Those who have studied permaculture will likely be familiar with the name Sepp Holzer. As a pioneer in the field, Holzer is almost a household name in Austria, and his book *Holzer’s Permaculture* has long served as a foundational guide for enthusiasts worldwide. This June, I travelled to Krameterhof, the…

Foodthink Says During the targeted poverty alleviation drive, and in an effort to rapidly secure prosperity for the peasantry, the government of Gong County (pseudonym) introduced greenhouse vegetable cultivation, a venture with strong market returns. Subsidy schemes were rolled out in a bid to integrate this crop into the livelihood…

Thriving industries form a vital foundation for rural revitalisation. Perhaps inspired by Shouguang in Shandong, the primary focus for agricultural development in rural areas across central and western China has often been the promotion of greenhouse vegetable cultivation. Gong County (a pseudonym) in the central region exemplifies this trend. A…

In Russian, summer is also known as “dacha season”. Maxim Gorky wrote a short play that was translated into Chinese as *The Summer Visitors*; its original Russian title, *Dachniki*, is more literally rendered as “Dacha Dwellers”—in 1995, the same story was adapted into a film titled *Summer People*. The dacha…

“Whenever I travel to a new place, the first thing I do upon arrival is ask the locals where the market is.” In June, much as food writer Han Liangyi describes in *Wandering Through Markets Around the World*, I embarked on a market tour of Barcelona, Spain. Rather than the…

In this episode of *Food Talk*, we welcome back an old friend, Sun Shan. She previously worked with several charitable organisations, including the Shanshui Conservation Centre. These days, she runs her own farm in Canada. Far from the idyllic notion of spending every waking moment in nature, ecological conservation work…

Did you know that, according to research published in *The Lancet*, two-thirds of the world’s population have some degree of lactose intolerance, developing symptoms such as bloating and diarrhoea after consuming milk? Given this, why has milk become a daily drink enjoyed worldwide? And when did glasses of pure, tempting…

Earlier this year, four years after moving to the Netherlands, my partner and I finally rented a hectare of land in Utrecht province, and I began working on my farm. Before I decided to set up a farm, I completed placements at several small organic farms in the Netherlands. During…

Since 6 April, Damao Banner in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has been hit by almost daily sandstorms. The worst hit was on the 10th, when a storm persisted for nearly five hours, obscuring the sun with blowing sand and leaving the interior of houses in gloom. “We had…

Twenty hours later, my feet finally touched down, sinking into the deep snow of Lapland, northern Sweden. It was seven in the morning, and the skies above Jokkmokk had yet to fully brighten, yet the glare reflecting off the surrounding white expanse was already sufficient to make out the silhouettes…