Two summers ago, I graduated with a Master’s in Sociology and joined a leading real estate company to work in agriculture, feeling a mix of anticipation and anxiety. Three seemingly unrelated paths converged in this way; my decision to veer away from the mainstream career trajectory left my family and…
I. Dried produce can be sold again The *Administrative Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Quality and Safety of Edible Agricultural Products in Market Sales* (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”), a matter of great concern to farmers across the country, have finally been released. Compared to the previously…
Foodthink says In 1924, Fei Dasheng and the teachers and students of the Jiangsu Provincial Girls’ Sericulture School arrived at Kaixiangong Village in Wujiang County to establish the Silk Improvement Society; nearly 100 years have passed since then. Their goal was to reverse the decline of the silk industry and…
In late June, while travelling to Jiangbutasi Village in eastern Altay, Xinjiang, we frequently encountered Kazakh herders on horseback driving their cattle and sheep to new pastures, with cars often coming to a halt to let the herds pass. This is the peak of the migration season. Herders in the…
I. Growing Up with the Flavours of the Loess Plateau I was born in the 1980s and grew up in the mountains of the Loess Plateau. I loved the mountains, the plateau, and the freedom of roaming through hills blanketed in wildflowers. My hometown lies where Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Inner…
“I have an idea—though I don’t know if it will be of any use?” Her mother-in-law and the former housekeeper both stared at her. She said, “We are at our busiest in spring, but the autumn is quiet. Why not take this time to trade in Hangbai chrysanthemums? They are…
Foodthink says In the Inner Mongolia region, where the vast majority of herders have transitioned to settled livestock farming, many cases of gastric perforation caused by barbed wire have emerged among cattle and sheep across grasslands now divided by fences. Meanwhile, in the banners of Ordos, where high-yield livestock breeds…
A note from Foodthink As temperatures rise, many farmers in the north are ending their winter dormancy and preparing for spring ploughing. For herders on the grasslands, however, the winter and spring lambing and calving season is the busiest time of the year, and the period when local veterinarians make…
Foodthink’s Take How exactly is agriculture being affected by climate change? Foodthink has published a series of articles on this topic. Today, we share the insights of a grower on the front line. Zhao Fei graduated from the College of Agriculture at China Agricultural University, after which he joined Pingren…
At the end of 2021, while still working for an internet company in Shanghai, I came across a recruitment notice for Foodthink’s ‘Ecological Agriculture Intern Programme’, and something about it really resonated with me. Once my application was accepted, I chose ‘Meeting Farm’ in Meishan, Sichuan, as my destination. As…
