I. The Seed Bottleneck In Guzhai Yao Township, Mashan County, north of Nanning, farmers’ incomes had soared thanks to growing chayote seedlings, but since last year, they have been plunged into a crisis: they have no seeds to plant. Guangxi experienced several bouts of extreme rainfall in 2024. In Mashan…

“Do the supplements recommended by that influencer dietitian actually work?” a friend whispered to me during a gathering. As a US Registered Dietitian, I have long been used to acting as the “last line of defence” for my friends’ nutritional knowledge. When the recommendations of high-traffic bloggers are laced with…

Foodthink’s Take On 16 February, Foodthink hosted an in-person sharing session centred on *Fake Meat Displaces Real Meat*, a featured work of the Lianhe Creative Project. The author and guest panellists engaged in a lively discussion on topics such as the impact of imported meat and the future of traditional…

I. The Great Australian Egg Shortage For the first time in my life, I found myself unable to afford eggs. This past New Year, my family and I rented an Airbnb in Sydney, Australia, to ring in the new year. Being unfamiliar with the area, we did all our shopping…

Foodthink’s Perspective Before the Spring Festival, Ren Yingying, a post-90s farmer from Lianxiang Farm in Chengde, Hebei, was invited by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture to attend the Global Forum for Agriculture and Food (GFFA) in Berlin, where she helped draft a position paper for young farmers.…

Since January this year, the US has faced widespread egg shortages due to avian flu. Because of the scarcity, many supermarkets have introduced purchase limits, and stockouts have become frequent. Meanwhile, egg prices have soared. Americans, accustomed to cheap eggs every day, have been voicing their frustration. This scene feels…

1. Why do maize crops need six pesticide treatments? “I wouldn’t dare buy maize to eat from the shops,” Old Lei said with a small smile. I felt a sudden wave of gloom; as a city dweller, boiled maize is my favourite breakfast on those mornings when I’ve slept in.…

On 4 February, Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives announced the successful breeding of a genetically modified strain of Blackchin tilapia. These modified tetraploid tilapia produce sterile offspring when mated with naturally occurring diploid tilapia. The government hopes this will curb the spread of the African invasive species and reverse…

Foodthink Says  On 25 January, the Foodthink Joint Creation Programmefunded the piece ‘“Fake Meat” Displacing Real Meat: Dining Tables, Herders, and the Amazon’, which was first published in Jieshengzhi and received significant attention. We are grateful to our readers for their shares and discussions. In this long-form feature based on…

As Chinese New Year draws near, not only is the festive background music returning to supermarkets, but the ‘holiday weight gain’ hashtags are once again flooding social media feeds. In the past, people often assumed that gaining weight during the holidays was due to rich, festive feasts. In recent years,…