Food production, farmers, rural society, and agroecological practices.
Foodthink says Mashu Town, Qiaojia County, Yunnan Province, is the country’s second-largest summer strawberry-growing base. The area was only recently removed from the list of deeply impoverished counties. The author of this piece met a strawberry worker born in the 1990s here — unusual among the mostly middle-aged and…
16 June 2026 marked the fifth anniversary of Evil Valley’s founding. The skies had just cleared after the rain, so I rushed up to the roof to take photos. The forecast called for continuous rain—ten days before and ten days after. The old way of putting it is that…
In 2019, when Chen Xi first visited Qiandongnan in Guizhou, she was captivated by the paddy fields and rice of Yangdong Village. At the time, she had only just returned from the United States, where she had lived for eleven years, and was working in a Beijing office…
Foodthink says Globally, there are 75.6 million domestic workers, 76.2% of whom are women. Just 6% enjoy comprehensive social security. In China, those who have mastered the art of cooking, cleaning and caregiving are commonly known as “ayi” or “baomu”. In major cities, they shoulder the domestic burdens of…
My grandmother, Yang Xiuying, is seventy-four years old. Weighing under 40 kg and standing less than a metre and a half tall, she began heading into the hills each day ahead of the Qingming Festival to dig for and gather bamboo shoots. She combed through seven or eight nearby…
This year’s bayberry scandal has thrust this highly seasonal, delicate fruit into the spotlight. Whether they’ve been soaked in preservatives, which chemicals are legal, whether they pose any health risks, or what counts as a safe threshold—I’m entirely indifferent. It’s not that I don’t eat bayberries; it’s simply…
Foodthink says Across the world, large-scale, mechanised farming has seen high-yielding monocultures displace many of the crop varieties that once thrived in the fields. Small-scale farming culture now appears to be relegated to the status of agricultural heritage, destined to be consigned to the past. But is this really…
Heading to the town market, I found two snack stalls within three paces. One stall was run by a local elderly woman. She has a permanent spot in the market, sitting on a low stool by a pot of hot oil, frying and selling dengzhangao (traditional Fujian fried…
Late March in Tongchuan still holds a cool chill. There have been two showers over the past few days, light and intermittent as they were, but the dampness clings to the air. At last the skies cleared, and just after seven in the morning, Hongxia headed up the…
A note from Foodthink Can an urban professional rebuild their life and career in the countryside? Chen Xi, a former consultant who grew up in Beijing and spent a decade living and working in the United States, travelled to a Dong village in Guizhou for a water quality survey.…
