Digital technology, agricultural technology, AI, and biotechnology applications in food and farming.
Although we frequently talk about being “trapped in the algorithm,” it hardly slows algorithms from embedding themselves ever more deeply into daily life. But do internet creators, delivery couriers, e-commerce hosts, media professionals, and ride-hailing drivers—those who work with algorithms on a daily basis—truly lack their own perceptions and understanding…
I. Farm Machinery Memories of the Post-2000s Generation As far back as I can remember, my family has been farming, cultivating mainly wheat and rice. During school holidays, I used to tail the harvester with my friends, picking up stray rice ears trailing behind it. Harvesters were scarce back then;…
Foodthink Says Why would a girl from the north, who has never even seen sugarcane, head south to grow it? Why would a short-video creator find themselves laughed at by farmers? Why would a PhD candidate refer to themselves as a primary school pupil? Why would a tea research specialist…
Foodthink Says In 1948, the central government decided to import tractors from the Soviet Union to bring the vast, untamed lands of Beidahuang under cultivation. At the same time, to train agricultural machinery operators, a tractor driver training programme was launched at the Beian Reclamation Area in Heilongjiang. Eighteen-year-old Liang…
When you step into a McDonald’s and take your place at the counter for your usual meal deal, can you sense it: behind that open kitchen, a highly orchestrated “production battle” is underway. In the lore of the fast-food empire, everything is standardised: a strict 90-second service window, fryers held…
“Is there truly nothing else left to eat?” “Snowpiercer was far too prescient!” Just yesterday, after seeing a journalist visit an American cockroach farm and drink a cup of crispy cockroach coffee, netizens voiced this piercing question. Picture this: alongside the American cockroach, countless yellow mealworms and black soldier fly…
During the Spring Festival at the start of 2025, the topic of our family dinner was AI, specifically DeepSeek, which had just blown up. The younger generation couldn’t stop talking about it. I felt a bit detached, much as I had when ChatGPT first launched a couple of years prior.…
Seeds are the vital carriers for the continuation of plant species. Human survival and flourishing are equally inseparable from them; every food we eat, whether grains, flours, oils or vegetables and fruits, begins as a tiny seed. Different seeds yield crops with distinctly different flavours. The reason we can no…
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…
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…
