Rural revitalization, rural infrastructure, social change, and public services.
Shaanxi is experiencing its worst drought since 1961. In May, at a workshop in Xianyang, Foodthink visited ecological farms and discussed climate technologies and pathways for social organisations, seeking ways to help farmers face climate disasters with preparedness and support.
In April this year, Foodthink and the Guangxi Climate Change Action Network held a workshop in Nanning where farmers, social organisations and funders explored concrete pathways for rural climate response amid the tangled interplay of drought and flood, pests and disease, market swings and policy constraints.
On World Book Day, Foodthink brings together recommendations from its editors, authors and fellow travellers in the field — over ten books that, unbidden, converge on the most fundamental connection between people and food, land and the natural environment.
Sister Yan Ping at Baicao Garden, Guigang, Guangxi, refuses herbicides on fifty mu of Wogan mandarins, making labour a practice of nurturing body and mind; Uncle Youming of the White Pants Yao in Nandan keeps a seed bank for heirloom rice, preserving his people’s rootedness in the land.
Shu Shiwei, who spent a decade in the countryside, founded Green Sprout to document Taichung fruit growers’ stories of transformation. Each issue is printed in a thousand copies, most given away free; the magazine has sustained over 100 issues on reader sponsorship and unpaid contributions.
Farmer Lu Rongyan trialled chayote shoots from local heirloom varieties in Guzhai Yao Ethnic Township, Mashan, lifting income for elderly and women who stayed; cultivation hit 2,000 mu in five years. Last year’s alternating floods and droughts cut seed-fruit supply, putting seed-saving and diversified cropping on the agenda.
Rooted in Heshun, Shanxi, for a decade, Maomeng protects the North China leopard’s habitat through ecological agriculture without chemical fertilisers or pesticides. Project lead Hannah tells how a single cornfield connects leopard populations, villagers and the urban public.
Qiaoyi’s family in Ruyuan, Shaoguan, moved from the deep Nanling Mountains to beside Danxia Airport. In summer, colony after colony of wild termite mushrooms lets the Guoshan Yao carry on their days living with the mountains and forests in the gaps of urbanisation.
In 2011, Yu Jiangang took part in rural development in Zhuang villages in Longzhou, Guangxi. In 2024, he returned to Bangui hamlet to find the water buffalo all but vanished, the village school down to just 5 pupils, and the village still living to its own rhythm.
Drawing on cracked dry land in Chongqing and flood-hit Hebei villages, Liu Juan, Associate Professor at China Agricultural University, argues that rural climate adaptation is trapped by ageing labour, unprofitable farming and other fundamental problems. The answer is comprehensive social mechanisms, not treating climate as a siloed issue.
