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Professor
Steven
Schneebaum
and Jung
Hwa Song ’11
Professor steven schneebaum gave
a breakfast talk to alumni on “what
is this Case Doing Here? Human
Rights litigation in u.s. Courts”
on October 5 in the sais Rome
Building. �
In Washington, D.C., Vincent
Wei-cheng Wang ’86 and Anna
Yu-chia Ho ’12
Vincent wei-cheng wang ’86 gave
a breakfast talk to alumni on “taiwan’s
2012 elections and implications
for taiwan-China-u.s. Relations”
on november 2 in the sais
Rome Building. �
ReFleCtions
The Scent of
Sustainability
The scent industry
is arguably the
world’s single best
example of agricultural
sustainability
and a positive feedback
loop for farmers and
the earth. You could say
i am biased—i am the
former perfume critic
for The New York Times
and the new curator
at the Department of
Olfactory art at the
museum of arts and
Design in new York
City—but the facts are
pretty clear.
the industry’s raw
materials are grown
around the world: the
astringent grass vetiver
in Haiti, geranium leaf
in Rwanda, patchouli
in indonesia, pink peppercorn
in Peru, cedar
in morocco. scentmaker
companies buy
these from farmers and
harvesters, distill and
extract them, and their
perfumers then put
them into the perfumes
of Hermès, Ralph
lauren and Chanel.
take laotian benzoin,
for example. One
of the world’s best scentmaterials
companies,
the switzerland-based
Givaudan, realized that
its supply of the special—and
beautiful—
tree that produces this
resin was disappearing.
the company took a
close look at northeastern
laos and found the
reasons: the region was
severely deforested, and
the soil was depleted.
alumni news & notes
A village in northeastern Laos
Givaudan’s experts,
including a perfumer,
went to laos and, with
botanists and agronomists
from their local
partner agroforex,
revolutionized local
agriculture. they had
villagers pioneering an
agricultural approach
that combined rice, red
ginger and Styrax tonkinensis
trees, the source
of benzoin. For the first
four years, villagers
could harvest the rice
and red ginger, which
would enrich the soil
and provide income.
the rice and ginger
would then be planted
in separate fields, and,
after seven years, villagers
could start to collect
benzoin gum from new
trees. On top of these
agricultural benefits,
Givaudan built two
local secondary schools
and funded them for
their first two years.
Benzoin, the villagers’
only significant
source of currency, is
back. the land is productive
again, the villagers
have both a school
and their livelihoods,
and Givaudan has reliable
sourcing for this
unique incense and can
put it in perfumes for
armani, Prada or Dior.
we buy these scents
and, in doing so, send
money to farmers and
their families in northeastern
laos. unlike so
many major industries,
from petroleum to mining
to manufacturing,
the scent industry only
functions if it sustains
nature.
it gathers and bottles
these beautiful materials
from around the earth.
every bottle of perfume
contains a world.
—Chandler Burr ’90
2011–2012 89