“I have an idea—though I don’t know if it will be of any use?” Her mother-in-law and the former housekeeper both stared at her. She said, “We are at our busiest in spring, but the autumn is quiet. Why not take this time to trade in Hangbai chrysanthemums? They are…

Foodthink says In the Inner Mongolia region, where the vast majority of herders have transitioned to settled livestock farming, many cases of gastric perforation caused by barbed wire have emerged among cattle and sheep across grasslands now divided by fences. Meanwhile, in the banners of Ordos, where high-yield livestock breeds…

A note from Foodthink As temperatures rise, many farmers in the north are ending their winter dormancy and preparing for spring ploughing. For herders on the grasslands, however, the winter and spring lambing and calving season is the busiest time of the year, and the period when local veterinarians make…

Foodthink’s Take How exactly is agriculture being affected by climate change? Foodthink has published a series of articles on this topic. Today, we share the insights of a grower on the front line. Zhao Fei graduated from the College of Agriculture at China Agricultural University, after which he joined Pingren…

At the end of 2021, while still working for an internet company in Shanghai, I came across a recruitment notice for Foodthink’s ‘Ecological Agriculture Intern Programme’, and something about it really resonated with me. Once my application was accepted, I chose ‘Meeting Farm’ in Meishan, Sichuan, as my destination. As…

Once pioneer species establish themselves within an ecosystem, they gradually improve its carrying capacity, paving the way for a wider variety of other species to enter. As biodiversity within the system increases, the pioneer species themselves are gradually marginalised. — Pioneer species, an ecological concept I. I. Around ten years…

I. I. To the Farm! On the journey from Chengdu back to Kunming, passing through endless long tunnels, my mobile signal flickered in and out, mirroring the instability of my own state of mind. One moment I was at the Chengdu Life Market helping Liangliang Farm sell loofahs; the next,…