Food production, farmers, rural society, and ecological farming practices.
Foodthink Says Last Monday, we shared why more than a dozen young people decided to hit pause on their city lives. So why, instead of choosing to ‘lie flat’, have they headed to the countryside to learn farming and embrace a more labour-intensive, challenging way of life? Here are a…
This episode was recorded in the Alxa desert in Inner Mongolia by Qihua, Foodthink’s researcher for climate change and ecological smallholder farming, together with two guests. Recorded at the end of August 2022, the three of them sat beneath a large tree in a Tengger Desert oasis. In the background,…
Foodthink Says In Inner Mongolia, where the vast majority of pastoral families have settled into fixed grazing patterns, the grasslands are criss-crossed by wire fences. Consequently, there has been a rise in cases of stomach perforation from ingested wire among cattle and sheep. Meanwhile, in the Banners of Ordos, where…
I. Tang and Wen make their home in a valley threaded by a stream. The watercourse is modest, running at about half a metre deep, but it flows all year round and is even marked on maps. Heading south, it merges with several other waterways before feeding into the Ohio…
Foodthink’s Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme was originally conceived to foster a mutual learning and collaborative relationship between young people keen to return home and pursue ecological farming, and seasoned growers who have already amassed rich hands-on experience. The aim was to help the next generation of farmers reduce the trial-and-error…
Author’s Note My partner, Mr Panghu, and I live in a small town in the Great Lakes region of the American Midwest. The local farmers’ market was founded nearly thirty years ago, and we have witnessed over a decade of its history. This series of short pieces aims to document…
Foodthink Says Temperatures have risen noticeably recently, and many fellow farmers across the north are about to end their winter off-season and begin spring ploughing. Yet for herders on the steppes, the winter and early spring lambing and calving season is the busiest time of the year. It is also…
Foodthink Says Since the launch of Foodthink’s Phase 2 Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme, we have received a steady stream of application forms. Thank you all for your interest and support! We have been progressively reaching out to suitable applicants and arranging in-depth interview discussions. By the end of this month,…
In the summer and autumn of 2021, Beijing endured an exceptionally long flood season lasting 122 days, with rainfall across six northern provinces and municipalities – including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi – reaching its highest level since 1961. That autumn, I began an online master’s programme in…
Foodthink Says As the commercial seed industry grows ever more dominant, traditional farmer varieties and heritage seeds are increasingly pushed to the margins. Their loss represents more than just a decline in biodiversity; it signals the gradual erosion of diverse local food traditions and cultural heritage. Today, however, a growing…
