For Jian Yi, founder of campaigning organisation the Good Food Fund, China’s understanding of food systems is where its awareness of the environment was a decade ago. Initially mundane discussions on how to clean up litter or avoid the harmful impact of smog rapidly grew into a broader debate about building sustainable ecosystems. 

The award-winning documentary film-maker sees a similar turning point approaching for food in China — with a pivot away from narrow concerns about food safety, sparked by scandals involving tainted milk powder, “gutter oil” and rotting meat, to how to transform food systems. “We are currently trying to connect the dots for people to convey that this is a global problem that requires a solution in China,” he says. 

The pandemic has spurred scrutiny of China’s wildlife trade and urban markets, where the novel coronavirus virus first appeared, and prompted Chinese environmentalists to call for a wider reflection about humans’ relationship with nature.