Britain turned the world into a source of food, weaving the inequalities of class, race and species into a single food system: the famines in Ireland and India, the displacement of Indigenous peoples, and industrialised slaughter all sprang from it.
Riders eat only two meals a day, stomach problems are rife, and a South Korean study found gig workers eating fewer than three meals face over three times the depression risk of others. Under algorithmic scheduling and livelihood pressures, food-delivery labour runs at the cost of depleting health.
Sold-out sourdough bread, olive oil, sea salt and vinegar are going viral as UK consumers use ‘anti-ultra-processed food’ and social-media aesthetics to turn affordable basic staples into pricier lifestyle purchases.
Zhang Fulan, a Jieyang native in Chaoshan, recalls her childhood food memories from school-gate sweet potato starch cubes and stationery-shop ice lollies to grandmother’s Pig Trotter Rings and mother’s handmade rice cakes, linking local traditional foods, industrialised snacks and body changes linked to emotional eating.
From sugar-funded commentary by Harvard professors to obesity research backed by Coca-Cola, corporate interests have shaped US dietary guidelines, leaving ordinary people to pay the health price.
For World Book Day, Foodthink’s editors, authors and peers recommend books that connect food, land and the natural environment, including Bruno Latour’s ecological politics, French rural transformation, China’s environmental movement, vanishing foods and industrial additives.
The National Health Commission has launched a three-year “Weight Management Year” campaign, but obesity is a systemic problem shaped by food systems — ultra-processed foods, salty takeaway and pseudo-healthy foods are the real culprits. True weight loss relies on eating fresh, minimally processed foods.
A 2023 investigation by The Examination and The Washington Post found at least ten registered dietitians with over 10,000 followers accepted payment from the American Beverage Association and the Canadian Sugar Industry Association to promote aspartame and natural sugars without disclosure. AND’s principal sponsors are these very companies.
American historian Bart J. Elmore traces how Coca-Cola used public tap water, government-subsidised sugar and discarded caffeine to build a market capitalisation exceeding one hundred billion dollars — while shifting the cost of plastic waste and obesity onto the public.
From the short crop at Hu Xuemei’s farm on Chengdu’s outskirts to radish greens at the Longquan Green Vegetable Shop, Chengdu freelancer Xia Lili’s ecological Little Dining Table and the community vegetable shop show how everyday vegetable shopping becomes a healing space for residents.