Seed sovereignty, heirloom variety preservation, and traditional breeding systems.
From Yunnan’s Red Junglefowl, Guizhou’s high-legged chicken and Little Liangshan Yi chickens, Zou Lei, a PhD student at Minzu University of China, sees that local chicken breeds are fading as industrialised farming, urbanisation and foreign varieties arrive, and food, language and ritual change accordingly.
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.
Veteran BBC journalist Dan Saladino has visited more than 30 countries, using endangered foods such as Sichuan Red-mouth glutinous rice, Britain’s Perry pear and Coffea stenophylla to show how food diversity is linked to everyday food, farmers and ecosystems.
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 says “Seeking the tastes of childhood” has become a trending topic over the last few years. The subject of this article, the “White Rabbit” melon, is the very embodiment of that “childhood sweetness” cherished in the memories of the people of Guanzhong. This heirloom variety has been cultivated since…
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…
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…
The world’s table begins with China’s small pulses 10 February 2025 marks the seventh World Pulses Day. This year’s theme is “Pulses: Bringing Diversity to Agrifood Systems”. Grow pulses, eat pulses; diverse farming, healthy living. Soya beans, edamame, and black beans are common staples on the dining table, yet all…
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.
Foodthink’s Perspective Some media outlets have dubbed 2024 the “inaugural year of GMO commercialisation” in China. In 2023, 37 varieties of genetically modified maize and 14 varieties of genetically modified soy passed variety certification, and 26 companies were granted permits for the production and operation of GM maize and soy…
