Analysis of national and local agricultural policies, food policies, regulatory changes, and governance mechanisms.
In November 2025, Zhao Lishun, a farmer from Meishan, watched the village’s rice paddies go unharvested, shaking his head in dismay. Yet these fields no longer belonged to him, nor to the villagers, but to the “bosses”—large-scale land contractors from out of town who had acquired the plots through land…
I. Nine Years: Change and Continuity On 5 January 2026, upon reading a report in the Farmers Daily titled “Hebei’s Rural Heating Crisis Must Not Be Delayed Further”, I felt a sudden jolt, as if abruptly transported back nine years. I am from Hebei. 2016 was the first freezing winter…
Foodthink Says At the start of the 21st century, small family farms were the primary producers of raw milk in China. Today, however, the sector is dominated by large-scale operations housing herds of over 1,000 cows. An earlier article on this channel, Small Family Farms vs. Large Ranches: Whose Milk…
In the three months following the disaster, from anxious consumers to government officials at every level, nearly everyone posed the same question to Zhen Rui: “What is the way forward?” In the early hours of 28 July 2025, extreme heavy rainfall battered the mountainous regions of northern Beijing. Flash floods,…
Autumn harvest in North China has been disrupted by months of continuous rain, with some areas experiencing the rare occurrence of it starting as early as late August. News of unharvested corn and mouldy cobs has repeatedly topped trending lists. Foodthink visited six agricultural counties across Hebei and Henan provinces,…
Early October saw record-breaking rainfall across multiple northern regions. Amid citizens’ bewildered exclamations of “How much longer will this go on?” and “Have we really become the south?”, and as farmers stood helpless before crops drowning in sludge, we marked the 36th International Day for Disaster Reduction. Established by the…
More than a year ago, I first encountered the concept of “climate-friendly rice farming” at a discussion on community-based agricultural practices addressing climate change. Last month, I travelled with fellow farmers from Panzhihua in Sichuan, Wuhu in Anhui, and Fuyuan in Heilongjiang to project sites in Kunming, Pu’er and Honghe.…
Foodthink Says As climate change intensifies, rural “natural disasters” are becoming an everyday reality. Yet there are always more ways forward than obstacles. It is not just farmers and government bodies seeking solutions; civil society organisations are also drawing on their local, flexible, and community-embedded approach to help small villages…
Foodthink Says Globally, a growing number of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners are championing and adopting the concept of “agroecology”. While this term may still feel somewhat unfamiliar in Chinese-speaking contexts, it is frequently translated as “ecological farming”. Yet “ecological farming” falls far short of capturing the rich, multifaceted nature of…
On 4 July, US Independence Day, Trump signed the “Make America Beautiful Act”, announcing that his most critical agenda for his second presidential term had passed Congress. This sweeping tax-cut and spending bill touches on every facet of US social policy. While Trump claims the “Make America Beautiful Act” will…
