Food production, farmers, rural society, and agroecological practices.
For over six months, Dutch farmers have been protesting against nitrogen reduction policies. Amid this unrest, the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, or BBB)—widely seen as a pro-farmer party—emerged as a dark horse in the Netherlands’ March regional elections. Founded just four years ago, the BBB not only captured nearly 20% of…
“I have a thought, though I’m not sure if it will be of any use?” The grandmother and the former steward simultaneously fixed their gaze on her. She explained, “Our household is busiest in the spring and largely idle in autumn. Why not take this opportunity to trade in Hangbai…
In Europe and Japan, there is a long tradition of educating children through nature and agriculture. Every year, primary school pupils are taken by their schools into the fields to learn how to sow seeds, tend crops, and prepare food. From the classroom to the great outdoors, and from spring…
Foodthink Says Last Monday, we shared why more than a dozen young people decided to hit pause on their city lives. So why, instead of choosing to ‘lie flat’, have they headed to the countryside to learn farming and embrace a more labour-intensive, challenging way of life? Here are a…
This episode was recorded in the Alxa desert in Inner Mongolia by Qihua, Foodthink’s researcher for climate change and ecological smallholder farming, together with two guests. Recorded at the end of August 2022, the three of them sat beneath a large tree in a Tengger Desert oasis. In the background,…
Foodthink Says In Inner Mongolia, where the vast majority of pastoral families have settled into fixed grazing patterns, the grasslands are criss-crossed by wire fences. Consequently, there has been a rise in cases of stomach perforation from ingested wire among cattle and sheep. Meanwhile, in the Banners of Ordos, where…
I. Tang and Wen make their home in a valley threaded by a stream. The watercourse is modest, running at about half a metre deep, but it flows all year round and is even marked on maps. Heading south, it merges with several other waterways before feeding into the Ohio…
Foodthink’s Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme was originally conceived to foster a mutual learning and collaborative relationship between young people keen to return home and pursue ecological farming, and seasoned growers who have already amassed rich hands-on experience. The aim was to help the next generation of farmers reduce the trial-and-error…
Author’s Note My partner, Mr Panghu, and I live in a small town in the Great Lakes region of the American Midwest. The local farmers’ market was founded nearly thirty years ago, and we have witnessed over a decade of its history. This series of short pieces aims to document…
Foodthink Says Temperatures have risen noticeably recently, and many fellow farmers across the north are about to end their winter off-season and begin spring ploughing. Yet for herders on the steppes, the winter and early spring lambing and calving season is the busiest time of the year. It is also…
