I. Flowers in Early Bloom On 3 May, in Jinqu Town, Mei County, Shaanxi, Xu Yuanlin spotted the messenger flower in his vineyard first thing in the morning. He was stunned. The so-called messenger flower is the first blossom of the season; like a herald, it warns farmers to begin…
JD recognises riders’ employment relationship and bears the full cost of social insurance and housing provident fund contributions, costing riders just 525 yuan a month; Meituan sidesteps employment status, subsidising only flexible-employment pension and medical at 1,500 yuan. “Losing 0.39 yuan per order” ignores commissions – food delivery is actually profitable.
From sugar-funded commentary by Harvard professors to obesity research backed by Coca-Cola, corporate interests have shaped US dietary guidelines, leaving ordinary people to pay the health price.
The film follows a woman with no salary and no decision-making authority on an organic farm at the Yangtze River estuary. After bearing multiple physical and emotional labours, she loses her hometown, her mother, and the farm in turn — then leads the last cow into the reed flat.
Under the Rice Tariffication Law and the impact of imported rice, smallholders on Mindanao in the Philippines face falling paddy purchase prices and high retail rice prices. They are turning to breeding and agroecology to seek food autonomy.
Farmers, grassroots social organisations and funders at the Nanning workshop discussed cases such as Huanglongbing (citrus greening disease) in navel oranges and pasture degradation in grazing regions: market conditions and policy gaps often shape rural climate resilience more than extreme weather.
Passed down since the collectivisation era by farmers saving their own seeds, Guanzhong’s “Baituwa” melon helped growers make fortunes in the 1980s. Now unable to withstand storage and transport, and not “attractive” enough, it has retreated from city shop shelves, glimpsed only at rural markets.
For World Book Day, Foodthink’s editors, authors and peers recommend books that connect food, land and the natural environment, including Bruno Latour’s ecological politics, French rural transformation, China’s environmental movement, vanishing foods and industrial additives.
Udon Thani’s sugar mill was shut down for accepting excess burnt cane, stranding nearly 2,000 trucks and leaving 50,000 tonnes of cane to rot — a loss exceeding 50 million baht. Fresh harvesting, though, costs three times as much as burning, and small farmers cannot afford it.
Dozens of readers have shared their hands-on tips for breaking free from takeaway: One-Pan Fried Rice, weekend batch-cooking a week’s meals, slipping into community canteens, browsing the wet market after work… there’s bound to be a trick for you.
