Vegan Agriculture

Vegan farming (全素农业) has become more and more popular. It is one of the most environmentally-friendly forms of agriculture. Vegan farming is a good way to grow plants such as vegetables without using animal-derived materials such as their waste. 【小题1】 Such an approach to farming also helps preserve the environment and regain soil richness and improve its biodiversity.

【小题2】Organic farming uses natural products to grow plants — that can include even animal waste as fertilizers. On the other hand, vegan agriculture rejects animal-derived products and usually sticks with plant-based organic compounds, which means that, in general, vegan agriculture has stricter rules than organic farming.

Additionally, vegan farming usually chooses more natural ways to protect the plants, like breaking cycles of plants’ diseases with mixed cropping (混作), using mechanical barriers such as nets, or even attracting opposing organisms to fight the harmful ones. 【小题3】 However, they might be less effective against certain plant diseases or pests.

One of the reasons to invest in vegan agriculture is that the vegan way of farming replaces synthetic (合成的) pesticides and uses organic pesticides or other non-chemical methods to protect the crops. By contrast, in conventional agriculture, synthetic pesticides are on a very high level. 【小题4】

In the future, it is of great significance not to rely on animals’ waste for feeding plants. Doing so is not only beneficial to vegans. 【小题5】 Even if today’s methods of vegan agriculture might not be perfect, scientists worldwide, together with vegan farmers, are working towards developing plant-based solutions as alternatives to animal-derived fertilizers.

This fall, children in the Eixample area of Barcelona have a new way to get to school on Fridays-they ride their bikes. In September, a group of five children began biking to school with their parents on Fridays. Soon the group grew to 150 or more. The program is called bike bus.

The bike bus begins around 8: 25 every Friday morning. The path it will follow is always posted ahead of time, so everyone knows where to join. The bike bus starts off with just a few students and parents, with more and more joining as it travels along.

Most kids ride their bikes, but others ride scooters(滑板车)or use skates. Instead of riding in bike lanes or on sidewalks, the bike bus takes over the entire street. With music playing and bike bells ringing, the bike bus feels like a party.

“Being able to ride with a bunch of kids is a big part of the fun,” says nine-year-old Maria Pitarch. “The best part of the bike bus is that we ride along and pick up my friends and we ride together.”

It was possible to bike to school in Eixample before, but it wasn’t really safe for kids. There are a few bike lanes, but there are also lots of cars. One of the main roads used by the Eixample bike bus has about 20,000 cars and motorcycles every day. Because these are busy streets, the local police are helping stop traffic by riding in front of the bike bus and behind it.

Parents are hoping that the bike bus will help change ideas about how people can get around in the city. They want the city to create wider and kid-friendly bike lanes that are separate from car traffic. They point out that the bike bus also helps cut down on pollution.

Barcelona isn’t the first bike bus ever. The idea has been around for quite a while. There have been bike buses in Madrid and other parts of Spain for years.

Alexander Tsao, a keen rock climber for several years, was climbing the walls at a gym near his home in Redmond, Washington, when he noticed that the ropes were frequently being replaced with new ones. Just 16 at the time, Tsao wondered what happened to the old ropes. He asked the gym owners and found out the ropes had to be discarded regularly due to safety regulations. He was surprised to find that so many ropes were sent to landfills (废物填埋地).

This discovery inspired him to find a solution to the environmental issue of climbing rope waste. He considered possible ideas and ways to upcycle the discarded ropes, deciding to turn them into leashes (拴狗带) for dogs.

Once he had made his plan, Tsao contacted all the climbing gyms in Washington State, introducing his idea of recycling old ropes. Some were doubtful at first but many gyms agreed to donate their used ropes. Tsao spent months testing and designing his products and filing documents to become a nonprofit organization which he called Rocks2Dogs.

To make the leashes, Tsao and volunteers first wash and dry the ropes. They cut them into different lengths, ranging from 4 to 10 feet, and then burn the ends to prevent them from fraying (磨损). They add a clip and handle to each end, and cover the leash’s hardware with shrink tape.

Because making the leashes now is a full-time job, Tsao has asked his friends, family and neighbors for help. “We have made and sold over a thousand leashes, which add up to over 10,000 feet of rope being saved from landfills,” says Tsao. The leashes come in various colors. There are also half price leashes made from ropes with slight imperfections. These start at $7.49 while most other leashes start at $14.99. To date, the nonprofit has raised more than $35,000. Much of this money has been donated to animal shelters.