Does the Loss of Food Flavour Begin with the Seeds?

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From foraging and hunting to slash-and-burn agriculture, from generations of field labour, to GMOs, drones, cultivated meat and even artificial intelligence, and from home cooking to relying on delivery services, humanity’s agricultural and food systems have undergone a complete revolution. The dramatic shifts within our farmland reflect the impact of science and technology on farming, while simultaneously exerting a profound influence on the natural environment, farmers, social structures, diets and public health. Throughout this process, multinational agribusiness capital and government regulation have played a decisive role.

How did these changes come about? And how ought we to understand them? Whether we are consumers or farmers, as participants in the food and farming system, can we navigate the competing interests to find what serves us best, and secure the optimal outcome for our labour and our consumption?

In *Seed Empire*, US environmental historian Bart J. Elmore draws on meticulous research and compelling storytelling to trace the development of Monsanto, a leading multinational agrochemical firm. The book charts its complete transformation from a chemical manufacturer to an agrochemical company, and ultimately to a genetic biotechnology corporation. It exposes the social and ecological devastation caused by its products from production to consumption, and reveals the tactics employed to obscure these harms and evade responsibility. While *Seed Empire* centres on Monsanto, it provides a clear lens through which readers can better understand the history and current state of the contemporary food system.

This Friday, 16 August at 18:30, we have invited historians, sociologists and long-standing practitioners in seed system advocacy to join a Beijing discussion on *Seed Empire* at Wansheng Bookstore. Readers in the Beijing area are warmly welcomed to attend in person, or you may register to watch the live stream. Join us as we reflect on the history of agriculture and look towards the future of food.

●Readers elsewhere can simply scan the QR code above to sign up for the live stream or watch the replay.

Starting in April this year, Foodthink, alongside Sanlian Academic, Yali and the Farmers Seed Network, co-organised a series of *Seed Empire* book talks across Nanning, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Kunming and Guangzhou. At each venue, academics and practitioners from diverse backgrounds came together to discuss the book and the wider food and farming issues it raises. The organisers have compiled and edited transcripts from several of these sessions for our readers. You can also watch full recordings of the discussions on Foodthink’s video channel.

 Guest Speakers

Chris St. Cavish

American writer and food researcher based in Shanghai, author of *Yangpan*

 

 

 

 

Guan Qi

Seed systems researcher and head of the Eastern Office of the Farmers Seed Network

 

 

 

 

Gao Ming

Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the School of Humanities, Shanghai University, and rural development volunteer

 

 

 

 

Wang Youzao

Environmental campaigner and director of the documentary *Asking the Rice*

 

 

 

 

 

Moderator

Tianle

Founding editor of Foodthink and convenor of the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market

 

 

 

 

I. The Loss of Food Flavours

Tianle: Although Monsanto has been acquired by Germany’s Bayer Group, it was long an American company. I’d like to ask Kaiwei Shen, a writer from the US, how Americans view Monsanto? What were your key takeaways from this book?

Kaiwei Shen: As an American, I’ve always known Monsanto was a terrible company. The book lays out the details and data to show that the notion of GM seeds tackling global population growth and eradicating hunger is a myth, while ordinary people and the environment end up bearing the brunt; the only true beneficiary is Monsanto itself. Why are we subjected to all this?

Tianle: You were also a chef, having worked in fine-dining restaurants in both the US and China. Later, you continued writing and researching food here in China. From a consumer’s standpoint, what tangible impact do you think companies like Monsanto have had on food?

Kaiwei Shen: When I was growing up in the US, people considered these rock-hard, flavourless but visually appealing tomatoes to be good tomatoes.

● At the book launch event for *Empire of Seeds* held at Daxia Bookstore in Shanghai, Kaiwei Shen showed us a bag of tomatoes bought online: “This is a bag of dreadful tomatoes. They’re extremely hard; they wouldn’t even be damaged if dropped on the floor. This is what commercial breeding has delivered to us.” Second from the right is Gao Ming, and on the far right is Guan Qi.

Shen Kaiwei: In the US, unless you live in California or a state near major growing regions, it is difficult to source higher-quality produce, or you will have to pay a considerable premium for it. I bring up tomatoes because I am currently writing a series for 《美食与美酒》（Food and Wine） magazine examining pork and tomatoes. When I began this research, I asked numerous chefs in Shanghai which ingredients were losing their flavour the fastest. They all pointed to pork and tomatoes.

So I began at the farm level, working alongside scientists to study seed selection and soil management as a means of understanding the food system. When it comes to cultivation, I am an utter novice. Yet I was struck by how disconnected chefs are from the growing process. Chefs do not care for the flavour of today’s tomatoes, so they compensate by adding tomato purée, sugar, or MSG to their dishes, yet they never ask where they might source better tomatoes. Today, as we discuss seeds, agriculture, food, health and flavour, it seems none of the chefs are interested in these issues. I am still piecing together what matters most for a tomato—whether it is seed genetics, the ripening process, or soil management—and I am talking to farmers to understand their viewpoint.

I will offer one positive example and one negative. On the positive side, I met a tomato grower in Pudong. She is extremely particular about cultivar and ripeness, picking and selling tomatoes only when they are nearly ready to burst, even though this means selling at a loss. The negative example is a head chef at a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Shanghai. He told me: “Do not try to guilt-trip me with your ‘vegetable stories’; I am only interested in produce that guarantees quality and consistency.”

I understand that McDonald’s is highly unlikely to use heirloom tomato varieties, but if the chefs at the world’s finest restaurants cannot accept imperfect tomatoes, who possibly can? This is not merely a problem for chefs; it is a problem for all of us. Who would not prefer a tomato that looks utterly beautiful?

In a 2023 study, researchers visited supermarkets in Shanghai to ask shoppers what criteria they use when selecting tomatoes. Everyone pointed to external factors such as appearance, price, and uniform sizing, yet nobody mentioned flavour. This is because they worry that tomatoes with imperfect appearances might be genetically modified. In reality, the opposite is true: genuine tomatoes, unlike GM tomatoes, rarely look flawless. In the United States, the food movement has been largely driven by the advocacy of celebrated chefs and restaurants, with Dan Barber in New York perhaps being the most interesting figure in this space.

● Dan Barber runs two “farm-to-table” restaurants in New York, with all food sourced from partner farms. Foodthink has also organised a series of reading groups for his acclaimed book, *The Third Plate*.

Shen Kaiwei: However, over the past decade, Barber’s own views have shifted. We are realising that ‘farm to table’ is too late in the process; the conversation needs to start with ‘seed to table’. The moment you purchase ingredients from Hema, Dingdong Maicai, or a local fresh market, their flavour and quality have already been dictated by the farmers and the seeds they chose. Even the finest soils and cultivation methods cannot override this.

In the United States, the seed industry is dominated by just four corporations. In China, as far as I know, there are currently over 7,000 seed companies, alongside active seed-exchange networks and conservation programmes—a genuinely positive development.

Admittedly, few advocates today are campaigning specifically for flavour. In the research I have come across, scientists are investigating how to enhance tomatoes with GABA (a neurotransmitter) to improve mood, or how to grow them aboard space stations, but taste has largely been overlooked. We require high yields and nutritional value, but flavour must not be sidelined. Hopefully, we will eventually find a way to strike a balance.

Gao Ming: I am not entirely persuaded by Chris’s argument that research should revolve exclusively around taste. My partner manages an ecological agriculture project in Fengxian, Shanghai, and we consume the vegetables they grow. One time, the harvest was noticeably bitter, which left me baffled. Surely ecologically farmed produce ought to taste wonderful? His reply was that the bitterness likely stemmed from drought conditions, while stunted growth could be attributed to temperature irregularities. That is simply what nature does. In reality, the natural environment is already degraded, and extreme weather events happen every year. If nature itself is compromised, on what grounds do we demand that humans must always enjoy delicious food? A patch of ecological farming cannot overhaul the wider environment; the state of the crops merely mirrors broader ecological challenges. We need to consider the bigger picture, balancing nutrition, the safety of agricultural technologies, and the broader model of food production.

II. Rebuilding the Market and Redefining ‘Good’ Food

Tianle: Wet markets were originally the most straightforward way to connect with local and diverse producers. This channel is now dwindling, however, with younger consumers more inclined to shop at large retailers or online. These suppliers tend to source highly standardised products from large-scale farms, leaving smallholders who practise diversified cropping at a distinct disadvantage in terms of scale and variety.

At an event we hosted in Beijing, we put out yellow carrots and someone immediately asked whether they were GM. Shoppers have been conditioned by supermarket aisles to accept only a handful of varieties, apparently forgetting that nature’s produce is inherently the most diverse and vivid. In a sense, the decline in food freshness, quality and variety is inextricably linked to the supply chain underpinning it.

The niche market cultivated by the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market operates on a relatively sustainable footing: consumers are keen to buy, and farmers are motivated to grow. We like to joke that Beijing’s ecological farms are fiercely competitive, driving each other on yield as well as flavour. Farmers are beginning to grasp that when consumers pay a premium, they aren’t just seeking produce grown without synthetic pesticides and fertilisers, or grown from heritage varieties; they also want food that genuinely tastes good. From seed selection and soil care to crop management, ecological farming can employ a range of efficient, environmentally friendly techniques to enhance flavour. That said, taste can still be at the mercy of the weather.

We believe that sound farming should yield better crops, and that “better” ultimately comes down to flavour. For a grower, upping the sugar content in fruit is straightforward; achieving a complex flavour profile is far more challenging and demands meticulous soil management. Applying a measured amount of potassium will boost sweetness, but crops rushed to maturity with synthetic fertilisers lack the time to develop the flavour compounds that truly enhance taste. The result is often an overpowering sweetness that lacks the pleasing balance of sweet and tart.

Industrial agriculture chases a notion of efficiency that externalises its negative costs. Yet there are those who opt for more diversified farming methods, reflecting the equally diverse demands of consumers. The food we eat cannot simply be reduced to, or replaced by, a list of nutrients; its value lies in the intricate relationship between people, what they eat, and the natural world.

Gaoming: That’s why, around 2007, we began championing Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA). Our aim was to educate consumers on these very issues—encouraging them, for instance, to look beyond purely cosmetic appeal when buying produce. It is a long and arduous undertaking.

Tianle: Since the “farm to table” movement gained traction, it has been criticised by some as an elitist concept that comes with a premium price tag. I’ve visited Dan Barber’s farm, where he was collaborating with agronomists and growers to breed crops specifically for flavour. But I wonder: does “seed to table”—breeding expressly for taste—also carry an air of elitism? After all, perceptions of flavour vary enormously from person to person.

Guanqi: Dan Barber’s book cites a fascinating American example: Stephen Jones of Washington State University. Jones is a professional plant breeder who also runs his own bakery, operating under a strict rule: he will only promote varieties he genuinely enjoys eating himself. He is now engaged in “evolutionary breeding”, effectively working to restore diversity in wheat cultivars. By collaborating with international scientists, he applies ecological principles to this work. It’s an excellent, albeit highly specific, “seed to table” case study. I’m often left wondering: do our own scientists actually taste the varieties they breed?

This circles back to another issue: consumers have developed a rigid expectation for the uniform appearance of tomatoes. In fact, this expectation is engineered right at the start of the seed industry. Before any seed variety can reach the market, it must pass a DUS trial (assessing Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability).

III. Farmers’ Perspectives

Tianle: Yet for millennia, the logic farmers have used to save and breed seeds hasn’t been strictly “scientific.” Paradoxically, it has nurtured a rich agricultural biodiversity, from which China’s diverse regional food cultures have also grown. Teacher Guan, could you share more about the current situation for Chinese farmers?

Guan Qi: In the rural south-west of China, farmers maintain a wide variety of crop strains. These farmer-saved seeds, or local landraces, cannot pass current seed certification schemes because they behave more like a living population, resulting in uneven growth. Farmers’ requirements are highly diverse; rather than focusing purely on yield, they prioritise yield stability, flavour, and even cultural and spiritual needs.

For instance, ‘Xianghe Nuò’ is a rice variety cultivated by the Dong people of Guizhou Province, and it is the only glutinous rice permitted for use in ceremonies such as weddings. In this light, a seed is not merely a physical object; it carries a wealth of information that allows us to bridge time and connect with local culture. The farming families we speak with do not rank seeds into tiers. Provided a variety has been handed down through generations, they safeguard it with equal care, because you never know when it might be needed. Naturally, crop breeding entails more than just technologies like genetic modification. Flavour is shaped not only by genetics, but also by the environment and farming practices. In the Taihang Mountains of Hebei, for example, farmers will tell us that millet only develops its proper taste after being carefully hoed and weeded three times.

Wang Youzao: The documentary *Asking Rice* follows farmers who persist in cultivating rice across varied geographical conditions, alongside the remarkable diversity of rice varieties they maintain. This agroecological system is exceptionally fragile, and ironically, the element that best illustrates this fragility is the pig. Before transplanting seedlings, farmers would carry stacks of pine needles from the pigsty to the fields, spreading them evenly as fertiliser. With many young people migrating to work in cities, these households can no longer care for livestock. They are forced to rely on chemical fertilisers, making traditional farming methods increasingly unsustainable.

● You can watch the documentary *Asking Rice* on Tencent Video.
Tianle: Farmers who practise diversified cropping will often say that while they are keen to grow these local varieties, they may not be able to sustain themselves if they cannot sell them. In *Asking the Rice*, a rice farmer from an ethnic minority in Yunnan remarks, “See how hard we labour? We would need to sell the rice for 100 yuan a kilogram for our efforts to be worthwhile. But at present, it fetches only two or three yuan. I would be delighted if it sold for ten.”

Therefore, the greater the distance between consumers and producers, the harder it becomes to support more sustainable and diversified farming, even when consumers are willing to pay a premium. In the food world, there is a rather curious adage: “Save it by eating it.” If we do not consume certain varieties, farmers will become increasingly reluctant to cultivate or breed them, pushing them towards extinction. To maintain this diversity, we need to discover these varieties more widely and support them through our consumption.

Guan Qi: Despite the seemingly endless proliferation of commercial hybrid, high-yield, and genetically modified varieties today, seed diversity is vanishing rapidly. In the 1940s, there were 46,000 rice varieties; now there are barely 1,000. Wheat once boasted 13,000 varieties, but today only five or six hundred remain. In reality, breeders are also hampered by the decline of landraces. The genetic background of many modern rice and wheat varieties is quite narrow, akin to inbreeding. The drawback is this very lack of diversity: when faced with pests, diseases, or extreme weather, the risks are magnified.

There are several approaches to conserving germplasm resources. The most widely adopted strategy today is ex situ conservation, which involves centralised storage in cold facilities. The National Genebank now holds 530,000 seed backups, representing a sort of last-resort solution. However, centralised storage increases the risk of total loss from disasters or war, and seeds kept in cold storage lose the opportunity to interact and evolve alongside the natural environment.

This is why we must also emphasise in situ and living conservation—pursuing a two-pronged approach. In the hands of farmers, seeds maintain their diversity as living organisms, interacting not only with the natural environment but co-evolving with farmers and even consumers. This serves as an excellent complement to seed banks. I believe that highly monopolised trends in the seed market are counter-evolutionary, because without diversity, there can be no evolution.

On the other hand, our expectations for food today are high and highly varied; these flavours cannot simply be conjured up in a laboratory. So, can consumers communicate their demands to breeders and farmers? If farmers could collaborate with scientists to help meet these needs, it would be a very positive development. But as the Monsanto case shows, many scientists are not doing this. Modern breeding techniques have existed for little more than two centuries since Mendel, yet it is the efforts of farmers around the world that have kept these seeds alive through the generations.

– Co-hosted by –

Foodthink

Tencent News

Academic Publishing Division, SDX Joint Publishing Company

Yali

Farmer Seed Network

Coordinated by: Tianle

Transcript compiled by: Aneal

Edited by: ZX

Published by Foodthink