FoodThink projects, activities, and programmes.
From coordinated crackdowns on ghost kitchens to crops irrigated with “red groundwater,” food and agriculture issues tend to only briefly capture public attention when a safety crisis breaks. Should our focus remain fixated on these isolated incidents, many deeper-rooted problems will continue to be overlooked. Against this backdrop, Foodthink seeks…
Grain Rain ( guyu 谷雨 ) has arrived; the showers nurture the fields as the countryside enters the busiest and most vibrant season of the year. After a fortnight of quietude, Foodthink is also taking this solar term as a moment to begin anew. Riding on the season’s rains, we…
Friends were divided on whether Guan Qi was an introvert or an extrovert. Several people had asked him directly, only to receive a different answer each time. After he passed away, as we gathered together, we realised this was a truth that could never be pinned down. Whenever I recall…
Looking back at 2025, what news about food and agriculture left the deepest impression on you? Was it the struggle to harvest crops amidst the relentless rains of North China, the delivery platform wars, the heated debates over pre-prepared meals that nearly sparked violence, or…? Over the past year, Foodthink,…
This is Foodthink’s final post of 2025. Surprise—no year-end roundup! (The honest truth? It hasn’t been dug out of the drafts yet, so please dial again later…) Why not take a look at the fun we got up to at the recent Guangdong Harvest Festival! Co-Creating Climate Sci-Fi Thanks to…
I. Summer Pasture: The Last Pastoral Song Early autumn around Qinghai Lake already carries a distinct chill. On that September afternoon, as daylight gradually faded, our group drove on, relying on directions from passersby and wending deeper into the mountains one stretch at a time. None of us could say…
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…
I wonder whether many of you share my habit: when aimlessly selecting an ear of corn, a bag of rice, or a lychee from the chilled aisle of a supermarket, we scarcely give a thought to where it came from—the very soil that nurtured it. It’s as though provisions simply…
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…
Foodthink Says From yellow wine and fermented black beans to pickled vegetables and soy sauce, people have long turned to the tangy, aromatic, and mellow depths of fermentation to find the warmth of home and the resilience of life. Across the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, fermentation is woven even more tightly into…
