2-year-old Little Mo goes into the field to pick up golden apple snails and help his scientist parents with their experiments

Summer is the harvest season, and the countryside is made dazzlingly beautiful by patches of golden rice ears, yet the pink pearls stuck to the green rice stalks stand out as an jarring presence on this canvas. Walking along a field path, the just-over-2-year-old Little Mo waves a stalk of rice straw in his hand and, in a babyish, "milk-toothed" voice, tells his parents straight out: "There are pink golden apple snail egg clusters over there, we need to get rid of them."

In Little Mo's childhood, golden apple snails have taken up more than half his time. Before he was even one year old, he was already following his parents into the fields, because he has a pair of scientist-farmer parents who launched the "Golden Apple Snail Be Gone Plan."

The Yilan couple, farmers Lin Fangyi and Chen Yihan, are one a PhD in wildlife conservation from the United States and the other a master's graduate in biology from the United States. After Lin Fangyi returned to Taiwan from the United States the year before last, she did postdoctoral research at National Taiwan University. Although her academic path was steady, a thought often arose in her: "What can all this research and analysis actually do?" In addition, hoping to give their child a better environment to grow up in and to be self-sufficient, after deep thought she resolutely paused her academic research. Introduced by a friend, she and Chen Yihan took their then only 8-month-old daughter to Yilan to farm.

Perhaps because they often came into contact with wild organisms, although they had no rice-growing experience, they quickly blended into the rhythm of rural life, and did not find it hard even to carry their child on their back into the fields. "And she cooperates very well. When we go into the fields, she doesn't cry or fuss, and plays by herself beside us," Lin Fangyi said, feeling very touched by her daughter's obedience. Through such constant exposure, the child knew from an early age that the pink speckled egg clusters "need to be stepped on to death."

Lin Fangyi and Chen Yihan's child "Little Little Mo" has followed his parents to pick up golden apple snails since he was small (photo provided by Lin Fangyi)