Organic production, sustainable farming methods, and agroecological practices.
61-year-old farmer Sun Wenxiang, with his wife and father, maintains ecological farming in Qilong Village, Hongya County, keeping old rice varieties such as Red-beak Glutinous Rice, relying on black pigs, biogas slurry and daily weeding, while questioning whether old varieties will reach the next generation.
Grandma Kouzi has spent four years reclaiming land in Villain’s Valley, Fujian, turning a muddy mountain gully behind the house into a slope where gardenias, wild ginger and coreopsis grow, and, amid repeated failures, has also acknowledged the boundaries of her capability.
Foodthink Says Since this spring, Shaanxi has experienced its most severe drought since 1961. Combined with extreme weather such as high temperatures, strong winds, and sandstorms, these compound disasters have seriously threatened agricultural production and rural livelihoods. In May, with the support of the Oxfam Hong Kong Beijing office, Foodthink…
During the first decade of the 21st century, triggered by a series of food safety crises, a group of Chinese consumers began exploring better agricultural practices and ingredients. Across the country, the first wave of farmers dedicated to organic cultivation gradually emerged. Cao Xiaohong, a guest in this episode, was…
The film *Nei Sha* opens with an immediate explanation of its title. On the banks of a reed bed in winter, Teacher Tang, an organic farmer, explains to a visiting professor: this is the mouth of the Yangtze River, where shifting sands have deposited over time to gradually form islands.…
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.
Foodthink’s Take When discussing the impact of climate change on rural areas, we often say that “farmers are at the mercy of the elements”. But is it really as simple as that? What kind of agricultural systems and rural realities do today’s farmers actually live in? How should the macro-issue…
Last April, I arrived at Baicao Garden through Foodthink’s ecological agriculture internship programme. In Wule Town, Guigang City, Guangxi Province, where we were based, almost everything outside of Baicao Garden is chemical-based agriculture. On the drive into town, the sight of people spraying herbicides is a constant presence. I remember…
This episode visits Xiaojin County in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan, and shows how social enterprise Muyunpo builds trust with villagers, protects resources while collecting matsutake and letting yaks graze freely, and returns the sales surplus to the community.
Green Sprouts reached 100 issues through unpaid writers, reader donations and free print copies, while founder Ah Wei aimed to help farmers reclaim dignity and document sustainable food practices in Taiwan.
