Labor in food and farming systems, migrant workers, labor rights, and changes in production-side work.
I. The Great Australian Egg Shortage For the first time in my life, I found myself unable to afford eggs. This past New Year, my family and I rented an Airbnb in Sydney, Australia, to ring in the new year. Being unfamiliar with the area, we did all our shopping…
Every garden possesses its own theory of beauty and its own moral conception of happiness. —— Santiago Berrueyet, *Philosophy in the Garden* Strangely enough, it was “weeds” that first drew me to ecological farming. Firstly, weeds as a problem. As a student of sociology and anthropology, I spent nearly a…
Foodthink’s Perspective Termite mushrooms, known locally in Shaoguan, Guangdong as “Summer Solstice mushrooms”, have become a culinary trend in recent years, sparking a picking frenzy across Northern Guangdong. CaiCai and Dayan from the “Springflut” studio ventured into the Yao community and inadvertently found themselves amidst a vast army of mushroom…
Foodthink Perspectives Slowly but surely, the eating habits of the Chinese people—long a source of national pride—are being profoundly reshaped by digital technologies driven by the internet, algorithms, and artificial intelligence. The most apparent change is in how people consume food. According to media reports, 275 million people rely on…
Foodthink says As delivery riders face exploitation and pressure, merchants contend with exorbitant commissions, and users worry about the lack of health guarantees for their food, an increasing number of people have begun to criticise and scrutinise platform enterprises. However, beyond mere criticism, can we imagine an alternative platform model?…
Foodthink Says This year is expected to be the hottest on record. However, at the recently concluded 29th UN Climate Change Conference, nations continued to clash over funding issues, leaving negotiations repeatedly deadlocked. The climate funding gap for agriculture is particularly vast. When we talk about agriculture adapting to climate…
“The American system considers itself a very successful culture because we have more people in prison than we have farmers. To feel smug about such statistics is utterly contemptible.” Five years have passed, and I still remember the shock of first reading Joel Salatin’s *Everything I Want to Do is…
In mid-April, driven by a desire to learn how to run a farm, I arrived at the Letian Haiwan Farm in Shanghai. Before I knew it, my internship had come to an end after living and working here with my colleagues. Before I left, they asked if I still wanted…
Foodthink’s Perspective Since the 1950s, a “Fair Trade” movement has emerged globally. Cheap agricultural products from developing countries are constantly imported into developed nations, yet the vast majority of profits from commodity prices are seized by large capital interests within the trade chain, leaving farmers and labourers with only a…
From 1 January 2025, platform workers in Singapore—including those in food delivery, courier services, and ride-hailing—will receive more comprehensive social protections covering work injuries, retirement, healthcare, and housing. They will also be able to form “Platform Work Associations” to strengthen their collective bargaining power. This is the result of the…
