Foodthink says If the previous part took us inside the McDonald’s kitchen, revealing a high-speed mini-factory operating in 90-second intervals, this instalment will explore how that factory is managed and maintained.   From price anchoring in combo meal design to ever-shrinking store footprints; from Scheduling Experts and Shared Store…

  Foodthink says McDonald’s wears two faces. Once a beloved children’s playground, it is now a fast-food grindhouse for young wage earners. It is as much a small-scale factory as it is a place to dine.   McDonald’s kitchens are open-plan, yet they conceal a highly precise production workflow. Within…

  Foodthink says Heavy rain and hailstorms have been frequent across the country recently, striking again at the critical growth stages of many crops and leaving farmers facing substantial losses.   In public discourse, whenever the risks climate change poses to farming are raised, experts, the public, and even policymakers…

    What springs to mind when you think of agriculture students? The best university cafeterias? Drinking coffee like it’s soup? Or perhaps viral quotes like “The machinery over there is far too loud, mind turning it down?” or “I have no idea, but my strawberries are looking rather graceful”?…

    Monitoring data from the National Climate Centre of the China Meteorological Administration shows that since the start of the flood season this year, the national average rainfall has reached 110.1 mm – 18.6% higher than the average for the same period in a typical year.   The frequent…

    20 May marks World Bee Day. Silkworms and bees are the only two insects domesticated by humans, yet when drones fly overhead, their dead bodies litter the fields. Having covered silkworms, we now turn our attention back to bees, an essential pollinator.   China’s agriculture depends on pollinators…

    This March, news of pollinating bees being “accidentally harmed” by drones in rapeseed fields caught the public eye. Yet beyond the spotlight, another insect that has coexisted with human civilisation for millennia—the domestic silkworm—is facing a far more insidious and severe survival crisis.   “Once the drones take…

    What is it like raising a fussy eater? When a child won’t eat properly, what exactly are mothers so anxious about?   In this Mother’s Day special, we start with fussy eaters, but our conversation quickly moves beyond pickiness, feeding routines, and menu planning to explore intergenerational memories,…