Seed sovereignty, heirloom variety preservation, and traditional breeding systems.
Tian Le, founding editor of Foodthink, and other Chinese food and agriculture experts argue that Monsanto’s GM crops have not cut pesticide use or increased yields, and that public breeding systems, seed saving and consumer choice may better support farmers.
Editor’s Note I first met Jiang Ziqi at a book fair in Hangzhou in 2023, where she invited the Farmer Seed Network to give a talk on seed saving. At the time, I learned that she and some of her partners in Hangzhou cultivated their own small vegetable gardens and…
Editor’s Note I first met Jiang Ziqi at a book fair in Hangzhou in 2023. She had invited the Farmer Seed Network to give a talk on seed saving during the event; at the time, I knew that she and several of her partners in Hangzhou tended their own small…
Last week, the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai region suffered a historically rare series of blows, being hit by two consecutive typhoons of Force 10 or higher within just four days. Around 7:30 am on 16 September 2024, Typhoon Bebinca made landfall along the coast of the Lin-gang Special Area in…
Xia Lili and her son Lemao savour a rare summer crop of old-variety yellow peas from Jinzi’s one-person farm in Xiaojin County, Aba Prefecture, with simple pea rice recipes for summer and winter.
Inspired by Nichole, a US permaculture practitioner in Texas, Zhang Yiqing learns permaculture, stops using herbicides and chemical fertilisers, grows food on large suburban front- and back-yard lawns, and reflects on American lawn culture.
A Beijing discussion of the book Empire of Seeds, with Foodthink and the Farmers’ Seed Network, examines how seed standards, crop diversity and industrial agriculture shape the flavour of tomatoes, rice and wheat.
When we think of Monsanto, it is easy to associate the company with the health risks of genetically modified (GM) foods. However, “Empire of Seeds” by Bart J. Elmore, a US scholar of environmental history, shows that the influence of agricultural capital—epitomised by Monsanto—on the human food system is actually…
Our guest for this episode of Food Talk, Huang Guoliang, is a veteran rural development worker. Like many of our friends in the field, we are more accustomed to calling him “Lao Liu”. Since dedicating himself to rural reconstruction in 2005, Lao Liu has worked in the countryside for nearly…
Which documentary influenced the career choices of our colleagues at Foodthink, prompting us to dedicate ourselves to the food and agriculture sector? Perhaps it was *Food, Inc.* Released in 2009, the film exposes the inner workings of the US food industry, with a particular focus on the health and environmental…
