The environmental and soil impacts of agricultural inputs and pollution issues.
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…
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…
I. Debunking the Myth of Western Modern Agriculture There is a familiar paradigm of social progress: humanity advanced from hunting and gathering and slash-and-burn cultivation to settled agriculture, and then from intensive smallholder farming to large-scale industrialised agriculture. But did history truly unfold in this manner? Is large-scale monoculture really…
Weeds are not the ‘other’; weeds are us. — Michael Pollan, Weeds: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants Since last year, I have visited over a dozen ecological farms across the country with the Foodthink team, travelling from Beijing to the coastal cities of the Yangtze River Delta, and…
I. Crash Behind the Black Box In the summer of 2024, on the second day of my return to my hometown in Northeast China to research agricultural drones, a machine in the neighbouring village crashed mid-operation, catching on a power line. Crashes are commonplace, affecting not just agricultural drones…
We tend to assume that provided produce passes inspection, is thoroughly washed, prepared at home and kept from spoiling, what ends up on our plates will be wholesome and natural. We scrutinise the origins of our meat and the ingredient lists on our condiments. Surely, there shouldn’t be any oversights?…
At first light, Yang Ge’s drone had already been working in the rice fields for some time. As a drone pilot, he holds the “life-and-death power” over some 2,000 mu of crops. Wearing a wide-brimmed hat that leaves only his eyes visible, he operates a remote control that records flight…
Recently, Cai Guo-Qiang and Arc’teryx sparked controversy with a “mountain-blasting” art project in the Himalayas that damaged the fragile plateau ecosystem. The relationship between humanity and nature, alongside the exploration of local culture, were featured prominently in the promotional material for the fireworks display. Yet a performance that markets nature…
I.Leaving it All Behind to Farm On an ordinary morning, walking into the passion fruit fields, I saw vines heavy with golden fruit. The saplings we’d planted at the end of March were already yielding a second flush of blooms, and bees hard at work with pollination hummed steadily around…
Foodthink Says Globally, a growing number of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners are championing and adopting the concept of “agroecology”. While this term may still feel somewhat unfamiliar in Chinese-speaking contexts, it is frequently translated as “ecological farming”. Yet “ecological farming” falls far short of capturing the rich, multifaceted nature of…
