Understanding and Reporting the Transformation from Soil to Table | Foodthink Media Workshop Call for Applications

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Over the last forty years, and particularly the last decade, China’s food system has undergone seismic shifts. Many of us have observed and experienced this: traditional wet markets are quietly vanishing from mainstream life, replaced by fresh-food e-commerce and online shopping as the primary sources for urban dwellers; cheap delivery services now dominate the daily meals of city folk;

Restaurants are increasingly relying on pre-prepared meals;

Processed foods have become a daily staple for many, including children; the natural flavours of vegetables and meats are gradually giving way to the taste of standardised seasonings;

We can buy produce from increasingly distant locations, yet finding seasonal, local food producers and suppliers has become harder—we are entering a more industrialised and commercialised food system.

However, within the public sphere—and the media in particular—there has been far too little discussion regarding the causes and consequences of these trends. This is especially true for the following questions:

  • How do farmers—especially smallholders—participate in and be affected by the transformations of the food system, both as producers and consumers?
  • How does the food system contribute to climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and other environmental crises?
  • What are the differences in the environmental, social, and economic costs behind different patterns and choices of food consumption?
  • What policies can governments implement to address these issues and create a more sustainable and equitable food system?
  • What actions can consumers take to proactively improve our food system? …
As an independent, non-profit exchange platform focused on China’s food system, Foodthink plans to host an in-person media workshop in Beijing from 18 to 20 August. We invite media professionals to join us in discussing the changes in the food systems around us, sharing the challenges facing Chinese agriculture, the dilemmas of food consumption, and the actions we can take as both media practitioners and consumers. The workshop will feature scholars and practitioners from relevant fields sharing their latest research and experiences with journalists. It will also include a day of field visits, where participants can choose to visit small-scale ecological farms in Beijing, farmers’ markets, wholesale markets, wet markets, highly popular “internet-famous” county fairs in the suburbs, and waste treatment facilities. We are now recruiting 25 media professionals from the general public. You might be a journalist or editor from a media organisation interested in food, agriculture, and sustainability; a freelance writer looking to add new perspectives to your work; or a video creator or podcaster searching for new stories. We look forward to meeting new partners and finding more opportunities for exchange and mutual learning!

Event Schedule and Location

Date and Time

18–20 August 2023, full days

(Friday, Saturday, Sunday)

Location

Beijing

*Specific venue to be announced

Workshop Guests

Lü Zhi

Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Peking University; Executive Director of the Center for Nature Conservation and Social Development, Peking University; Vice President of the China Association for Women Science and Technology; Founder of the Shan Shui Conservation Center; and Advisory Board Member for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030. In addition to her long-term research in conservation biology, Professor Lü has engaged in extensive practice and reflection on sustainable development and the relationship between agriculture and nature.

Liu Juan

Associate Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the College of Humanities and Development, China Agricultural University, and Executive Editor of *World Development*. Her primary research interests include environmental sociology and political ecology, international development and agricultural policy change, and rural development and rural revitalisation. In recent years, Liu has published a series of works on climate and environmental justice, agri-food systems, and farmers’ perspectives within rural revitalisation. Her papers on global environmental justice are consistently highly cited, and her co-authored book, *Rural Revitalisation from the Farmers’ Perspective*, has had a broad social and policy impact.

Zhong Shuru

Anthropologist. Professor Zhong’s research spans gastronomic tourism, sustainable food systems, and food culture. She focuses particularly on the food system traditions of the Pearl River Delta and the significance of similar practice systems—those that eschew the binaries of East/West or traditional/modern—for our daily lives.

Li Xueshi

PhD in Sociology from Michigan State University. He previously conducted sociological research on organic food at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Currently, he is with the General Education Department at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, where he serves as the project lead for “Alternative food systems, standards, and sustainability”. His research fields include the sociology of food, environmental sociology, and Science, Technology and Society (STS).

Li Guanqi

Head of the Eastern Office of the Farmers’ Seed Network, responsible for ecological breeding pilots and the promotion of seeds and ecological agriculture across the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai regions. He serves as the coordinator for the “Lianhe Plan” micro-grant project focusing on agricultural biodiversity, jointly initiated by Foodthink and the Farmers’ Seed Network.

Breaking Free from Plastic

Established in 2018, this environmental organisation is dedicated to driving solutions to plastic pollution. Through corporate advocacy, public awareness campaigns, and policy recommendations, it works to eliminate plastic pollution from our daily lives and the environment. Their slogan is “Together towards a future without plastic pollution”.

Further experts and practitioners will also be attending the workshop

Site Visit Overview 

Xinfadi Agricultural Products Wholesale Market

As one of Asia’s largest agricultural wholesale markets, Xinfadi supplies almost all of Beijing’s fresh vegetables and various food staples, serving as a concentrated symbol of our current food system. However, many may only have heard its name during a specific pandemic outbreak in 2020. Led by scholars and veteran journalists, we will visit Xinfadi in the dead of night to understand how Beijing’s “vegetable basket” operates and explore the changes occurring in this sector in recent years.

Traditional Rural Markets on the Outskirts of Beijing

Since last year, traditional markets—including those on the outskirts of Beijing—have become “trending” spots. In recent years, countless vegetable markets have followed suit, becoming social media sensations. But can the younger generation truly connect with the ecosystem of a traditional market? And what unique social and economic value do such markets and stalls possess that is irreplaceable?

Ecological Farms around Beijing

Beyond large-scale, certified organic farms, there is a group of farmers who, though operating on a smaller scale, are equally committed to eco-friendly production. What does the production and sale of small-scale ecological agriculture look like, and how does it differ from mainstream organic farming? How do external uncertainties impact these farms? To answer specific questions about this “alternative” method of production, we have invited farmers working on the front line to share their experiences.

Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market

The Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market was launched by a group of volunteer consumers. Its goal is to provide a platform where organic farmers can communicate and interact directly with consumers. This helps consumers find safe, reliable products while helping farmers expand their market channels, encouraging more farmers to adopt organic practices. This, in turn, reduces environmental pollution caused by chemical fertilisers and pesticides, safeguards food security, and puts fair trade into practice. Since September 2010, the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market has hosted over 1,000 market events and currently operates two community shops and an online store.

Integrated Waste Treatment Facilities

As the final stage of the food system, China produces 100 million tonnes of food waste annually. The food and catering industries simultaneously generate vast quantities of other waste; the food delivery sector alone produces 1.6 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. How much pressure does this place on the environment and waste management systems? Under what conditions can this waste be rendered harmless or repurposed as a resource?

Reporting Support and Awards for Food and Agriculture Pioneers

Can the media take on the responsibility of broadening horizons and responding to public concerns against the backdrop of a transforming food system? This is the original intention behind our workshop. We sincerely hope that media outlets of all sizes can use their reporting to venture into little-explored territories, filling the gaps in our basic imagination of these issues and supporting a shared space for the discussion of public affairs. We will also select outstanding independent creators from among the workshop participants and provide grants ranging from 3,000 to 20,000 RMB based on their reporting plans. Following this workshop, Foodthink will establish the Food-Agri Pioneer Reporting Award to recognise excellent reporting in the food and agriculture sector this year, with a particular emphasis on in-depth journalism. At that time, priority will be given to submissions and recommendations from workshop members; we also look forward to more media professionals joining us in organising and judging the awards.

Registration

Eligibility

Media professionals and independent content creators focusing on agriculture, food, environment, health, society, and intersecting issues. Applicants must be able to guarantee full attendance for the three-day duration.

Application Deadline

23:59, 11 August 2023

Participation in the workshop is free. On the 18th and 20th, the organisers will provide zero-waste lunches and dinners made from ingredients sourced from small-scale ecological farmers.

Foodthink will cover travel expenses for non-local participants, including return high-speed rail, hard-sleeper trains, or economy class flights to Beijing, as well as four nights’ accommodation from the 17th to the 20th. The venue, accommodation arrangements, and schedule will be communicated to participants separately upon confirmation.

Please click here to fill in your registration details

We will contact applicants by telephone or email by 15 August to confirm whether the application was successful.

Special Thanks 

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Sustainable Catering Provided by

Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market

Workshop Special Planner: Qi Ran

Editor: Wang Hao

Published by Foodthink