Luo advocates “half agriculture half X”. With good planning it is realizable. When she first started on it she did not have a good plan. In 2012, she and her husband left their work in Beijing and went to a rural village in Chongqing to start living this model. Their experience was not successful. She realized that going in this direction without sufficient knowledge and preparation was a mistake, and they went back to town. Nevertheless they still have the vision of rural life in mind, which means proximity to Nature and clean, healthy food. So Luo started the “Meier Natural School”, planning and leading activities that focused on Nature, Environmental Protection and Happiness. Further, they turned the roof top of their home into a vegetable garden and organized a Farmers Market in Chongqing. Based on her experience of rural life, her message is that “half farming half X” does not necessarily mean for everyone to go settle in villages. Urban dwellers working in town could also adopt the approach by growing their own produce or joining force to buy direct from peasants, in doing so create the ‘link’ to agriculture. This is not only the way to help their own food security but also a way of directly and indirectly benefiting the peasants and the countryside.
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