Under the “no-burning” ban, smallholders on small plots, with no machinery and subsidies out of reach, still simply set the straw alight. Yet over twenty years of Sichuan technician Yuan Yong’s no-till mulching work, echoed by fieldwork nationwide, point to a clear conclusion: straw incorporation must fit smallholders’ own ledgers.
I. The Bean Soup of Ennoblement In a previous article, I mentioned wheat meal; this time, let’s talk about bean soup. These two humble staples carry a wealth of information; they require a tidy kitchen and a well-tended stove, and they demand our utmost attention. Yan Shigu of the Tang…
Sichuan pepper trees climb from valley to summit; a Shanxi village loses a week’s power to a cold wave — climate change hits rural life in every tree, every unit of electricity. Foodthink and Oxfam (Hong Kong) Beijing Office invite rural social organisations to document on-the-ground climate adaptation experience.
Fair Trade, organic certification, Deforestation-free – ethical labels encode anti-capitalist longing into product entries, reducing the “right” choice to an illusion that perpetuates the system. The way forward lies in questioning the production system, not filling a more ethical trolley.
Cracked fingertips, farmhands in their seventies doing all the planting across 20 mu, members unwilling to share a thin harvest – at a community-supported farm in Fengxian, Shanghai, three months of labour brought the organic ideal up against the concrete realities of manpower, seasons, and funding.
In 2019, the fall armyworm swept into Ji County on the North China Plain, leaving farmers to queue anxiously for drone spraying. Once technology extension passed from farmers’ own hands to full takeover by agricultural technology companies, smallholders gradually lost their field skills and grip on production.
Sao Qie, a Jino guide in Xishuangbanna, leads a group through Jino Mountain to catch fish, eat wrapped dishes and share a Jino song, while ecotourism reshapes village life.
From their own vegetable plots in Qujing to a table on a steep Kunming slope, Tusheng Shiguan is fourteen years in; footfall has dropped from a full mezzanine to three staff, but its Slow Food way — no pesticides, no MSG — has not changed.
Five young people interned in succession at Green Me Farm in Jingyang, Shaanxi, learning to drive a tractor, make green manure and work the biscuit line. Through Foodthink’s Lianhe Programme, they experienced biodynamic farming and chatted about surprises and rewards of stepping from the city into the fields.
Starting an organic sourdough bakery was not a whim. In order to provide my family with quality carbs, I spent several years learning how to make sourdough using a natural wild yeast starter. Over those years, I often gave loaves to friends or brought them along to potluck dinners, where…
