Recruitment, programme records, participant stories, and reviews from the Agroecology Internship.
Foodthink Says Organic farming is no pastoral idyll, and young people joining Foodthink’s Lianhe Project ecological farming internship programme have long been mentally prepared for this. Yet, once out in the fields, through day-to-day labour and observation, they develop an entirely fresh perspective on farmers, ecological agriculture and farm management,…
Since its establishment in August 2017, Foodthink has chronicled the stories of dozens of small-scale ecological farmers across the country. Standing apart from conventional agriculture, they have navigated numerous setbacks and learned through costly experience. Yet, after years of dedication, they have amassed a wealth of practical expertise in production…
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…
In Part One of “Internship Notes from a Desert Oasis”, I attempted to revert to my instincts as a business journalist, examining the operational struggles faced by ecological farms. Yet, during my two-month internship at Zhiliangtian Farm in Alxa, being a barista was, in reality, my day-to-day routine at the…
In May, I left my job, said a temporary goodbye to Beijing, and headed to the Zhi Liang Tian Ecological Farm in Alxa, Inner Mongolia, where I spent two months. I didn’t expect that during my first month at the farm, I would be drinking every single day. Two-thirds of…
Earlier this spring, before visiting Sister Yan Ping’s “Happy Fruit and Herb Garden” in Guigang, Guangxi, I harboured a mistaken assumption that the farm lay remote from civilisation and enjoyed a pristine ecological setting. In reality, however, it is surrounded by conventional orchards, where pesticides, chemical fertilisers and herbicides are…
At the end of 2020, I left the non-profit organisation where I had worked for over seven years. I wanted to try a way of working that was independent of any institutional structure and allowed for a relatively balanced state of body, mind, and intellect, while also seeking a lifestyle…
Before starting my internship at Letian Bay Farm, I often pictured the customers here as a bunch of dedicated environmentalists. Otherwise, how could one explain why city dwellers would make the trek out to the countryside? In an age when everyone is rushing towards urban centres, going against the current…
Letian Haiwan Farm in Fengxian, Shanghai, is decidedly not your typical eco-farm. When I arrived for my internship this past March, I immediately sensed this place differed from my preconceptions of agriculture: it wasn’t simply about growing crops, but also involved leasing land and hosting events. You couldn’t help but…
Three months at Happiness Fruit Baicaoyuan have blurred the passage of time. All I truly recall is the overcast sky on my arrival, and the cloudless blue as I departed. I. Discovering Baicaoyuan: A New “Peach Blossom Spring” Happiness Fruit Baicaoyuan is a farm situated in Guigang, Guangxi, not far…
