Food production, farmers, rural society, and ecological farming practices.
I. The Seed Bottleneck Farmers in Guzai Yao Ethnic Township, Mashan County, north of Nanning, saw their incomes rise sharply from growing chayote seedlings. Yet since last year, they have found themselves with nothing left to plant. 2024 brought multiple spells of extreme rainfall to Guangxi. In Mashan, the relentless…
In the 2025 Spring Festival release *Ne Zha 2*, the leopard demon Shen Xiaobao won over audiences with his witty and endearing portrayal. Yet, his grievous injuries and uncertain fate in the film bring to mind the endangered North China leopard (*Panthera pardus japonensis*) of the real world. This subspecies,…
I. The Sudden Mulch Film Crisis Spring ploughing is imminent, yet Li Jidong, a farmer in Nuomizhuang Village, Luancheng City, Hebei, finds himself unable to till his land. Scattered across his 70-mu (approximately 11.5 acres) field are fragments of plastic mulch of all sizes, blown in from a neighbouring operation.…
Foodthink Says On 16 February, Foodthink hosted an in-person session for “Fake Meat Drives Out Real Meat”, a shortlisted piece from the Lianhe Creative Project. The event invited the author and discussion guests to engage in a lively exchange on the impact of imported meat and the future of traditional…
Foodthink Commentary Ahead of the Spring Festival, Ren Yingying, a post-90s farmer from Lianxiang Farm in Chengde, Hebei, was invited by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture to Berlin for the Global Forum on Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and the Environment (GFFA), where she helped draft a position paper…
Every garden has a theory of beauty and a morality of happiness. — Santiago Belloc, Philosophy in the Garden It is somewhat serendipitous that my path to ecological farming began with “weeds”.First, weeds as a problem. As a sociology and anthropology student, I spent nearly a year conducting field research…
Since January this year, the US has faced a widespread egg shortage triggered by avian flu. With supplies running low, numerous supermarkets have imposed purchase limits, and empty shelves have become a frequent sight. Meanwhile, egg prices have soared in response. Americans, accustomed to the daily availability of cheap eggs,…
A Note from Foodthink Termitomyces mushrooms, known locally as “Summer Solstice Mushrooms” in Shaoguan, Guangdong, have become a culinary trend in recent years, sparking a foraging frenzy across northern Guangdong. CaiCai and Dayan from the “Chunchao Springflut” studio ventured into Yao communities and inadvertently found themselves among the ranks of…
The world’s table begins with China’s little pulses 10 February 2025 marks the seventh World Pulses Day. This year’s theme is ‘Pulses: Bringing Diversity to Agrifood Systems’. Grow pulses, eat pulses, diversify agriculture, live healthily. Soybeans, edamame and black beans are common fixtures on the dinner table, yet these pulses…
Foodthink Says What do young people experience and take away when they step away from the conventional life path to intern at an ecological farm? This piece shares the reflections of Zhejun, an intern on Foodthink’s third ‘Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme’, adapted from her remarks at last year’s sharing session,…
