Let These 18 Selected Projects Tell You Why Eating Matters More Than Anything?
Recently, the scandal surrounding tanker trucks transporting cooking oil has once again stirred public anxiety over food safety. From production to processing, from transport to sales, every link in the chain bears on food safety, and the workers, managers, regulators, researchers and capital behind each stage collectively determine the quality of the food that ultimately reaches our tables.
Yet the public seems to know very little about this complex process and the stories behind it. All we can do is react with a flash of panic whenever a food-safety scandal erupts, then carry on eating as though pulling items from a blind box, with little chance of making informed choices in our own favour. The real circumstances and stories of countless workers in the food and agriculture sector are also obscured by marketing and food packaging, kept from public view. As for how our three daily meals affect the natural environment and social justice, even fewer people think to ask.
To understand the current state of food and agriculture, and to encourage more people to explore the complexity behind food and farming issues, in April this year Foodthink and a number of public-interest and media partners jointly launched the 2024 Lianhe Creative Programme, supporting media creators and researchers in conducting research in the food and agriculture sector and funding them to complete content creation aimed at a general audience.
The 100 applicants come from different backgrounds, yet all share a concern for food and agriculture as they intersect with environment, society, technology, health, history, and culture. Among them are journalists, farmers, NGO workers, students, freelance writers, media professionals, and artists. Through these 100 applications, we see diverse creators’ concerns for sustainable food and agriculture — no fewer than the much-debated topics of “young people returning to the countryside” and “who will farm the land”. Many creators also turn their attention to hot themes such as fruit and coffee, exploring the land, communities, and markets behind them. When it comes to new agricultural technologies such as AI, solar power, and drones, creators raise pointed questions.
Over the past two years, a growing number of crossover events have chosen to take place in wet markets, and some applicants have begun to examine the opportunities and challenges these markets face. Meanwhile, other creators have noticed that e-commerce’s large-scale entry into the food and agriculture sector may be generating counterproductive effects — many e-commerce and New Retail operations seem ill at ease when it comes to “digesting” food and agricultural products.
Some creators start from their own hometowns, from the river basins of their daily lives, exploring the connections between local food, farming, and people. Applicants from Guangdong, Guangxi, and southern Fujian focus on local specialities in livestock rearing and crop cultivation; creators in river, lake, and coastal regions care both about ecological change and about the livelihoods of fishers and the fishing industry; those looking at pastoral areas have spotted a strange sight — imported beef and lamb appearing on herders’ tables. Overseas creators, meanwhile, hope to explore the state of European food and agriculture and the stories behind global supermarkets.
These 100 applications are neither good nor bad in themselves; they simply represent each creator’s thinking about and concern for food and agriculture, and they let Foodthink know that many people continue to care about food, the land, and the people behind them, in forms that vary widely. We thank every applicant, and we thank the judges and co-creation partners who made this edition of the Foodthink Lianhe Creative Programme possible.
The list of selected projects follows (in no particular order, organised by theme):
Fruit and the World Behind It
“Behind the Sweetness: The Mobility and Labour of Contracted Watermelon Farmers”
Creator: Yan He
Project Introduction: Watermelons are an indispensable part of every summer, yet behind all that sweetness, very little has been written about the farmers who grow them. My project focuses on a group of contracted watermelon farmers on the outskirts of a town in Jiangsu. They share a peculiar quality of “double mobility”: on the one hand, they leave their hometowns to grow greenhouse watermelons in distant places year after year; on the other, the very nature of watermelon cultivation demands that they move to a different plot of land every year. Despite this seemingly precarious double mobility, the farmers maintain a steady continuity in both their production and their daily lives. I hope to combine a sociologist’s sense of inquiry with non-fiction storytelling to sketch the watermelon farmers’ world, which so often goes unseen, and to let their itinerant experiences and the full picture of their labour emerge. I also want to press further on what sustains this mobile labour — how smallholder watermelon growers still find room to survive amid the shocks of large-scale capital.
“Energy Bomb: Who Are the Winners of Durian Consumption, and What Is Being Destroyed?”
Creators: Wu Bingcong, Liu Yi
Project Introduction: As China and Malaysia mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations, fresh durians from Malaysia are set to enter China. Existing coverage has already noted the sheer and ever-growing scale of China’s durian consumption, and as this appetite has taken hold, Southeast Asia’s major durian-producing regions — led by Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia — have expanded their plantations. National-level statistics show that cross-border durian trade has delivered economic gains to producing regions, yet voices have also raised ecological concerns: accelerating deforestation, and biodiversity being undermined. Against this backdrop, we want to dig further into how this particular aesthetic of consumption has been constructed, who has been driving it, and who stands to profit. Will the widening of durian cultivation across different regions bring prices down? And what will it mean for local farmers?
A Strange Sight in Pastoral Areas:
Imported Beef and Lamb on Herders’ Tables
“The Impact of Imported Beef and Lamb on the Livestock Industry in Qinghai Province”
Creators: Jiao Xiaofang, Qiongwu Danzeng
Project Introduction: Qinghai Province, a vital pastoral base in northwestern China, is renowned for its high-quality beef and lamb. Yet we know remarkably little about the varieties produced there or the details behind them. This project aims to investigate Qinghai’s frozen-food markets in depth, tracing how livestock products from around the world find their way to the market. The frozen-food market in Adai Township, for example, is of considerable scale: alongside local beef and lamb, it stocks imported meats from Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and other countries. These meats are stored and distributed through the frozen-food market before being shipped out to markets across the region. The farming techniques behind them, the distribution networks, and the threats they pose to local traditional pastoralism and species conservation will be the focus of our investigation. We will document how local people choose to cope and compromise under this impact. Through a detailed report and a documentary, we aim to reveal the impact of imported beef and lamb on Qinghai’s local livestock industry.
“Why Are Imported Beef and Lamb on Herders’ Tables?”
Project Introduction: When you hear that herders on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau have stopped eating the Tibetan sheep and yaks they raise themselves, and have turned instead to imported beef and lamb, what comes to mind? Tibetans often say that herders depend on their sheep and cattle, and the sheep and cattle depend on the grassland (Tibetan proverb: མགོ་ནག་བརྟེན་ས་སྤུ་ནག།། སྤུ་ནག་བརྟེན་ས་སྤང་དཀར།།). For centuries, herders have been accustomed to caring devotedly for their livestock to meet their own needs. Yet once imported beef and lamb began appearing in the pastoral grasslands, the herders’ patterns of production, sources of food, and household livelihoods all began to shift. Why are imported beef and lamb showing up on the very grasslands that abound in sheep and cattle? And why have the herders chosen to consume imported meat? In this project, we hope to unravel this pastoral “mystery”.
Smart New Agriculture, Technology’s Double-Edged Sword
“Agricultural Drones: Have They Made Farming Smarter?”
Project Introduction: In recent years, it has been impossible to discuss smart agriculture without mentioning agricultural drones. With their exceptionally high work efficiency, their ability to replace large numbers of workers, and their capacity to cut input costs, they have become the very “face” of smart agriculture. In the many promotional narratives surrounding them, agricultural drones are presented as so cost-effective that they have all but become a standard feature of modern farming. In the Jiansanjiang area of Heilongjiang, where adoption rates are very high, 90% of rice paddies have been treated with drone spraying services. The region this project focuses on lies squarely in this area. I want to step away from macro-level discourse and find out: which farmers choose to use drones? Which crops are best suited to drone spraying? Who are the people who take on the role of drone pilot? How do problems such as pesticide drift from drone spraying arise, and how are they being resolved? By exploring these real-world questions, this project aims to present a more concrete, more granular view of the agricultural drone industry — one centred on the farmers’ own perspective.
“Aquavoltaics: A Double Mirror in the Water”
Project Introduction: “Aquavoltaics” is fast becoming a buzzword. This innovative “solar + aquaculture” model allows the same stretch of water to generate electricity and support fish farming at once, and is hailed as a diversified innovation that simultaneously addresses challenges in food, energy, and the environment. Aquavoltaics is not simply the pairing of new technology with traditional farming; it also brings changes to local aquaculture practices and to life in fishing villages. As more and more solar panels “spring” up on the water’s surface, and as we begin to see “aquavoltaic fish” on the market, I want to understand the story behind all this. Are the fish happy? Are the fishers happy? What changes are they experiencing? In a day when the wave of technology comes crashing in, how do we try to find a balance between new technology and traditional practices?
The Business of the Table
“The Migrant Workers’ Table: On Labour and Eating”
Project Introduction: What I have observed in everyday life: worker couples go back to their rented rooms to cook after work, and on rest days invite fellow townspeople and friends over to cook and eat together; those who have worked in the Pearl River Delta for years maintain a “food exchange” with relatives back in their hometowns; they say that meat and vegetables bought in the city don’t taste as good as those from home, and that cooking for themselves is healthier than eating out. They care deeply about the act of eating — eating well allows them to shed the shell of being mere “labour” and return to the life of concrete individuals. I am curious: where does their food come from? How do they handle food? What are their true concerns about food? Is the existing food production and consumption system friendly to them? Is it possible for them to raise their own voices on food issues? What inspiration might their food experiences offer to a wider audience? Come close to their tables, and see how, beyond labour, migrant workers actually eat.
“What Is China’s Restaurant Industry Doing About the Degradation of Basic Ingredients?”
Project Introduction: Because of industrialisation and urbanisation, the ingredients on contemporary Chinese tables are undergoing a seismic shift. The quality of staple ingredients such as pork and vegetables is declining, and smallholder farmers are being squeezed out of the production chain; meanwhile, niche regional ingredients are being rediscovered and shipped to tables across the country… My exploration will approach the subject from the perspective of restaurants: how do Chinese restaurants perceive the changes in their ingredients? Can they initiate change amid this upheaval? What factors shape a restaurant’s understanding of its ingredients? Is it possible for Chinese restaurants to support the sustainability and equity of agricultural production?
The first article will take the form of a research-based overview, examining whether global food movements such as Farm to Table, Slow Food, sustainability, and place-based sourcing can take root in China’s restaurant scene, and what ingredient issues Chinese food professionals are facing and what actions they are taking. The second article will select two or three contemporary case studies for in-depth tracking, focusing on restaurants that partner with self-built farms or smallholder farmers to improve staple ingredients. I hope to draw my peers in the industry to a deeper engagement with ingredient issues, and to let those food professionals who are already taking action know that they are not alone.
Environment and Food, a China in Transition
“The Chicken of Yesterday”
Creator: Zhou Pinglang
Project Introduction: Chickens are now the most numerous animals on Earth, numbering over 24 billion. From their domestication as poultry to genetic improvement breeding and then intensive animal farming, the human impact on chickens has been so vast that the chickens’ reverse impact on us — from antibiotic-resistant bacteria and hormones to avian influenza — has multiplied all the more. In factories, along assembly lines, in laboratories, in restaurants, inside refrigerators, in dustbins — chickens leave their mark everywhere, to the point that some scholars have suggested that the chicken records how we have changed this world, and will become the signature of the Anthropocene. This project will take the chicken-farming industry as its entry point, exploring what kind of creature this most familiar of everyday poultry has now become, and where it is heading.
“The Breath of Poyang Lake”
Project Introduction: For thousands of years, the Chinese have striven to live in harmony with nature despite harsh realities. Several large lakes in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River had their shores reclaimed for farmland amid the population surge after the founding of the People’s Republic, only for the land to be returned to the waters following a series of devastating floods in the 1990s. At Poyang Lake, amid the ebb and flow between farmland and water, farmers still fine-tune the relationship between rice, climate, and people. Over the past three decades, more than half of the world’s large lakes have been drying up — and China is no exception. In recent years, Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake, became renowned for the “grassland” landscape that emerges during the dry season. The Poyang Lake basin is a key grain-producing region of China, and the floristic and faunal composition of the basin’s ecosystem is complex. The agricultural changes at Poyang Lake are a window through which to observe shifts in both climate and urbanisation.
Extinction and Transformation:
The Dilemma of Old Markets and New Retail
Guangzhou’s Wet Markets: A Chronicle of Survival — The Era of E-Commerce Dominance and the Breakthrough of Traditional Formats
Creators: Xiao Wen, Dong Yifu, Xiao Ranran
Project Introduction: This in-depth report, “Guangzhou’s Wet Markets: A Chronicle of Survival — The Era of E-commerce Dominance and the Breakthrough of Traditional Formats”, will examine the current state of Guangzhou’s wet markets under the impact of e-commerce, analyse the challenges and opportunities they face, and show how these markets are forging a path to survival in the age of e-commerce dominance. Through on-the-ground investigations of Guangzhou’s wet markets and interviews with market operators, consumers, and industry experts, this report aims to offer readers a comprehensive and in-depth perspective on the predicament, vitality, and innovative spirit of traditional retail formats in modern society.
“So What if There’s Official Endorsement? ‘Playing House’ in E-commerce”
Project Introduction: How does one function as the “official middleman” for agricultural products? A zero marketing budget is fine; low revenue is fine — its very existence is the point. When local governments talk about new sales formats to help farmers, what are they really talking about? Is the help dispensed under the banner of authority actually making a difference on the ground? Government, intermediary sales companies, farmers — every link in this chain seems to be caught up in a game of “playing house.” As an intruder within it all, I want to document this absurdity. When an individual has no power to change anything, at least a truth can be preserved, even if it can only be an anonymous one.
Regional Traditions:
The Bond Between Food and Emotion
“Fermenting China: The Magic of Yunnan and Guizhou”
Creators: Ma Junli, Liu Xinzheng
Project Introduction: The “Fermenting China” book series approaches the subject from the perspective of fermentation geography, using the origins of China’s traditional fermented foods as a starting point. It explores the diversity of traditional fermented foods across different regions and the fermentation cultures behind them, prompting us to rethink the relationship between food, land, and nature in our present age. This volume first focuses on the south-western provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, where unique geographical and historical conditions have given rise to a rich abundance of traditional fermented foods and preserved numerous time-honoured fermentation techniques. Through extensive field research, the author will unearth and organise stories of people, techniques, history, and heritage, sketching a contemporary portrait of the Yunnan and Guizhou region within its local fermentation culture. Through this book, I hope to help more people properly understand fermentation, appreciate the rich diversity of China’s fermentation culture, and be inspired to try fermentation themselves, experiencing the allure of fermented foods.
Young People in the Italian Mountains Seek Another Possibility for Life
Project Introduction: Nearing thirty, I went to study gastronomy at the foot of the Italian Alps. I chat with people around the kitchen table, in the vegetable garden, and in the workshop, and this kind of interaction and cultural exchange has been a vital experience for my personal growth. With no convenient takeaway food, my daily life of eating has grown all the more easy and unhurried. The language barrier is real, yet I have gained genuine friendships. Food, after all, connects us to the land, to nature, and to different cultures. Mountainous areas make up seventy per cent of Italy’s land area, and many young people are venturing into hillsides long abandoned to farming, cooking, or winemaking. To me, this is no pastoral idyll but a difficult yet joyful journey of finding oneself. It has nothing to do with laid-back charm or wild open spaces — it is about thinking seriously about the food one lives with day in, day out, and about one’s own way of living. Only such a life is worth living.
Crossing the Mountains with Food: Localised Food Exchange, Production, and Emotional Connection at the Yao-Hakka Border in Northern Guangdong
Project Introduction: Northern Guangdong is home not only to Cantonese and Hakka villages but also to settlements of the Guoshan Yao, a subgroup of the Yao people. These multi-ethnic villages live off the mountains, maintaining a tacit, unspoken bond with the Nanling Mountains and the waterways of the Pearl River Delta. The Yao people, who had migrated from mountain to mountain across generations owing to barren land, natural disasters, and food shortages, have, since the 1990s, stopped seeking out new hillsides and instead relocated to nearby towns in line with government policy. In this new era of migration, how do the Yao and their food cross mountains together, and how are they swept up in urbanisation and the market economy? How do the Hakka and indigenous communities living alongside them respond? How do the hidden emotions of migration find release or solace in food? We will continue the thread of inquiry set out in “How Do People Live Deep in the Yao Mountains?”, using the Yao-Hakka Market Fair in Ruyuan County, Shaoguan City, as a new starting point — getting to know local smallholder farmers, returning to the Yao mountain villages, and telling the emotional stories of the people rooted in the fields and their bonds with food.
Projects Jointly Supported by Foodthink and Farmers’ Seed Network
“Local Wisdom in Growing Heritage Rice Varieties and Responding to Climate Change”
Project Introduction: Our ancestors crossed mountains and rivers to arrive at the Ailao Mountains, where they carved out terraced fields. There is a saying that describes how we carved terraces into the mountainsides as “sculpting the mountains.” In truth, we coexist and co-evolve with nature, shaping one another — we transform the mountains into wetlands, and nature’s temper, in turn, sculpts our culture. Which season calls for which crop? Which crops suit our ecology best? How should we manage water given the uneven distribution of mountain water resources? We have developed all manner of cultural rules in keeping with nature’s temperament, and this ancestral wisdom, grown from our own soil, may well help us cope with the ever more frequent extreme weather. Heritage rice varieties are a fine example of this. We hope to present the wisdom of our ancestors through short videos — showing the changes we face, and even the crises. Video is a fine tool for recording; perhaps one day many things will disappear. Short-form video is a fine platform for dissemination, and we look forward to sharing our culture in a way that is closer to everyday people.
“Seeds of Innovation: Reform and Opening-Up and the Evolution of Rural Wheat Varieties”
Project Introduction: The Green Revolution brought enormous changes to agriculture, especially for wheat, the main grain crop of northern China. In the past, farmers hardly ever switched wheat varieties; today, most farmers change varieties virtually every year. My in-depth report will explore how the historic transformation of Reform and Opening-Up has been closely intertwined with the evolution of rural wheat varieties. When we turn our gaze to the crop of wheat itself, how might we re-understand the historical changes wrought by Reform and Opening-Up? Through my writing, I hope more people will consider how natural factors — plants, climate, soil, and water — shape human societies and cultures. At the same time, I hope to spark broader reflection on varietal diversity in modern agriculture, and to help more people recognise the vital role of farmers’ local knowledge in driving sustainable agricultural development and ecological agriculture.
“Xuwen Pineapple Farmers Plagued by the Black Spot Mystery”
Project Introduction: This project aims to use pineapple black spot disease (brown rot of young pineapple fruit), which has appeared sporadically in Xuwen in recent years and become relatively severe this year, as a starting point to document how the disease affects local farmers in two respects — cultivation (variety selection, agricultural extension, climate adaptation practices, etc.) and marketing (the fresh-fruit market, the processing side-industry of “diseased fruit,” etc.). By consulting records from the agricultural extension system and visiting agricultural experts, guided by a brief and limited firsthand experience of this year’s pineapple season in the Yangtze River Delta region, the project will tell the stories of how farmers at the source adapt, and will convey to distant consumers the quiet difficulties behind pineapple growing and production.
Once again, our heartfelt thanks to the judges, co-creation partners, and media partners of the 2024 Foodthink Lianhe Creative Programme for their support.
– Lianhe Creative Programme Reviewers –
Li Changping
A Three Rural Issues scholar and founder of the China Rural Construction Academy, he is a Yunshan Distinguished Scholar at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
He served four times as Party secretary of a township and spent 17 years working at the grassroots level. In 2000, he wrote to Premier Zhu Rongji, stating that “farmers truly suffer, the countryside is truly poor, and agriculture truly is in danger,” which drew the central government’s attention to the Three Rural Issues. He was named Southern Weekend’s Person of the Year for 2000.
In 2011, he founded the China Rural Construction Academy and assembled the country’s first professional team dedicated to rural construction, developing a rural revitalisation model of broader significance and greater potential for wider adoption.
He is the author of Speaking Truth to the Premier, Speaking Truth to the People, The Big Climate, and Speaking Truth to the Premier Again, among other works.
Lü Zhi
Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Peking University; Executive Director of the Peking University Centre for Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development; Vice-President of the China Association of Women in Science and Technology; founder of the Shanshui Nature Conservation Centre; and advisory committee member of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030.
Beyond her long-standing research in conservation biology, Professor Lü has developed extensive practice and reflection on the relationship between agriculture and nature, sustainability, and related issues.
Fang Kecheng
Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and founder of “News Lab”.
His research interests span digital media, journalism, and political communication. He earned his PhD in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania, and his undergraduate and master’s degrees in journalism from Peking University. Before entering academia, he worked as a journalist at Southern Weekend.
As the founder of “News Lab”, he is dedicated to working with more partners to shape a better information environment and support the production of more diverse, high-quality content, including work rooted in the food and agriculture sector that also serves the public interest.
Liu Juan
Associate Professor and doctoral supervisor at the College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University, and Associate Editor of World Development.
Her primary research areas include environmental social research and political ecology, international development and agrarian change, and rural development and rural revitalisation. In recent years, Liu Juan has published a body of work on topics such as climate and environmental justice, agri-food systems, and the farmer’s perspective on rural revitalisation. Her papers on global environmental justice have been consistently highly cited, and her co-authored book Rural Revitalisation from the Farmer’s Perspective has generated broad social and policy influence. She was named to Elsevier’s 2023 list of “Chinese Highly Cited Researchers”.
Zhong Shuru
Associate Professor at the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, holding a PhD in Anthropology from Texas A&M University.
Her research has long centred on wet market culture and sustainable food systems. She is committed to advocating for healthy eating and promoting the green, sustainable development of food and agricultural systems. Since 2016, she has conducted in-depth research at more than 200 wet markets and ecological farms across the country. She has published over twenty papers in high-quality domestic and international journals. Her research findings have been reported on by Foodthink, Yixi, China Daily, Southern Weekend, and other media outlets, with a combined readership exceeding one million and generating a strong public response. Her forthcoming books include China’s Wet Markets and Sustainable Food Consumption in China: Changing Foodscapes, Values, and Practices.
Chang Tianle
Founding editor of Foodthink and convenor of the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market.
Since 2010, she has been working through farmers’ markets to help ecological smallholder farmers and consumers build sustainable food communities, collectively reducing agricultural pollution and food waste, promoting healthy eating, and advancing fair trade.
In 2017, she founded Foodthink, bringing together researchers, practitioners, and media professionals from China and abroad to jointly disseminate and advocate for more sustainable food systems, build an information and knowledge exchange platform for the sector, support grassroots organisations working on sustainable food, advance domestic industry development, conduct policy advocacy, and foster international exchange. In recent years, she has focused particularly on the complex relationships between food and agricultural systems and climate change, biodiversity, economic equity, and social justice.
Before devoting herself to sustainable food and agriculture work, she served as a business and economics journalist at China Daily and also worked at a multinational consulting firm and China Development Brief.
– Co-Creation Partners –
Urban-Rural Harvest Festival
Heyi Green Learning Campus
Farmers’ Seed Network
Deep Cultivation Social Work Service Centre
Shanshui Nature Conservation Centre
News Lab
China Rural Construction Academy
Zhiyu
– Media Partners –
DANDU
Story FM
Jieshengzhi
Tencent News · Science
Zaichang · Non-fiction Writing Scholarship