Inspired by solo fruit farmer Li Baolian in Lishan, Taiwan, sixty-something Grandma Kouzi runs a one-person farm in Evil Man Valley. By year five, she is self-sufficient except salt and has calculated building and self-sufficient living costs of 100,000-plus to 500,000 yuan under different conditions.
Foodthink and Farmer Seed Network partners remember Guan Qi, who led the formation of the Eastern Farmer Seed Network and died unexpectedly while on a business trip to Qinghai in March, with memories of good food, documents and community seed banks.
After Hema’s mistaken delivery of daffodil bulbs, Meituan’s Xiaoxiang Supermarket sorters still have to complete an order within three minutes. Cold rooms, climbing shelves and piece-rate deductions make mis-picked or omitted items a structural issue under speedism.
Sustainable food and agriculture content platform Foodthink resumes at Grain Rain, documenting smallholders’ livelihoods, field workers, climate change, biodiversity and policy changes. It clarifies this year’s focus: the International Year of Women in Agriculture, the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists and climate resilience action.
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.
Yijing Market, Wuzhou, Guangxi: Juzi’s grandmother opened the shop with the market in 1995; Juzi’s mother now opens at dawn, portions spices late at night and wins repeat trade by remembering regulars’ tastes, as Wuzhou’s wet markets decline and the small shop awaits its fate.
After Guan Qi’s unexpected passing on a business trip in Qinghai, several friends and colleagues recall this core figure in the Farmers’ Seed Network. Their memories span traditional seed conservation, document sharing, craft beer and local specialities, and show why he is deeply missed.
Over the past year, articles deleted from Foodthink have covered delivery riders, mouldy corn in North China, rural heating in Hebei and high-standard farmland. Reader comments have been quickly blocked, and the space for public discussion has narrowed.
Shuer’s family returned from Wenzhou to Wutong Village, Zhangjia Township, Weiyuan County, Sichuan, for the Spring Festival. There, market visits, fishing and picking pea shoots, with pork, crucian carp and seasonal vegetables, made up a rural dining table where food is both plentiful and scarce.
Zuo Zhi, executive director of the Yunnan Sili Centre for Ecological Alternative Technologies, teaches farmers out in the fields to use fewer pesticides and grow heritage rice varieties, building trust by ‘speaking plainly’ while promoting climate-friendly rice.
