Foodthink Says On 17 January 2026, Mercosur (including nations such as Argentina and Brazil, hereafter referred to as Mercosur) and the European Union formally signed a free trade agreement in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. Prior to the signing, the pact had already sparked widespread protests among European farmers. They…
Each year, 315 sees a concentrated public focus on food safety. Yet, the impact of “digital pickled mustard greens” – this form of virtual sustenance – on dietary wellbeing has yet to command adequate attention. Short videos, television dramas, variety shows, podcasts… content collectively dubbed “digital pickled mustard greens” has…
Foodthink Says In January this year, Foodthink joined Blue Climate Partners to visit fishing villages in southern Thailand to understand how small-scale fishers and grassroots NGOs are joining forces to combat overfishing and achieve a win-win for both conservation and livelihoods by establishing “community-managed protected areas”. Journeying from Trang to…
In 1972, British scientist John Yudkin published a book titled Pure, White and Deadly. The protagonist of that book was sugar—pure, white sugar. The protagonist of this short piece is sugar too, but the sweet kind. Here, ‘sugar’ refers to sugar itself, sweets, and added sugars in food. On an…
Foodthink Says In 1948, the central government decided to import tractors from the Soviet Union to bring the vast, untamed lands of Beidahuang under cultivation. At the same time, to train agricultural machinery operators, a tractor driver training programme was launched at the Beian Reclamation Area in Heilongjiang. Eighteen-year-old Liang…
I. Climate Change in the No. 1 Document For the first time, the term “low-carbon agriculture” appears in the 2026 Central No. 1 Document. Nearly six years have passed since China announced its “dual carbon” goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality to tackle climate change. This does not mark…
When you step into a McDonald’s and take your place at the counter for your usual meal deal, can you sense it: behind that open kitchen, a highly orchestrated “production battle” is underway. In the lore of the fast-food empire, everything is standardised: a strict 90-second service window, fryers held…
Last April, we moved our Hangzhou studio to the ground floor of an older residential compound with a certain sense of history, gaining a small courtyard in the process. A narrow band of soil runs around the yard; positioned at the front and facing south, it gets excellent sunlight. Though…
I. Almost Left After years back in my hometown, I once seriously considered leaving this village altogether. Starting a few years ago, all the fields in the village were leased to larger farms. In our Jiangnan village, known as the “Chrysanthemum Village,” we are the only family still growing chrysanthemums…
On the final day of the holidays, treat yourself to one more light and refreshing dish. The Herigeobi herders’ gently simmered free-range mutton is simple to prepare, yet anyone who has tasted mutton from their year-round migratory flocks invariably praises it and cannot put down their chopsticks. Across the grasslands…
