Food production, farmers, rural society, and agroecological practices.
At around 7 a.m., 65-year-old Sister Zhen arrives at the sugarcane field. She clips her heavily scratched smartphone to a cane stalk, connects to her neighbour’s Wi-Fi, and opens Douyin. Under her breath, she runs through the steps: “Tap the plus sign, swipe left, go live.” The camera is pointed…
Having left the small village where every household practised fermentation for so long, and drifted too long in the uncertainties of city life, I had lost a measure of my own vitality. This is something I have only recently come to realise. For years, fermentation was nothing more than a…
Last year, standing by a field edge in Yunnan’s hills, I saw rice for the first time sprouting directly from level soil, with no flooded paddies or irrigation ditches in sight. For many, rice is inextricably linked to flooded paddies. Yet it can just as easily be cultivated on dry,…
Foodthink Says On 17 January 2026, Mercosur (including nations such as Argentina and Brazil, hereafter referred to as Mercosur) and the European Union formally signed a free trade agreement in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. Prior to the signing, the pact had already sparked widespread protests among European farmers. They…
Foodthink Says In 1948, the central government decided to import tractors from the Soviet Union to bring the vast, untamed lands of Beidahuang under cultivation. At the same time, to train agricultural machinery operators, a tractor driver training programme was launched at the Beian Reclamation Area in Heilongjiang. Eighteen-year-old Liang…
I. Climate Change in the No. 1 Document For the first time, the term “low-carbon agriculture” appears in the 2026 Central No. 1 Document. Nearly six years have passed since China announced its “dual carbon” goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality to tackle climate change. This does not mark…
Last April, we moved our Hangzhou studio to the ground floor of an older residential compound with a certain sense of history, gaining a small courtyard in the process. A narrow band of soil runs around the yard; positioned at the front and facing south, it gets excellent sunlight. Though…
I. Almost Left After years back in my hometown, I once seriously considered leaving this village altogether. Starting a few years ago, all the fields in the village were leased to larger farms. In our Jiangnan village, known as the “Chrysanthemum Village,” we are the only family still growing chrysanthemums…
On the final day of the holidays, treat yourself to one more light and refreshing dish. The Herigeobi herders’ gently simmered free-range mutton is simple to prepare, yet anyone who has tasted mutton from their year-round migratory flocks invariably praises it and cannot put down their chopsticks. Across the grasslands…
Looking back at 2025, what news about food and agriculture left the deepest impression on you? Was it the struggle to harvest crops amidst the relentless rains of North China, the delivery platform wars, the heated debates over pre-prepared meals that nearly sparked violence, or…? Over the past year, Foodthink,…
