How Do We Understand and Report on the Transformation from Farm to Fork? | Foodthink Media Workshop: Call for Applications

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Over the past forty years, and especially in the last decade, China’s food system has been transformed beyond recognition. Many of us have witnessed and lived through these changes: wet markets have quietly disappeared from everyday life, while fresh produce e-commerce and online shopping have become the primary source of food for many urban residents; cheap takeaway meals now dominate three square meals a day;

restaurants are increasingly relying on pre-prepared foods;

processed food has become the everyday diet for many people, including children; vegetables that taste of vegetables and meat that tastes of meat are gradually giving way to the standardised flavour of commercial seasonings;

we can source food, fruit and vegetables from ever more distant places, yet finding seasonal, local food producers and suppliers has become ever harder—we are heading towards a more industrialised and commercialised food system.

Yet in the public sphere, and particularly in the media, discussion of the causes and consequences of these trends is still far from sufficient. The following questions are especially pressing:

  • How do farmers—especially smallholder farmers, both as consumers and as producers—participate in the food system, and how are they affected by its transformation?
  • How does the food system contribute to climate change, biodiversity loss and other environmental crises?
  • What are the differences in the environmental, social and economic costs behind different patterns and choices of food consumption?
  • What policies can governments adopt to address these issues and build a more sustainable and equitable food system?
  • What actions can consumers take to actively improve our food system?…
As an independent, non-profit platform focused on China’s food system, Foodthink plans to host an in-person media workshop in Beijing from 18 to 20 August. We would like to invite media professionals to come together to discuss the changes unfolding in the food system around us, share the challenges facing Chinese agriculture and the confusion surrounding food consumption, and explore the actions that media professionals and consumers alike can take. The workshop will welcome scholars and practitioners from relevant fields to share their latest research and experience with journalists, and there will also be a day of field visits, during which participants can choose to tour small eco-farms, a farmers’ market, a wholesale market, a wet market, a “viral” suburban county fair and a waste-processing facility in the Beijing area. We are now open to applications and recruiting 25 media professionals. You might be a journalist or editor at a media organisation with an interest in food, agriculture and sustainability; a freelance writer looking to bring a fresh perspective to your work; or a video creator or podcast host in search of new stories. We look forward to meeting new partners and creating more opportunities for exchange and mutual learning!

Event Schedule and Venue

Date and Time

18–20 August 2023, full day

(Friday, Saturday, Sunday)

Venue

Beijing

*Exact location to be advised

Workshop Guests

Lu Zhi

Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Peking University; Executive Director of the Peking University Centre for Nature Conservation and Social Development; Vice President of the Chinese Association of Women in Science and Technology; Founder of the Shanshui Conservation Center; and Advisory Committee Member of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030). Beyond her long-standing research in conservation biology, Professor Lu Zhi has extensive practical experience and deep insight into the relationship between agriculture and nature, as well as sustainable development.

Liu Juan

Liu Juan is an Associate Professor and PhD Supervisor at the College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University, and Executive Editor of World Development. Her main 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 series of works on themes such as climate and environmental justice, the agriculture-food system, and farmer perspectives on rural revitalisation. Her paper on global environmental justice remains a highly cited paper, and her co-authored book Rural Revitalisation from a Farmer’s Perspective has generated broad social and policy impact.

Zhong Shuru

Anthropologist. Professor Zhong’s research spans gastronomic tourism, sustainable food systems and food culture. She is particularly interested in the food system traditions of the Pearl River Delta region and in the significance of practice systems that defy the East/West and traditional/modern dichotomies for our everyday practices.

Li Xueshi

Holds a PhD in Sociology from Michigan State University, USA, and previously conducted sociological research on organic food at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Currently serves as Principal Investigator for the project “Alternative food systems, standards, and sustainability” in the General Education Department at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Research interests: sociology of food, environmental sociology, and Science, Technology and Society (STS).

Li Guanqi

Head of the Eastern Office of the Farmers’ Seed Network, responsible for the ecological selective breeding pilot programme and the promotion of seeds and agroecology in the Jiangsu–Zhejiang–Shanghai region. Has contributed to the Lianhe Programme, an agricultural biodiversity small-grants initiative jointly launched by Foodthink and the Farmers’ Seed Network, where they are responsible for project coordination.

Free from Plastic

Registered in 2018, Free from Plastic is an environmental organisation dedicated to addressing plastic pollution. Through corporate advocacy, public awareness campaigns and policy recommendations, the team works to eliminate plastic pollution in people’s daily lives and the environment. Their motto is “Towards a Future Free from Plastic Pollution”.

More experts and practitioners will also be attending the workshop

Field Visit Sites 

Xinfadi Agricultural Products Wholesale Market

As one of Asia’s largest agricultural products wholesale markets, Xinfadi supplies nearly all of Beijing with fresh vegetables and various non-staple food items, and is a microcosm of our food system today. Yet we may have only heard its name through a disease outbreak in 2020. Led by scholars and senior journalists, we will explore how Beijing’s “vegetable basket programme” operates deep into the night at Xinfadi, and examine what changes this sector has been experiencing in recent years.

Traditional Markets in the Beijing Suburbs

Traditional markets across the country, including those in the Beijing suburbs, became new “internet-famous” destinations last year. In recent years, countless wet markets have also gone viral, but can the younger generation truly connect with the ecology of traditional market gatherings? And what unique social and economic value do such gatherings and wet markets hold that cannot be replaced?

Agroecological Farms Around Beijing

Beyond large-scale, certified organic farms, there is a community of farmers who, despite operating on a much smaller scale, equally embrace eco-friendly production principles. What is the reality of production and marketing in small-scale agroecology, and how does it differ from mainstream organic farming? How do external uncertainties affect these farms? For further concrete questions about this “alternative” mode of production, we have invited on-the-ground farmer friends to answer our questions.

Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market

The Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market was voluntarily established by a group of consumers, with the aim of creating a platform that enables farmers practising organic agriculture to communicate and interact directly with consumers. It helps consumers find safe, trustworthy products while also helping farmers broaden their market channels and encouraging more to adopt organic farming. By doing so, the market works to reduce environmental pollution from chemical fertiliser and pesticide, safeguard food safety, and practise fair trade. Since September 2010, the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market has cumulatively hosted over 1,000 market events, and currently also operates two community shops and an online store.

Integrated Waste Treatment Facility

At the tail end of the food system, China produces 100 million tonnes of food waste every year, while the food and catering industry simultaneously generates large volumes of other waste; the food delivery industry alone produces 1.6 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. How much pressure do these place on the environment and waste management? Under what conditions is it possible for this waste to undergo harmless treatment or resource recovery?

Support and Awards for Pioneering Food and Agriculture Reporting

Can the media take on the responsibility of broadening horizons and addressing public concerns against the backdrop of food system transformation? This is the original intention behind our hosting this workshop. We sincerely hope that, regardless of size, media outlets will use their reporting to venture into rarely explored fields, enriching our fundamental imagination of these issues and sustaining a shared space for public discourse. We will also select outstanding independent creators from among the workshop participants and provide funding of RMB 3,000 to RMB 20,000 based on their reporting proposals. Following this workshop, Foodthink will establish a Pioneering Food and Agriculture Reporting Award, dedicated to recognising outstanding reporting in the food and agriculture sector this year, particularly in-depth journalism. At that time, we will give priority to submissions and nominations from members of this workshop, and we also look forward to more media professionals joining us in organising and selecting winners for the award.

Event Registration

Eligibility

Media and independent media practitioners focused on agriculture, food, the environment, health, society and other fields, as well as cross-cutting issues. Able to guarantee full attendance across the three days.

Registration Deadline

Closes at 23:59 on 11 August 2023

The workshop is free to attend. On the 18th and 20th of August, the organisers will provide zero-waste lunches and dinners prepared from ingredients sourced from ecological smallholder farmers.

Foodthink will cover the travel expenses of participants travelling from other cities, including high-speed rail, hard-sleeper berths or economy-class flights to and from Beijing, as well as four nights’ accommodation from the 17th to the 20th. Details of the venue, accommodation arrangements and schedule will be communicated separately to participants once confirmed.

Please click here to complete your registration

We will contact applicants by phone or email before 15 August to confirm whether their registration has been successful.

Special Thanks 

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Sustainable Catering Provider

Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market

Specially Invited Workshop Curator: Qi Ran

Editor: Wang Hao

Published by Foodthink