I. The Bean Soup of Ennoblement In a previous article, I mentioned wheat meal; this time, let’s talk about bean soup. These two humble staples carry a wealth of information; they require a tidy kitchen and a well-tended stove, and they demand our utmost attention. Yan Shigu of the Tang…
Sichuan Pepper Trees Climbing Higher Back in 2004, while conducting field research in a village in Mao County, Sichuan, a local told me: “The pepper trees are climbing the mountain.” He meant that while pepper trees once thrived best in the river valleys, that was no longer the case; they…
Foodthink’s Take Double 11 is here once again. Have you joined the shopping spree this year? Paying for one’s conscience, or spending based on a set of moral principles and values, is a form of ‘ethical consumption’ that differs from traditional consumerism. It reflects the consumer’s desire to support values…
In mid-April, driven by a desire to learn how to run a farm, I arrived at the Letian Haiwan Farm in Shanghai. Before I knew it, my internship had come to an end after living and working here with my colleagues. Before I left, they asked if I still wanted…
As global warming intensifies, the Fall Armyworm has emerged as a new risk threatening global agricultural production. In the summer of 2019, during our fieldwork in Jixian (a pseudonym) on the North China Plain, the arrival of the Fall Armyworm put the entire county on a “wartime footing”. The Fall…
Search for ‘rainforest trekking’ on Xiaohongshu and you’ll find countless bloggers using phrases like ‘primitive’, ’embraced by nature’, ‘off the grid’, and ‘organic vitality’ to describe the emotional resonance the rainforest provides. In September 2024, my friends and I also travelled to a tropical rainforest in Xishuangbanna. There, the embrace…
Not long after moving to Kunming, I found a restaurant that I felt I simply had to share with my friends: Tusheng Shiguan. Now in its fourteenth year, it has earned a modest reputation in the city. Tucked away in a creative park on a steep slope, the ingredients and…
In this episode of “Food Talk”, we connect remotely with five interns participating in Foodthink’s “Lianhe Project” to hear about their daily lives on the farm. These young people, hailing from all walks of life, have travelled to Green Me Farm in Jingyang, Shaanxi, for their internships. Do you think…
Starting an organic sourdough bakery was not a whim. In order to provide my family with quality carbs, I spent several years learning how to make sourdough using a natural wild yeast starter. Over those years, I often gave loaves to friends or brought them along to potluck dinners, where…
Foodthink’s Perspective Since the 1950s, a “Fair Trade” movement has emerged globally. Cheap agricultural products from developing countries are constantly imported into developed nations, yet the vast majority of profits from commodity prices are seized by large capital interests within the trade chain, leaving farmers and labourers with only a…
