Policy, institutional, economic, and technology trends shaping food and farming systems.
Foodthink Says Now that the Grain Rain solar term has passed, the peak season for this year’s spring tea harvest draws to a close. During the Qingming Festival holiday, Foodthink shared a story about the climate resilience of a natural farming tea garden in Xinyang. We are now publishing the…
One of the most significant stories from Europe recently has been the wave of farmers taking to the streets across the continent to protest EU trade and land management policies, with France serving as the epicentre of the demonstrations. According to leaders of the major French farming unions spearheading the…
Foodthink Says As noted earlier, consumers are often too far removed from the production end, making it difficult to properly assess food quality and, consequently, to effectively protect their own interests. To address this challenge, practical applications of Participatory Guarantee Systems (henceforth referred to as PGS) have begun to take…
Foodthink Says 315 refers to Consumer Rights Day. Each year on this date, the public habitually turns its attention to what new fakes CCTV has exposed. Yet in everyday life, products are not merely a matter of being genuine or counterfeit. Consumers also care about quality and whether they are…
As 2024 began, farmer protests swept across Europe, spreading like wildfire from Germany. At the peak of the demonstrations in mid-January, over 30,000 farmers drove more than 5,000 tractors from across Germany to protest in Berlin. The direct trigger for these protests was the German government’s announcement at the end…
Near San Yuan Bridge in Beijing sits an unusual community greengrocer. Every fruit and vegetable arrives directly from local ecological smallholder farmers. Each item is individually identifiable, grown without pesticides or synthetic fertilisers, and adheres to rigorous production standards. The shop, named Jishi, is run by the Beijing Organic Farmers…
Over a year ago, the entire Foodthink team “took over” a community produce shop run by the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market. For a single day, we handled every aspect of the shop’s operations, delivered impressive sales figures, won our “wager,” and successfully completed the first ever “Occupy the Shop” mission!…
A Note from Foodthink With the Spring Festival drawing near, who wouldn’t want to save time and effort when putting together a grand feast for the New Year’s Eve dinner? Riding this wave of convenience, an array of pre-prepared meals have once again topped search trends across online shopping platforms.…
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…
“Save our rice!” “IRRI, get out!” In October 2023, these furious chants echoed across several Filipino farmer protest rallies. The demonstrations took direct aim at the Sixth International Rice Congress, hosted by the International Rice Research Institute (hereafter IRRI). Against the backdrop of climate change and the drive to cut…
