Foodthink projects, activities, and programmes.
Men leave for work; the women of Stone City stay to farm, tend old and young, and run guesthouses. He Xiuqin’s plot grows twenty to thirty crops across the seasons; Zhang Xiuyun keeps over a dozen heirloom maize varieties. This uncelebrated labour connects field to table.
In the Jinsha River valley at Stone City, Lijiang, villagers whistle to call the wind for winnowing wheat, wait for rain to plant maize. Old varieties like Tunmai and chicken bean live on the hillside from generation to generation, sustained by household seed saving and exchanges among neighbours.
Once young teachers who had both worked in nature education, Antian and Sanqi spent six months interning at Yinlin Village’s ecological farm in Guangdong – planting, organising events, running the café. Now they are determined to return to the countryside and build their own farm.
Former high-school maths teacher Lü Lu spent three months interning at Xiqing Farm in Daxing, Beijing. Working with the earth each day, she found years of troublesome allergies finally gone – and learned to keep the growth of thirty-odd crops constantly on her mind.
At Pengcheng Natural Farm in Yinlin Village, Conghua—pruning lychee branches, leaving grass to nourish the soil, reduced tillage and less fertilising—these everyday labours of Natural Farming were four gifts of letting go, simplicity, relaxation and acceptance from an ecological agriculture internship.
The Lianhe Creative Programme, launched by Foodthink with several public-interest and media partners, received 100 applications. Selected projects span food and agriculture topics — contracted watermelon farmers, imported beef and lamb on herders’ tables, agricultural drones, wet markets’ fight for survival — with works published gradually throughout October.
Two interns set off from Guixinyuan Farm, visiting five ecological farms across Guangdong and Guangxi, repeatedly recalibrating between the ease of Natural Farming and the pressures of yields, lease terms and labour – ultimately affirming the ideal of a Half-farming, Half-X life.
Foodthink’s third Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme has finally selected 25 interns for mentorship across 12 farms. From designers and civil servants to PhD holders and charity-sector workers, they set aside their city jobs to relearn farming and sustainable living on the land.
Five months on Foodthink’s ecological agriculture internship programme at Green Me Farm in Xianyang — from driving tractors and harvesting wheat to caring for the soil through Biodynamic farming. The greatest harvest wasn’t technique, but a fresh look at the condition of the land, food and animals.
Foodthink’s third Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme welcomes four new farms, with twelve partner farms spread across Guangdong, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi and beyond. Interns will learn crop cultivation, animal husbandry and farm management from experienced growers out in the fields.
