As the Chinese New Year approaches, demands for lots of food stuff begin to increase, especially this dried vegetable (more like lichen) called the 'Fatt Choy'. This 'vegetable' is called a 'Fatt Choy' because its outlook very much resembles human hair (in Cantonese called 'Fatt'). 'Fatt Choy' also sounds like 'Prosperity', that is why this 'vegetable' is in high demand during the Chinese New Year.
What probed me to write this is when i read the papers of a lady, grinning from ear-to-ear when she finally found her 'Fatt Choy' which she has been searching for 2years!
The reason to the 'Fatt Choy' being so hard to find is because the Chinese government has limited its harvesting. WHY? Because when this plant is being removed from the ground, the surface soil is no longer bound together. This makes the soil vulnerable to wind and water erosion, causing it to eventually become sand, or in a large scale - Desert.
Extensive harvesting has already resulted in the desertification of large areas in Northern China - Mongolian steppes and the Gobi Desert.
Another scary fact which I read in one of the Chinese papers years ago is that, in order to obtain 1kg of this 'Fatt Choy', one football field of land is being eroded and eventually turned into desert. That is real scary stuff, as 3 families can easily consume 1kg of 'Fatt Choy', think about all the chinese families around the world and how many football fields of lands are being eroded. I think it is absolutely freaky!
The only reason the Chinese eat this is because the name of the plant sounds like 'Prosperity'. But does it really bring one prosperity?
Nevertheless, Gung Hei Fatt Choy!
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