Grassland herders, grazing systems, ecological change, and livelihood issues.
An ordinary employee at a McDonald’s in Shanghai’s Jing’an District earns 19 yuan per hour, rising to 21 yuan only after 1,000 hours. When takeaway orders surge, riders are pressed by the platform, staff are pressed by orders, and leftovers are thrown away after closing.
From the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the Amazon, imported Brazilian beef links herders’ livelihoods, price choices and rainforest deforestation. Chinese consumers argue over low prices and the environmental cost.
Fieldwork in the pastoral areas of Gannan and Qinghai shows that low-priced imported meat from New Zealand, Brazil and other countries, called ‘fake meat’ by herders, is both squeezing local grass-fed meat out of the market and driving down herder household incomes.
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…
From meat shops in county towns in the pastoral areas of Qinghai and Gansu to ranches in the Brazilian Amazon created by deforestation, low-priced imported beef and mutton push down local grass-fattened meat prices and affect herders’ income from livestock sales and their livelihoods.
From China’s delivery riders and France’s foie gras to Inner Mongolian herders, seed conservation, Monsanto’s GM disputes and fungal networks, 2024’s books trace how food, land and nature shape everyday life.
Li Pengyue, a former IT professional now running an ecological orchard in Weihai, Shandong, compares crop losses from birds and rabbits to a trapped snow leopard and nine dead sheep, and the real question is who pays when wildlife damages crops and livestock.
Gerile and other dairy producers in Sanggen Dalai Town, Zhenglan Banner, Inner Mongolia, describe how hand-fermentation, local fresh milk and wooden tools shape flavour, and explain why standardised upgrading makes it hard for many small workshops to expand production.
In late June, while travelling to Jiangbutasi Village in eastern Altay, Xinjiang, we frequently encountered Kazakh herders on horseback driving their cattle and sheep to new pastures, with cars often coming to a halt to let the herds pass. This is the peak of the migration season. Herders in the…
From 6 April, sand has been blowing almost every day in Damao Banner, Baotou, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The worst was on the 10th, when a sandstorm lasted for nearly five hours; outside, the wind and sand blotted out the sun, leaving the indoors dim and dark. “We…
