Foodthink says McDonald’s wears two faces. Once a beloved children’s playground, it is now a fast-food grindhouse for young wage earners. It is as much a small-scale factory as it is a place to dine. McDonald’s kitchens are open-plan, yet they conceal a highly precise production workflow. Within…
Over the past few years, a growing number of food companies have begun to publicise their emission reduction targets and environmental contributions, and food packaging has increasingly featured marketing terms such as ‘sustainable’, ‘recyclable’, ‘low-carbon’ and ‘climate-friendly’. These claims are designed to persuade consumers that simply purchasing the product…
Author’s Note When I first drafted this in October 2024, it was heavy with emotion. I couldn’t quite grasp how the company operated; I was angry, resentful. Revising the piece this year, after my own “baptism of fire” at another state-owned enterprise, those incidents now seem fairly unremarkable in hindsight.…
We must make hope more plausible than despair; only then can we walk the path to peace. — Raymond Williams Soon after the raid on Venezuela, on 28 February 2026, US forces struck a primary school in Iran, killing at least 175 people, the majority of…
As extreme weather shifts from ‘news’ to ‘the everyday’, we need action rooted in the land and driven by real needs more than ever. In late April this year, Foodthink officially launched the sixth round of the Lianhe Project small (action) grants. We aim to uncover locally…
In recent years, dining concepts such as “pop-up kitchens” and “shared-table suppers” have been gaining traction. As a former chef, I was eager to give it a try. After all, isn’t this the dream of anyone with a passion for cooking: to prepare meals exactly to your own taste,…
Foodthink says Rescue operations in Guangxi’s flood-hit regions are ongoing. In Hengzhou, Nanning—the epicentre of the disaster—floodwaters have swept through jasmine, rice, sugarcane and banana plantations, as well as aquaculture and pig farming. Yet, just over the past two years, Heng County was strengthening its agricultural irrigation infrastructure, and…
After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in 2025, I did not rush to secure a stable job. Instead, I spent time meandering in search of my own vision of a good life. Having grown up amidst cramped flats and concrete, I have come to realise that nature can both…
16 June 2026 marks the fifth anniversary of Wuren Valley. With the rain clearing and the sky fresh, I hurried to the roof to take some photographs. The forecast calls for continuous rain; according to the old saying, this twenty-day stretch—ten days before and ten days after—is the ‘Dragon…
1 Peak Straw Burning Ban Season It was clear to everyone that the crop straw burning ban had suddenly meant business. Set in 2025, Village A is located in the heart of the Dongting Lake basin in Hunan Province. The flat terrain makes it a…
