A Tiger-Head Year, But No Snake’s Tail for Us! | Foodthink’s 2022
For most people, 2022 felt like a ride on a “rollercoaster”, full of ups and downs.
Foodthink’s colleagues shared the same mood as everyone else: work plans had gone from the 2021 ambition of “up the mountains and into the sea” to anxious, on-edge unease.
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Fortunately, the year’s work also brought plenty of rewards. Thanks to the dedication of close friends, Foodthink published nearly 100 original articles, hosted more than 40 public events, produced 13 podcast episodes, and delivered other project outputs too numerous to count – and we give our heartfelt thanks for all of it!
As we return to work in the new year, we invite our readers to join us in looking back, through this article, at the 2022 that Foodthink has recorded. Pick it up, then set it down – and embrace a year of new life ahead.
Uncertainty
Foodthink 2022
Having lived through the past two months, the lockdowns of 2022 already feel like a lifetime ago. Throughout the city lockdowns and control measures across the country, Foodthink kept reporting on the stories of ordinary people and food during the pandemic: How did Shanghai residents, unable to leave their homes, desperately scramble to secure groceries? If a lockdown is imminent, what foods should you stock up on? If supermarkets and online grocery platforms run short, where can you buy fresh produce? What are some clever tricks for storing food? Are the wild greens in the residential compound safe to eat? What do you do if you are stuck in the office under lockdown? Is there still time to start growing your own vegetables from scratch?
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In December last year, Foodthink’s “The Pandemic and Food” series officially came to an end, yet the pandemic’s impact continued to spread. This Chinese New Year, many people returned to hometowns they had not visited in years, or personally experienced the loss of a family member, or cared for a loved one at their hospital bedside… 2022 – we will not forget.
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International food systems, too, faced various disruptions. Ukraine’s food exports, obstructed amid the war, not only affected food supplies in developing countries – the “butterfly effect” even reached Singapore’s signature dish, Hainanese chicken rice.
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Resilience
Foodthink 2022
The pain and anxiety of the past year have also led us to reflect once more on urban life and the consumption patterns we take for granted. Is dependence on ever-larger yet ever-more-uncertain systems the only option? Can we imagine a more sustainable, more resilient future?
Many people place their hopes in top-down solutions: the agricultural nitrogen-reduction plan introduced by the Dutch government in June 2022, for instance – but unrealistic targets and a lack of supporting transition policies sparked massive protests among Dutch farmers.
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Is third-party-led organic certification the answer to food safety and environmental problems? And how should we view the biggest fraud scandal in the history of America’s organic industry? Why were regulators unable to spot the cracks in the farmer’s scheme of passing off inferior goods as premium, let alone break down the barriers between producers and consumers?
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Moreover, the farms that can afford organic certification fees tend to be quite large. Yet research has found that among certified organic farms, the larger the operation, the less likely its managers are to adopt ecologically beneficial measures – and large organic farms also end up squeezing out the room smallholder farms need to survive.
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What we would rather champion is bottom-up change. From farther afield, there are lessons to draw from overseas: the UK’s transition town of Totnes relies on its local food system to weather risks; Wang Bang, a Chinese writer living in Britain, engages in grassroots politics through local food movements; young people in the Netherlands brew distinctive craft beer to support local ecological smallholders…
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Closer to home, there are actions and practices at work: Grandma Kouzi living self-sufficiently in Èren Valley; the intellectual farmers Wenzizi and Changjiaoling, who live on a satoyama in the Beijing outskirts; the community greengrocer at the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market; the Tsinghua–Peking Consumer Co-operative, which connects directly with producers; the Harvest Festival – a grand food and farming celebration bridging town and countryside…
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Technology
Foodthink 2022
In recent years, the metaverse concept has swept across the internet, but do we really need this digital utopia built by tech experts? It is said that science and technology are the primary productive force – but can they solve the fundamental problems of agriculture?
E-commerce platforms that seem to connect smallholder farmers and consumers directly – can they really solve farmers’ market difficulties? According to research by Lecturer Feng Xiaojun at China Agricultural University, the technical and financial barriers to agricultural e-commerce are steadily rising, leaving smallholder farmers virtually no room to negotiate on these platforms. They remain subject to the logic of capital and traffic.
Smallholder farmers who join the e-commerce game may boost their sales, but they are also driven in circles by the demanding rules of platform customer service. The difficulties fruit growers face in production and sales become even more invisible in the eyes of consumers who focus solely on appearance and service.
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Blockchain, which was all the rage a few years ago, was once considered the next big tech trend in agriculture. But faced with real-world implementation barriers and the monopolies that technology reinforces, one must wonder whether agricultural blockchain is destined to remain nothing more than a pipe dream.
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Returning to food itself, plant-based meat “black tech” has also been the new darling of the investment world in recent years. This protein isolate extracted from legumes, bolstered by a host of additives to mimic the taste and appearance of meat, is just another form of ultra-processed food – certainly less healthy than genuine vegetarian food, and not necessarily more environmentally friendly either. Truly responsible consumption calls for a deeper understanding of food and agriculture, not merely a fixation on tech hype.
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The ecological disaster constructed around dinosaur spectacle in Jurassic World 3 has, in fact, been repeatedly playing out in reality: the golden combination that has earned seed companies enormous profits – herbicides and herbicide-tolerant GM soybeans – has severely damaged biodiversity.
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Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring reminds us that humanity’s attempt to wipe out pests once and for all with pesticides has only resulted in technology turning against us and the destruction of ecological balance.
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It is time to look within and ask: will technology lead humanity to spin its own cocoon and entangle itself?
Climate Change
Foodthink 2022
The second-strongest Dragon Boat rains in the Pearl River basin since 1961, scorching heat across the country, drought during flood season in the Yangtze River basin, persistent summer-to-autumn drought in southern regions, abrupt, dramatic cold snaps… the frequent extreme weather events of 2022 made more people viscerally feel the climate disasters wrought by global warming.
Yet we have found that media coverage and public debate around the climate issue tend to focus on food security, leaving the perspectives and voices of ecological farmers underrepresented. How do ecological smallholders view climate change? How do the abnormal and extreme weather brought by climate change affect them? How are they adapting? What gaps and barriers still stand in the way of future adaptation?
To answer these questions and to highlight the wisdom, practices, and efforts of ecological farmers in responding to climate change – as well as the challenges they face – Foodthink and Friends of Nature’s Linglong Programme, both long committed to ecological agriculture and climate change issues, jointly launched the “Climate Change and Ecological Smallholders Survey” in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei and South China regions in 2022.
Starting in May, project officer Qi Hua and Linglong Programme partner Qian Yao began participatory research in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. In late July, Qi Hua and colleagues visited twelve ecological farms across South China amid an exceptional heatwave. Between their demanding research schedule, they documented smallholder stories through heavy rainfall, heat and drought, hailstorms, and blizzards, and once the survey was complete, they wasted no time in sharing what they had witnessed along the way.
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We would like to express our special thanks to Researcher Xu Yinlong of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Mr Xu not only offered invaluable suggestions for this survey but also delivered presentations at two sharing sessions for Foodthink readers, covering the impact of climate change on agriculture and how agriculture can adapt to climate change.
Beyond laying out hard scientific facts, Foodthink also hopes the story of climate change and agriculture can reach a wider general audience. So in the immediately following August, Foodthink and Friends of Nature co-hosted a book club for The Earth Doesn’t Care: The Table Ruined by Climate Change, inviting frontline ecological farmers from across China to share the climate crisis as they have experienced it firsthand, discussing topics such as water resources and pest and disease under the backdrop of climate change.
Resilient ecological farmers have also been gradually discovering, amid crisis, the wisdom to cope with climate change: improving soil, crop rotation, upgrading farm infrastructure, switching crop varieties…
At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) and the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), Foodthink’s founding editor Tianle presented to a global audience the actions and experiences of Chinese ecological smallholders in mitigating and adapting to climate change, as well as the challenges they face and the support they need. The ‘Climate Change and Ecological Smallholders’ research report is also set to be officially released in the first half of this year – watch this space!
Diversity
Foodthink 2022
A healthy society should not have only one voice. Healthy agriculture, too, should embrace diverse crops, diverse forms, and diverse participants.
Through our research and farm visits, we found that diversified planting is an important strategy for ecological farms adapting to climate change. Coincidentally, when the Tieguanyin market slumped, tea farmers in Anxi, Fujian, also turned to diversified planting to spread their risk.
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To fundamentally protect agricultural biodiversity, the collection and use of heirloom seeds is indispensable. During the Harvest Festival in Beijing, Foodthink invited partners from the Farmers’ Seed Network and the third cohort of the Lianhe Programme to share, from the perspectives of both farmers and food lovers, the stories behind heirloom seed conservation. And even if you are just an ordinary urban consumer, you too can contribute to biodiversity conservation in whatever ways are within your reach.
A healthy farm should not grow only one crop. A healthy market should not be confined to a single monopolistic format, either. As the business environment and consumer habits shift and urban renewal gathers pace, do wet markets still have a reason to exist? Foodthink authors Pi Dan and Qi Ran, together with editor Wang Hao, chatted about why we still need wet markets.
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If wet markets are ultimately destined to disappear, then go and buy your vegetables now – go and document them! Just as Xiao Yan, a girl who grew up in Shanghai’s wet markets, did: in tribute to the already-demolished Aohua Market, she photographed portraits of over a dozen market stallholders to keep as mementos.
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Diversity means no distinction between advanced and backward, no division by ethnicity, and equal respect for every culture and its corresponding way of producing and living. In 2022, Foodthink’s gaze also turned to China’s inland frontiers: we visited the Jiarong Tibetan villages of Danba County, the Land of a Thousand Watchtowers; climbed the mountains alongside beekeepers in Longnan’s hillside villages to harvest honey; ate and lived alongside herding friends on the Ujimqin Grassland; documented the table traditions of Lisu villages, where abundant ingredients are foraged from the land itself; and, using weaving and dyeing as warp and weft, charted the changing lives of a Guizhou Dong village.
Last year, we also began stepping beyond the discourse we knew well, attempting to open up more dialogue and collaboration with the art world. There was the online dialogue originating from the exhibition The Boundless Sea; the online discussion inspired by foraged greens, co-curated with LEAP; and the co-creation segment at the Beijing Harvest Festival – Art Activists in the Vegetable Garden.
Interns
Foodthink 2022
Since its founding in August 2017, Foodthink has reported on the stories of dozens of ecological farmers across the country. Over years of development, their farms have accumulated a wealth of valuable experience in areas such as farm management, production techniques, and marketing.
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If this knowledge could be collated as a reference for young people aspiring to return to the countryside, it could help reduce their learning and trial-and-error costs; and the influx of young people would also breathe new vitality into the farms, injecting fresh blood into the sustainable food and farming industry.
So in early 2022, Foodthink launched the first cohort of the Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme. We screened and matched eighteen young people from diverse backgrounds, who set off for twelve ecological farms across the country – and almost all of them went on to successfully complete internships ranging from three months to a year.
Many chose to extend their placements after the initial term ended – either staying on at the farm as full-time staff, or continuing to explore work related to ecological agriculture, learning from the land and its farmers.
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Those internship partners who did not stay on at the farms gained fresh perspectives and renewed strength from the experience, continuing to explore their life paths with courage.
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The farms that received the first cohort of interns also gave the internship programme high marks. Most have continued to support Foodthink’s second cohort of the programme, hoping to take on even more interns.
If you care about food, about the environmental, livelihood, and equity issues tied to agriculture, and you are also considering more possibilities for your life, you are welcome to join the second cohort of Foodthink’s Ecological Farm Internship Programme – applications are now open!
On 9 February, we will also be hosting a special sharing session, inviting the first cohort’s interns and their mentors to look back on their internship experience. We will open a Tencent Meeting and live-stream the session on Foodthink’s video channel. If you would like to learn more about the details of the internship programme, you are welcome to ask questions online.
Food Talk
Foodthink 2022
Foodthink’s logo is a microphone growing out of a field. In 2022, we really did sling a microphone over our shoulder and travel north and south, collecting voices from the fields – we launched Food Talk across podcast platforms and published 13 new episodes.
The field means real land and hands-on agricultural production. During our research in South China, Guo Rui from Yinlin Ecological Farm shared his ten-year journey back to the countryside with the hosts; we also invited the “Huanglongbing expert” – Senior Agricultural Technician Luo Lishuang – to chat about the technical guidance he provides to smallholders and his observations on ecological agriculture.
The field means real villages and rural dwellers who affirm the value of country life. On Food Talk, you can hear musician Banong explain why he returned to the countryside, choosing a life of “head down farming, head up singing”; you can hear how Jingwen and Zimin at Yinlin Farm, drawn there by different paths, came to stay on as new villagers.
The field also connects researchers, activists, and ordinary people in the city who care about food and farming issues: anthropologist Pídàn at the wet market; Fang Ping, who researches rural home gardens; Junjun, a regular at Yunnan’s wild mushroom markets; Jin Hailan, founder of the “Reliable” Tsinghua–Peking Consumer Co-operative; Liu Lan, head of Gaia Nature School’s Forest Kindergarten… and, of course, ordinary people anxious about food and freedom during pandemic controls.
In 2023, the hosts of Food Talk will continue to roam the country with their microphones, bringing you the voices of the field and the land – setting out from food, to know the world and see one another.
You are welcome to interact with us on any podcast platform, or add “Shitong Jun” on WeChat (WeChat ID: foodthinkcn) to join our WeChat listener community. Tell us the food and farming topics that interest you, the guests you would like us to invite – Food Talk might just make it happen!
Harvest Festival
Foodthink 2022
How can the countryside be seen by the city? Can food and agriculture become the link for harmonious coexistence between people and nature? Do I know where the food I eat each day comes from? What kind of life do I want? What can one person’s efforts change?
To answer these questions, several organisations in Guangdong focused on urban–rural community development and sustainable living jointly launched the Guangdong Harvest Festival in 2017, upholding the principles of centring smallholders and city dwellers, caring for the environment, and fostering urban–rural mutual aid. Foodthink, which had actively participated in the Guangdong Harvest Festival, also decided to bring the Harvest Festival to Beijing in 2022.
Having seen the example set by our Guangdong partners, we hoped the Beijing Harvest Festival could also become a grand carnival centring on sustainable food and farming and lifestyle issues – bringing together exhibitions, sharing sessions, film screenings, markets, and open mics. But venue changes, shifting pandemic policies, the experience of lockdown, and catching COVID soon pulled us back to reality.
So Foodthink and our co-creation partners turned online, and towards the end of 2022 we hosted one workshop, two reading groups, and seven sharing sessions centred on diversity and sustainable living. On 15 January, we also held a year-end market, drawing a physical full stop to the Harvest Festival.
This was our first attempt, far from perfect, but the Beijing Harvest Festival is something we are committed to sustaining in the long run. A special thank-you goes to this year’s co-creation partners (listed in no particular order): Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market, Farmers’ Seed Network, Friends of Nature, Friends of Nature · Gaia Nature School, Wang Jue, Zheng Yuan, Beijing Hongyan Social Work Service Centre, Wudu Xianfeng.
Gathered fireflies need not wait for a torch. In 2023, we hope more organisations and individuals will join the Beijing Harvest Festival co-creation – let us drive change together!
Learning Together
Foodthink 2022
In 2022, Foodthink organised more than 40 online events – both sharing sessions and eight books read together with our readers – covering topics such as climate change and agriculture, an overview of regenerative agriculture and practice cases, the environmental impacts of pesticides and herbicides, industrial farming and the antibiotic crisis, heirloom seed collection and living conservation, half-farming, half-X rural living, fermentation and brewing, dietary patterns and gut health, and food packaging and reducing plastic waste in takeaway deliveries…
Our online community brings together participants from past events. Alongside lively discussions, everyone shares dishes from different regions, encourages one another, and when we are lucky enough to meet in person, we work the fields together, cook for each other, and swap seeds and books.
In 2022, for one reason or another, opportunities to hold events in person were truly limited. Most of Foodthink’s events moved online, and in addition to Tencent Meeting, we introduced livestreams on WeChat Channels, making it easier for everyone to book in advance or simply click to watch.
All events have been recorded and uploaded to Foodthink’s Bilibili account and WeChat Channels. If you missed one, you are welcome to watch the recordings at your leisure.
If you have taken part in our Learning Together events, could you spare a moment to fill in the questionnaire below? It will help us improve the quality and experience of our events.
2023 may still be a year full of uncertainty. Yet we believe that on the ruins lie even more possibilities for dialogue and connection. In the new year, Foodthink wishes to EAT, THINK, and ACT together with everyone!
Editor: Ze’en