I stood in Zhang Meidi’s cabbage patch, kicking the dirt with my boots. The first frosts would arrive soon but for now the soil was dark, crumbly and rich.
Not like the hard mud around Shanghai or the dry, sandy soil of Beijing. This is China’s bread basket. Wheat has been grown here for thousands of years. But Zhang Meidi has given up on it. She laughed, her heavy, gold earrings catching the light. The prices in the market were good these days, she said, but not for wheat. [Full Text]