Grain Rain ( guyu 谷雨 ) has arrived; the showers nurture the fields as the countryside enters the busiest and most vibrant season of the year. After a fortnight of quietude, Foodthink is also taking this solar term as a moment to begin anew. Riding on the season’s rains, we…
On 4 April last year, Foodthink published a “collection of deleted articles”. Since then, each time a piece was taken down, the team would console themselves with an inside joke: “We’ve already got another ‘404ed 404’ for next year.” But the 404s over the past two years aren’t entirely the…
How did an organisation focused on insect ecology start caring about farmers’ livelihoods? And how did an organisation focused on livelihoods end up writing a “Song of the Fly“? How did a man from Shanxi become a “male Women’s Director” in a Yunnan village? Why is a top genetic engineering…
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,…
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…
On 7 February 2026, after a two-year hiatus, “Occupying the Collective Room” returned, successfully evolving into the Foodthink Annual Meeting. Over the course of 12 hours, we used selling vegetables as a hands-on way to immerse ourselves in the food and farming system. Eight Foodthink members traded their roles as…
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,…
“Is there truly nothing else left to eat?” “Snowpiercer was far too prescient!” Just yesterday, after seeing a journalist visit an American cockroach farm and drink a cup of crispy cockroach coffee, netizens voiced this piercing question. Picture this: alongside the American cockroach, countless yellow mealworms and black soldier fly…
This is Foodthink’s final post of 2025. Surprise—no year-end roundup! (The honest truth? It hasn’t been dug out of the drafts yet, so please dial again later…) Why not take a look at the fun we got up to at the recent Guangdong Harvest Festival! Co-Creating Climate Sci-Fi Thanks to…
Have you ever fantasised about fleeing the city, returning to the countryside to farm, and embracing rural life? Have you ever harboured romantic notions of a “self-sufficient” existence? Yet real life on the land is far more complex and arduous than we imagine—and infinitely more moving. Wenzizi and Changjiaoling are…