Labor in food and farming systems, migrant workers, labor rights, and changes in production-side work.
Summer arrives, and with it, another season for watermelon. Watermelons are inseparable from summer, just as the farmers behind the fruit evolve alongside their crop. Wherever there is land, you will find the watermelon farmers of Taizhou. Their history of enterprise dates back to the 1980s, forming another chapter in…
I. The Early Blooming Flowers On the morning of 3 May, in Jinqu Town, Meixian County, Shaanxi, Xu Yuanlin spotted the messenger flowers in his own vineyard. He was taken aback. The messenger flower is the first spike to bloom in a vineyard, acting as a herald to remind growers…
The delivery market clash between JD.com and Meituan is in full swing, with the most conspicuous battleground being the strategic tug-of-war over riders’ social security. On 19 February 2025, JD.com was the first to announce it would cover the full social insurance and housing fund contributions for its full-time riders.…
The film *Nei Sha* opens with an immediate explanation of its title. On the banks of a reed bed in winter, Teacher Tang, an organic farmer, explains to a visiting professor: this is the mouth of the Yangtze River, where shifting sands have deposited over time to gradually form islands.…
From late last year through April this year, Chiang Mai—a popular tourist destination in northern Thailand—has frequently been shrouded in thick smog. On 29 March, IQAir ranked the city as the world’s most polluted, recording an AQI (Air Quality Index) of 188; this stands at 17.4 times the limit set…
Qingming Festival is a time for ancestral worship and tomb-sweeping. This year it falls on4 April, which just happens to be404. This naturally brings to mind articles that have been marked404 not found. Last year, Foodthink saw several of its articles ‘disappear’ on its WeChat Official Account—the highest number to…
Foodthink says Was there ever a moment when you suddenly decided to stop ordering takeaway? On 1 March, Foodthink’s new column “Eat Something Good” opened a call for submissions for ‘100 Moments You Realise You Never Want to Order Takeout Again’, and we were inundated with responses from readers. As…
Advertised under the banner “zero delivery fees, meals from ¥10”, Meituan’s “Pin Hao Fan” has seen office workers flock to it, drawn by its aggressive low-price strategy. Though the saying “you get what you pay for” lingers in the public consciousness, sparking concerns over food safety, I’ve had my own…
I. The Australian Egg Shortage The first time I realised I could no longer afford eggs. For the New Year that had just passed, my family and I rented an Airbnb in Sydney, Australia, to ring in the celebrations. Being strangers to the area, we stuck to buying groceries from…
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…
