Last year I went to my friends house in 大谷云, a small village in Huang Shan. As we talked my friend casually brought up that her uncle uses pesticides. I found this super interesting because a lot of farmers tried to hide this. I asked her a little about it at the time but didnt get much information. (I mention it here).

Recently I decided to get more information from my friend. . There were some translation problems, but I think there are some interesting insights. As you can see the conversation at one point stops and I start it again, so after the conversation stopped the second time I didn’t want to press my luck too much.

I think the most important thing I got from this conversation was that the family didn’t always use pesticides, but they started partially for “quality of life”。 Pesticides promise an easier harvest via less bugs and more yield. In a small mountain village that isnt super famous and where everyone around you is also making tea, you do what you have to to earn money and have a comfortable life.

Would love you hear what you thought about this conversation and what you found most interesting. Comment below.

(also I realize a few of the translation problems came from my bad chinese)