Discussion keeps the worldturning.
This is RoundTable. You'll need a round table withmyself, how young I'm joined by Yushan and Yushun in thestudio.
Comingup, there's nothing like biting into a juicywatermelon, a sweet peach or a succulent lychee to beat the summerheat.
But thisyear, lychee lovers are facing sticker priceshock.
So significant is this price rise and what are the underlying climate factors affecting our favorite summertraits?
And if you've noticed that you can't really remember anything from when you were ababy, toddler orpreschooler, you are far fromalone.
Most people rememberlittle, ifanything, from earlychildhood, a phenomenon known as infantileamnesia.
So why exactly can't we remember our early childhoodyears?
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Hook usup, tell us what youthink, what's on yourmind, and what do you want toknow?
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Andnow, let's move on to the nexttopic, discussiontoday.
Ah, theLaiqi, thatluscious, ruby reddelight.
In days of your YangGuifei, the famed conscort of Emperor Tang Xuyen Song of 8th century TangDynasty, was known to swoon over the sweet nectar of these tropicaltreasures.
For more than adecade, Laiqi's in China have become more affordable for everyone toenjoy, thanks to expandedcultivation.
Literally thisMay, a spike in prices has peaked bulltalk, and thehashtag, Unaffordable Laiqi's is trending on micro blog Weibo with discussions about how climate factors have reduced yields driving upcosts.
Sooverall, itseems, climate capers have played a hand in the food market thissummer.
Just how big is the price spike forLaiqi's?
Well, apparently the changing ofprices, rathernoticeable, especially thisyear, because according to data provided by theBeijingNews.com, the price of a type of really commonly seen Chinese Laiqi named Faiz's Shell was actually sold in large quantities in 2023 at a price as low as 9 yuan perkilogram.
So imagine using slightly more than one US dollar to buy one entire kilogram ofLaiqi.
I think that's like really cheap as far as I know of the price for fruits andgroceries.
Soyeah, that's the case this time lastyear.
But thisyear,however, the price soared up to around 60 yuan or more per kilo at the beginning of thisMay.
And it has now gradually reduced back to around20- to 40-ish yuan per kilo via online grocery shopping platforms as it just tracked thismorning.
Butstill, it's like way priceier comparing with that from lastyear.
And I read that Li JianGuo, the professor from South China AgriculturalUniversity, says that the national supply of Laiqi's is estimated to decrease by half or even more than half thisyear.
But in themeantime, the market demand for Laiqi remains strong asbefore, which kind of inevitably leads to a general increase in Laiqi prices as we see in today'smarket.
Yes,actually, Laiqi has always been one of the most favored fruits by Chinesepeople, especially insummertime.
Yes, and we can see ancient poets have often praised Laiqi's freezing instance DuMu, was influential Chinese poet of the TangDynasty, which can be traced back to 907AD.
He oncesaid, Yi Ji HongCheng, Fei ZiXiao, as He Yang juststated, Wuyen Zhi Shi Li ZhiLi, a horse scallops away in a cloud ofdust, the ladysmiles, and no one knows it's because the Laiqi's havearrived.
And other poems like eating 300 Laiqi's aday, I wouldn't mind being a lean-na native forever that's written by Su Shi from SongDynasty.
That's where people planted thefruit.
Yes, verynice. And the main Laiqi producing areas here inChina.
Yes,actually, and that is why I think this year the production was affected because of theweather.
Guangdong actually is the main production area of Laiqi inChina, accounting for about60% of the totalproduction.
However, last year's warm winter and the excessive rainfall since this spring have greatly affected the growth of Laiqi's in Guangdong and the results such as reduced flowering and the branch breakage of Laiqi trees leading to a significant reduction in Laiqiproduction.
So the price of Laiqi this year is significantly higher than in previousyears.
And that's a quick update on the fruitmarket.
I suppose it shouldn't just be Laiqi's that are affected here because you know what we're talking about theweather, which is closely connected to theclimate, then a lot of food stops and basically the whole agricultural industry is dependent onit.
And besidesLaiqi, we've seen that the food price of a few items across the world have sought to record highlevel.
Yeah, and it's happeningworldwide.
It's not just inChina. Youknow, one of the most heartbreaking news for me is that the same thing is happening on coffee because of the reducing of coffee bean production out of the same reason climate change because youknow, the price of coffee is largely determined by the principles of supply anddemand.
And youknow, in Vietnam andBrazil, which have proved to be the largest and second largest robust coffee beans producers in theworld, with insufficient rainfall in these twocountries, the global coffee production has reduced to a new recordlow, causing the price of coffee beans as the original source of making coffee to rise to a recordhigh, ofcourse.
And according to a very recent report released by international coffeeorganization, the average price for robust bean along with our beca beans are the two most popular beans of making coffee in the market outthere.
And the price for robust bean is increasing week on week as of late January2024.
It has now reached to the highest level in the past 29years.
Whoa. Soyeah, as coffeelovers, it's just simply so heartbreaking to imaginethat, youknow, the prices for our cups of coffee is going torise.
And that seems to be atrend.
Yeah, I was thinking that Rina may be affected by this climate change or weather changing this year because Rina is also one of the biggest producer of coffee beans inChina.
Sorry, can I also just add one point about Yunnan Province because I just got back from my expedition into the rainforests of Sichuan Bay now YunnanProvince.
And they report a super dryyear, if not evendrier, than the yearwhen,remember, the herd of wild elephants who migrated from their home to other neighboring provinces up north and making globalheadlines.
And this year is even drier than thatyear.
So it's truly heartbreaking to see how climate has changed and it's having a devastating effect on ourenvironment.
But when right before Ileft, there wasrain, very highly anticipated rain that finally grace the surface ofYunnan.
And at thetime, I could see how happy local people werebecause, youknow, like people depend on these crops and the things that theyplant.
And alsowildlife. When you see therain, graces the surface ofrainforests, you can just hear and feel how wildlifereacts.
It's like quenching their thirst and finally life is backagain.
So, youknow, needless to say how important the environment is and sort of to slow down if notstop, youknow, the climate change that is happening in front of oureyes.
Right. And also we can see that from all of theseexamples, climate issue isglobal.
We can see cocoa beansactually.
A life in the chocolate world is not getting much easier either as the international cocoa organization predicts that production will trail demand by 374,000 metric tons in the 2023 to 2024season, which is the third straightshortfall.
Chocolate makers have already increased prices toconsumers.
And after three years of poor cocoa harvests with afourth, I expected in the two countries that produce nearly60% of the world's cocoabeans.
And because I've seen actually news about cocoabeans, it's not that ideal as we think because we can see chocolate produces every day and basically all the supermarkets and shoppingmalls.
But actually the production of chocolate or cocoa beans is not thatgood.
And with even worse environment or climateissues, we may face the fact thatwell, maybe in some day people will not have any chocolate produced anymore or chocolate becomes aluxury.
Andwell, this is affecting so many different aspects of the foodindustry.
So how do we live with the reality that there's going to be reduction in yield and rising prices for certain food stuffs assuch?
And it's because of climatechange.
Soyeah, the professor I mentioned just now actually suggests to farmers to kind of sort this out from the origin of theissue, which is to try to cultivate new general types of fruits or cultivate new variations of fruit and vegetable plants so that they become stronger and have better resilience against harsh weather or extreme weather conditions like high temperature ordrought.
Youknow, this is like some fundamental thing that's not only to the farmers who don't necessarily have the scientific knowledge to equip them with whattype, whatspecies, what general types they canget.
But also this is towards all the scientific researchers that's in the field of agricultural development that we can actually start or maybe some of them are already starting to thinkabout, youknow, what they cando, what other variations they can produce orcultivate.
To cope with the current climatechanging, youknow, scenarios that we're facing rightnow.
And another thing that's suggested is to change the planting date because we mentioned how rainfall is sort of delayed in yournon-provence, which kind of delayed the whole flowering season toobecause, youknow, some 20 days were like a month of delay may cause a huge difference in the harvest of thatcrop.
So in cope withthat, maybe we can change the planting date as well just accordingly so that even though the dates arechanged, the the outcome with the harvest can be maximally protected orpreserved.
Soyeah, that's something for the farmers to consider aswell.
And in themeantime, something that's done by the Guangdong authorities this year has proven to be reallyhelpful, which is to develop new post harvest management strategies suchas, youknow, freezing up the fruits if they're overly produced thisyear.
Like forexample, last year in2023, when there were likeabundant, light-sheet production inGuangdong, in southern China's Guangdongprovince, the Guangdongauthorities, they actually froze up over 200 tons of light-sheet with them and advanced rapid freezing techniques that sort of minimized the formation of ice crystals inside the fruit and also preserved the fruit's nutrients andfreshness.
So in thisway, they save up a stock for this year and nowadays the 200 tons frozen light-sheet is now in the market to cope with the supply shortage thisyear.
Oh, that'sawesome. That'sfantastic.
But do you mean that those light-sheets areone-year-old?
Yes.Okay.Well, I hope that's been labeled when you buylight-sheets.
Should it be at a cheaper price point or maybe you should have be at a higher pricepoint?
Well, you know what the consumer wouldprefer.
Ofcourse, I think in some way these 10-month-old light-sheets may alleviate some of the marketdemand.
But I think another aspect is that these technologies can actually help us to have better solutions for some of the issues that we may face in a globalperspective.
Because in thiscase, we know that generally the taste of fruits deteriorates after it wasfrozen.
However, through these special freezingtechnology, these dormant light-sheets actually utilizesphysical, quick freezing coolingmethods.
If that sounds not toounerdy.
So the difference in taste between these light-sheets and fresh ones is not particularly significant as the Academysay, because they are actually using a special technique to make it tastefresh.
So with really advancedtechnology,actually, youknow, it would blow your mind that actually it tastes thatgood.
Andstill, I think proper labeling is always a goodidea.
I do agree that adapting agricultural practices that are suitable for the current climate change is possibly a top priority for those studying the agricultural business and thefield.
So other things that could happen include maybe better soilmanagement, betteragroforestry, also adopt climate smart and sustainable agricultural practices that can help mitigate the impacts of climate change on cropyields.
This all needs a lot moreresearch, needless tosay.
And this is not something that I feel an average farmer could figure out on his or herown.
And this needs more hightech, more guidance from proper research anddevelopment, in myopinion.
Soyeah, in themeantime, I think it will be really helpful if farmers could be informed in advance of what extreme whether they might be facing this year so that they can plan ahead instead of just facing that challenge right at the phase when it happens and don't know what to do with their crop or being totally helpless with the loss of harvestand, youknow, all thatfollows.
So but do you think that'sdoable?
This is not necessarily only relying on whetherforecasts,right?
Like what you see on TV when the weather man or lady sort of tellsyou,oh, this is happeningtomorrow.
This is such and such degreestomorrow.
It's notthat. This is like maybeweeks, if not a month ahead to tell people that this might becoming.
I'm just curious whether that kind of alert system is really inplace, but maybe this is really helpful if you are afarmer.
Yeah, ideally we thinkthat, youknow, forexample, when typhoons are arriving on the Southern Chinesecoast, maybe like ahead of weeks where maybe months ahead of ithappens, like people are already aware of the factthat, youknow, a typhoon iscoming.
So at thatpoint, maybe there's more that we can do ormore.
The farmerscan, youknow, get prepared in advance on how to better protect their crop and also like how to cope with the heavy rainfall orthat's, youknow, estimated to be coming in thatscenario.
So, youknow, I think the earlier we get to know that and the more sophisticated this alarming system gets to beestablished, the better these farmers couldstay.
Yeah. And in the longrun, I think this is going to behelpful.
That's a really goodpoint.
And I'll just say itupfront.
Ireally, I lack professional knowledge in knowing more aboutthat, but it would be sohelpful.
And also during my trip toYunnan, I had this firsthand observation that being a farmer is so difficult when you lookat, let'ssay, the cashewnuts.
Forexample, inSichuan, but notnow, there are villagers planting macadamiannuts, which supposedly enjoy a higher pricepremium.
Andtherefore, farmers can earn a bit more fromthat.
But it takes five years to grow thosenuts.
So justimagine, youknow, all the mood swings that mother earth will exhibit due to climate change during thattime.
So it's really hardwork.
Yeah.Nowadays, so maybe when you're going about shopping for foods orwhatnot, Imean, keep in mind that for this to appear on your dinner table or in your pocket as asnack, so many people have put in so much work for it tohappen.
So maybe also having more sustainable lifestyle choices could be something we can do aswell.
Coming upnext, do memories fade or are they carefullyhidden?
Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of childhood amnesia where the past is veiled in mystery and perhapsprotection.
You're listening to Roundtable withmyself, how young I'm joined by you shun and you shen in thestudio.
In our earlyyears, we were keen observers with curious hearts and activeminds.
However, as we growolder, many of us can relate to the difficulty of recalling memories from before the age of about three orfour, such as our firstwords, forsteps, or even our first birthdayparty.
This phenomenon is known as childhood amnesia or infantileamnesia, and it refers to the inability to remember events from earlylife.
This memory deficit has intrigued psychologists since the 19thcentury, but could it be a natural mechanism designed to protectus?
So what does the researchsay?
Actually, there are many hypothesis tending to fall into twocamps, the storage camp and the retrievalcamp.
So on onehand, some believe that our brains during infancy and early childhood are not fullydeveloped, so they don't retaineverything.
And that's why we may have these kind of fragmented memory when we are recallingit.
And on the otherhand, others believe that our brains actually retain allinformation, but it is deeply stored in yourmemory.
And that requires you certainstimulation, and such as you ate a food that you had when you were ininfant, or to basically have that kind of scenario to triggerthem.
And then you may recall that kind of memory that deeply inside yourbrain.
So these are the two basically main camps of this theory of we cannot recall all of our childhood or infantilememories.
Yeah, and the very funny part that I could resonate with the first camp that we just mentioned that memory storage is fragile and that we simply just don't remember them is that astoddlers, we see now as social media have so many of these online videos toshare.
A lot of thetoddlers, they don't appear to be rememberingthings, but rather they just give reactions towardsthings.
Like forexample, I've seen a video lately that shows how toddlers reactions varies when they see their dad with full beard after their dad shaved their beard with a whole clear face andeverything.
And then the toddler couldn't recognize who that person is at all and they justcry.
So it's so cute to see their reactions and that was just basically all that they were givingreactions.
So they seethings, they react toit, but they don't really link that to how they need to do or what it casts onthem.
So it's something that resonates with the first camp as well that I kind of resonate withit.
We don't really remember things because we were simply reflecting on the things we see as a toddler that we don't keep them as part of the memorynecessarily.
Yes, and also we need to think about the fact of forgettingthings.
Actually, a lot of scientists are saying that it's healthy and natural to actually forget some of ourmemories.
Because excepting certain specialcases, forgetting is not a disease of memory but a healthy state of life and the existence of forgetting in childhood has important positive implications for the psychological development of theindividual.
And also I saw that infact, forgetting irrelevant memories reduces the load on the brain when trying to recall importantinformation, which lays the foundation for chojan to learn a lot knowledge and skills systematically and to develop their individualization andsocialization.
So I think as long as we are not forgetting important things that happened yesterday or when you cannot recall that infantile memory that just basically happened before four years old as Iread, this is a natural process of our braindeveloped, I wouldsay.
So you're kind of looting possibly to the biologicalhypothesis, which posits the hippocampus of young children is too immature to store early memories over the longterm.
SummitKumar, ageneticist, said that babies forget things and it's very natural because their brains with the hippocampus organ stilldeveloping.
And therefore some of that memory loss kind ofoccurs.
A cognitive theory posits that because when babies haven't acquired language skills just jet and therefore their abilities to encode and express autobiographical events is just notpossible.
Andtherefore, youknow, during that whole developmentprocess,then, youknow, it affects how you expressyourself,obviously, and how you rememberthings.
Yes. And also I was thinking evenadults.
Even they have that memories when they have grownup, but if you don't trigger that very frequently or I think that is basically the theory of people memorizingthings, if you don't trigger the memory and bring on a like a regularbasis, it will be forgotten in your brainanyway.
So that is the wonder of humanbrain, Ithink.
Right. So we've pretty much covered the storage versus the retrieval camp ofexplanation.
Why thishappens. And that brings us to the end of today'sshow.
Thank you somuch. You Shen and you should for joining thediscussion.
