Rural revitalization, rural infrastructure, social change, and public services.
Foodthink Says On 19 July 2024, James C. Scott, professor of political science at Yale University, died. In the immediate aftermath, a wave of tribute articles emerged, revisiting his ideas on peasants and agriculture, everyday resistance, the state and society, and anarchism. Beginning with his research into peasant resistance, Scott…
6 July marks International Cooperative Day, with this year’s theme being “Cooperatives are building a better future for all.” Cooperatives form a global social movement. Since the founding of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844, the movement has spanned 180 years, taking root and flourishing across the globe.…
This episode of Food Talk features Huang Guoliang, an experienced rural development practitioner. As is common among his peers, we usually refer to him simply as ‘Lao Liu’. Lao Liu has been working in rural communities for nearly two decades, having first embarked on this path in 2005. He shared…
Taking a break from a conference in Nanning, we caught up with our old friend Huang Yajun. As a seasoned rural development practitioner, Yajun, born in the 1980s, has witnessed over a decade of shifts in the countryside. From grassroots, community-led explorations to government-driven poverty alleviation and rural revitalisation initiatives,…
On 12 April, a week after Grain Rain, eastern Sichuan had seen several consecutive showers, easing a drought that had persisted since the Spring Festival. Rice seedlings in the fields were now nearing transplanting season. That afternoon, senior agronomist Yuan Yong and a colleague travelled from Jianyang City to Zaizi…
Foodthink says Since returning home in 2013 to establish Chengdu’s Liangliang Farm, Tang Liang’s work has been a constant source of inspiration for those concerned with food and farming. In 2018, his The Ledger and Lifestyle of a Family Farm offered a candid answer to the question, “How does one…
On a windy March day in Beijing, we sat down with Tang Liang, who had travelled all the way from Liangliang Farm in Sichuan, to reflect on his twelve-year journey back to the countryside at the Foodthink offices. Tang was the first in his family to attend university. After graduating…
Foodthink Says In the final episode of the recently acclaimed drama Blossoms Shanghai, protagonist Bao Zong quotes a famous line from Gone with the Wind — “Only land remains eternal” — before retiring to the fields of Chuansha on Shanghai’s outskirts. Had his plot not been sold to Disney or…
Grandpa was the fourth child in his family. Born in 1933, he lost his mother in early childhood and his father in his youth, weathering famine and disaster. He was always a farmer, though he also worked at one stage as a cotton carder. In his final years, he dreamed…
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…
