Standard Bank’s Farm Visit

On October 23, 2011, the employees of Standard Bank and Shanghai R&S paid a visit to BIOFarm Shanghai to learn more about organic planting.

At first, accompanied by the farm staff, the employees of Standard Bank learned about the distinctions between a normal farm and an organic farm: organic farms are based around principles of respecting the environment and use the earth’s natural recycling cycles. They also utilize natural insecticides found in plants such as Rosemary and Vanilla to naturally eliminate pests.

After that, under the guidance of of R&S, everybody played a game called “The Life of Milk”. During the game, volunteers draw a diagram depicting where milk comes from and where it goes.  Every one of the staff members depicted respect for the environment and natural recycling in organic farms very accurately, so they resulted with a magnificent drawing.

After lunch, the staff members of Standard Bank mastered the concept of earth worm composting and learned how to pot plants. When potting, every staff planted different varieties of seeds. We hope these plants will grow together, just like the idea of organic gardening will in our hearts.

Lastly, the staff of Standard Bank experienced both the hardships of harvesting the eggplants and the happiness after they finished. They harvested a 300 square meters area of eggplant in just one hour; the farmers were quite impressed by the employees work. 

After the the day was over, we thought that the ideas of organic recycling and respecting the environment should for sure be engraved in the Standard Bank employees hearts and minds, and would hopefully spread out.  Just like Dr. Jane Goodall once said: ”Everyone is important, everyone can play an important role, and everyone can bring changes.” We just need to start with ourselves, then the earth will inevitably improve because of every single person’s collective contributions.

(Translated by WFLMS Crunchy Zoo Language Club)