Analysis of agricultural product prices, supply chains, corporate behavior, and industry trends.
I.“You have been penalised and demoted to shop assistant” “You have been penalised and demoted to store clerk.” A few months ago, Ms L, a store manager at a Convenience Bee branch in Beijing, suddenly received this message on her handheld terminal. In her daily routine, she had to keep…
From the 1844 Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers to food and farming practices in Chengdu, Beijing and Taiwan, readers can see how consumer co-operatives and farmers’ co-operatives connect producers and consumers, and explore healthy, fair and sustainable food pathways.
While attending a conference in Nanning, we caught up with our old friend, Huang Yajun. A seasoned rural worker born in the 1980s, Yajun has experienced several stages of rural development over the last decade or so—from spontaneous community-led exploration to government-driven poverty alleviation and rural revitalisation. Across various villages,…
I was born in a small tea-growing village in Hunan. Growing up amidst the tea gardens and mountain forests gave me a particular interest in the tea industry. When I was a child, tea production in the village lacked a formal system; every household ran it as a side hustle,…
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…
Foodthink’s Perspective Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity. This year’s theme is “Biodiversity for Sustainable Development” (Be part of the plan). For the average person, the most direct way to get involved is through eating. By doing so, we can appreciate the beauty brought by biodiversity, but we…
A Note from Foodthink With the passing of Grain Rain, the peak season for this year’s spring tea has come to a temporary close. During the Qingming Festival, Foodthink shared a story about the climate resilience of a natural farming tea garden in Xinyang. Today, we present the second part,…
One of the most significant recent news stories from Europe has seen farmers across the continent taking to the streets to protest against EU trade and land management policies, with France serving as the epicentre of the unrest. According to leaders of the primary French agricultural unions involved, extreme weather…
Foodthink’s Perspective As mentioned previously, consumers are often too disconnected from the point of production to truly understand the quality of their food, making it difficult for them to effectively safeguard their rights. To address this, Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) practices have emerged within China. PGS emphasises that various ‘stakeholders’—including…
Foodthink says ‘315’ is the shorthand for Consumer Rights Day. Every year on this date, people instinctively focus on which frauds have been exposed by CCTV. In daily life, however, a product’s value exists in more than just a binary of ‘real’ or ‘fake’; consumers also care about quality and…
