Digital technology, agricultural technology, AI, and biotechnology applications in food and farming.
McDonald’s ties forecast turnover to labour hours for each time slot, letting a rostering specialist build rotas using system tags and shared store managers run several stores at once, while store staff still use experience to make up for gaps in serving and wastage.
This year, during the oilseed rape flowering period, after drone spraying, nearly all honey bees died in many areas; beekeepers said they had not been notified. Without pollinating insects, average fruit crop yields in China would fall by 40%, while vegetable yields would fall by 30%.
Harvard University professor Chensheng Lu, beekeeper Kenneth Walhoer and insect toxicologist Richard Kalahan tracked empty beehives, finding that sustained ingestion of low doses of neonicotinoid insecticides damages honey bees’ mitochondria and that seed coating allows pesticides to enter the environment, ultimately triggering bee colony collapse.
In northern Anhui, old harvesters are being replaced by new machines with large grain hoppers and air conditioning. Bag collectors and workers who spread fertiliser and spray pesticides are losing work, one after another, but high prices leave smart agricultural machinery farther from smallholders.
From sugarcane fields in the south, Wuhan rice fields and tea gardens to an insect lab, four agricultural science students, recent graduates or those about to graduate, share their love of crops, the disconnect between agricultural science and real-world farming, and uncertainty about employment.
Farmer Kou Yanding has sued for defamation after Baidu AI generated a fake “judgment” saying he had been sentenced for extortion. The Beijing Internet Court has heard the case, making it the first AI defamation case in China with documented records.
A northeast drone pilot lost fees in a power-line crash; XAG’s P80 returns dispute led large-scale grain farmer Zhao Mingliang to choose DJI. Agricultural shops and short-video streamers pitch repeated fertilising as scientific farming, but falling grain prices mean higher yields may not raise income.
From the rice fields of the Northeast to Hainan’s orchards, cross-region drone pilot Brother Yang, drone-buying farmer Zhao Mingliang, and others are facing falling spray unit prices, pesticide damage disputes and occupational illness risks for which compensation is hard to claim.
In 1953, American C.A. Swanson & Sons, inspired by food served on a plane, froze unsold Thanksgiving turkey in aluminium foil trays. The company sold more than 20 million TV dinners in a year, making frozen food a lifestyle for many families.
A financial media outlet’s former agricultural journalist Xie Xiaodan wrote food as supply-and-demand figures through financial reports, market prices and phone interviews. From pig abscess meat, vegetable prices and a shared-farm vegetable plot, they realised agricultural reporting must leave statements and return to the land.
