ma La Tang (麻辣烫). Tofu strips and cucumbers Bitter melon stem lettuce Kidney beans and fried peanuts Long bean Tofu stew ...