Extreme weather, agricultural carbon emissions, adaptation, and mitigation strategies.
The 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) has opened in Dubai. While humanity continues to squabble over how to shoulder the burden of saving the planet—over who should bear the costs, and who must step outside their comfort zones to transform entrenched…
Torrential rain, flooding, typhoons, droughts… Under the threat of climate change, farmers are invariably the first to bear the brunt of the damage. Yet what is often overlooked is that, in seeking to avert these losses, they are also the most proactive in taking adaptive measures. Last year, the International…
Leaving from Beijing Chaoyang Station, we took a little over an hour on the high-speed rail to Pingquan North Station in Chengde, Hebei Province. Yingying Ren, the matriarch of Lianxiang Farm, was already waiting for us outside the station. Yingying is petite, with her hair swept back in a neat,…
Before winding eastwards into Beijing’s urban centre, the Yongding River traces a series of U-shaped bends through the hills. The villages of Longjiazhuang and Shuiyuzui lie on opposite banks, linked by a single road bridge. From 29 July to 2 August, extreme rainfall across the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region caused the Yongding…
Is the shift towards warmer and wetter conditions in China’s northwestern region a benefit or a detriment to local agriculture? The instinctive reaction among many is that increased moisture is a positive development for the arid inland northwest—after all, access to water means more crops can be cultivated. Yet the…
In recent days, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, still reeling from the aftermath of the heaviest rainfall in six decades, has once again been gripped by heatwaves following the start of autumn. This summer has truly been a trial by fire and flood, reminding the public yet again of the formidable power…
Foodthink is a community dedicated to knowledge, information and writing on sustainable food and agriculture, co-founded and managed by a group of long-standing practitioners and researchers in the field. Since our launch in August 2017, we have connected with nearly 200 outstanding researchers and practitioners across China and internationally. Together,…
In late June, while travelling by car to Jiangbutasi village in eastern Altay, Xinjiang, we kept coming across Kazakh herders on horseback driving their livestock to summer pastures. Vehicles frequently had to pull over to let the herds pass. This is now the migration season for herders. Herders in the…
Recently, reports of Henan’s ‘rotting-field rain’ and the frantic rush to harvest wheat have swept across social media, striking a chord with everyone who follows agriculture. The Guanzhong region of Shaanxi, another major wheat-growing area, endured the same downpours almost simultaneously with Henan, and the outlook for its wheat crops…
In recent years, more and more people have turned to specialty coffee. It is genuinely fascinating, is it not? Some cups taste of chocolate, others bring to mind the bright pop of crackling candy, and still others carry the aroma of black tea. Then again, coffee can occasionally leave you…
