On 4 February, Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives announced the successful breeding of a genetically modified strain of Blackchin tilapia. These modified tetraploid tilapia produce sterile offspring when mated with naturally occurring diploid tilapia. The government hopes this will curb the spread of the African invasive species and reverse…
Foodthink Says On 25 January, the Foodthink Joint Creation Programmefunded the piece ‘“Fake Meat” Displacing Real Meat: Dining Tables, Herders, and the Amazon’, which was first published in Jieshengzhi and received significant attention. We are grateful to our readers for their shares and discussions. In this long-form feature based on…
As Chinese New Year draws near, not only is the festive background music returning to supermarkets, but the ‘holiday weight gain’ hashtags are once again flooding social media feeds. In the past, people often assumed that gaining weight during the holidays was due to rich, festive feasts. In recent years,…
I. Returning to 2011 The reserve’s shuttle stopped by the side of a narrow concrete road, flanked by karst limestone mountains that seemed strangely familiar. We passed through a sugarcane grove; in fact, countless bare stone peaks in the area are surrounded by sugarcane. Unlike the black-purple skin of fruit…
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…
Throughout 2024, we received a wide array of books spanning food, agriculture, ecology, sustainability, and culture—each documenting the complexities and possibilities of our world in its own way. From the hurried labourer to the modern grassland pastoralist, from the food politics behind foie gras to the diverse efforts in seed…
In this episode, Food Talk host Tianle joins Sijia from “100 Ways of Living” for a special crossover conversation. This marks the first time Tianle discusses her journey on the podcast—how she transitioned from a media professional with a degree in international journalism to a public interest worker dedicated to…
Foodthink says In the face of the climate crisis, many advocate for the use of capitalist market mechanisms to achieve carbon reductions. One such model is discussed in this article: companies pay for carbon credits, with the funds used to help a specific region reduce deforestation rates and develop alternative…
Foodthink Says How many people can commit to a single endeavour for a decade? The Nanning Urban Farmers’ Market is one such example. Since its inception in 2013, it has now entered its eleventh year. Held every two months, each market attracts dozens of vendors selling ecological produce from Guangxi—the…
Foodthink’s Perspective Some media outlets have dubbed 2024 the “inaugural year of GMO commercialisation” in China. In 2023, 37 varieties of genetically modified maize and 14 varieties of genetically modified soy passed variety certification, and 26 companies were granted permits for the production and operation of GM maize and soy…
