Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean: Remembering Chinese Scientist Pu Zhelong’s Work for Sustainable Farming
Sigrid Schmalzer, illustrated by Melanie Linden Chan
A fictional farm-boy narrator recalls Chinese scientist Pu Zhelong’s work with farmers in Guangdong. In the 1960s and 1970s, pest damage to lychee and rice crops led farmers into an escalating cycle of chemical pesticide use. Pu helped introduce a natural method: wasps that lay eggs inside moth eggs, preventing moth larvae from hatching. The collaboration joins local farming knowledge with methods associated with both China and the West. The book also depicts rural China in the 1950s and includes Chinese characters, paper cutting, and historical notes.
This book appears on 2 reading lists across 1 edition from 2 organizations.
