【推荐1】One way people are responding to food safety concerns is by growing their own food. However, not everyone lives on property with enough space for a private plot. One solution is community gardens, which have become popular worldwide, numbering 18,000 in North America alone. In addition to providing low-cost, delicious food, these public spaces offer cities a range of other benefits.

Community gardens are located in a town or city and tended by local residents. Often, the land is on a vacant lot owned by the city. The site is divided into manageable plots, which may be tended by individuals or by the garden's members collectively. Since the land is usually publicly owned, the cost for gardeners to lease it is minimal. In fact, New York City, which is home to more than 750 community gardens tended by more than 20,000 members, charges people just $1 a year to lease a plot. Other costs involve soil, tools, seeds, fencing, and so on. However, because they're shared by many people, individual gardeners pay very little.

A community garden can quickly pay off, in terms of delicious fruits and vegetables, in addition to beautiful flowers. Excess produce can be sold for a profit at farmers markets. But a garden's benefits don't stop there. They also beautify cities, foster strong relationships among residents, and lower an area's crime rate. Award-winning spaces like London's Culpeper Community Garden even attract tourists. Beautiful and affordable, community gardens are often described as oases in crowded cities.

【推荐2】Until the 1990s coffee was rarely served in China except at luxury hotels aimed at foreigners. When Starbucks opened its first outlet there in 1999, it was far from clear that the country’s avid tea-drinkers would take to such a different-and usually more costly- source of caffeine. Starbucks tried to attract customers unused to coffee’s bitter taste by promoting milk and sugar-heavy concoctions(调和) such as Frappuccinos.

But coffee has become fashionable among the middle class in China. Starbucks now has about 3, 800 outlets in China- more than in any other country outside America. Statista, a business-intelligence portal(门户网站), says the roast coffee market in China is growing by more than 10 % a year. Starbucks and its rivals see big opportunities for expanding there.

So too, however, do home-grown competitors. A major new presence is Luckin Coffee, Beijing- based chain. Since its founding less than two years ago, it has opened more than 2,300 outlets. On May 17th Luckin’s initial public offering on the Nasdaq stockmarket raised more than $570m, giving it a value of about $4bn.

Luckin’s remarkable growth is sign of change. No longer do Chinese consumers see coffee as such a luxury. Most of Luckin’s outlets are merely kiosks where busy white-collar workers pick up their drinks, having ordered them online. Super-fast delivery can also be arranged through the company’s app. Independent coffee shops are springing up. The growth is striking given the country’s reputation for its tea-drinking culture where many residents like to relax in teahouses sipping tea served gracefully.

But the two markets are different. The teahouses tend to cater to older people who like to spend long hours playing mahjong and gossiping. At the coffee shops it is rare to see anyone over 40. Young people use them for socialising, but much of their interaction is online -sharing photos of their drinks and of the coffee-making equipment. An option on the Chinese rating app Dianping allows users to search for wanghong ("internet viral") coffee houses: ones with particularly photogenic decor(照片装饰) where better to sip and We Chat?

【推荐3】Have you ever wondered why most store-bought tomatoes are so tasteless? Does it relate to climate change or soils? The answer has something to do with farmers’ income: Tomato farmers care about output, and the genetic variants (基因变体) associated with output are not associated with tasty tomato flavor, a new study finds.

Is it possible to bring back the rich, sweet flavor of the tomato? To find out, Denise Tieman, research assistant at the University of Florida, explored which genes are associated with tomatoes’ taste.

In an attempt to fix supermarket tomatoes, Florida researchers looked at 398 different types and identified the chemical and genetic makeup of each one. They had participants taste-test 101 varieties, cross-referencing the participants’ favorites with their research findings. They ended up with 13 genetic compositions that are most likely responsible for giving tomatoes their flavor. The researchers then measured the content of the 13 flavor compositions in each of the tomatoes, and identified about 250 genetic loci (遗传基因座) that controlled tomato flavor. And the researchers also wanted to explore why supermarket tomatoes have no taste.

It turns out that for industrial growers, it all comes down to priorities (优先性). North American consumers want year-round availability, so farmers started raising their plants for qualities like firmness, shelf life, high output and disease resistance, says Tieman. “Not to discount any of that because it’s all important. We want to have tomatoes in the grocery stores year round and be able to ship them long distances when it’s winter in the north. If they have to be shipped from Florida or Mexico, you need to have all those features.” But as growers planted tomatoes to meet those priorities, the flavor gradually disappeared.

Going back to the old varieties is not an option — at least, not for grocery stores. But the researchers believe that there is hope for a growable tomato that’s both long-lasting and flavorful in about three to five years.

【推荐1】One of the most popular street food found in China is no doubt the barbecue. A new series, called Chinese Barbecue, tells the story of this popular food cooked over hot coals on just about every street corner in cities and towns across the country. Barbecued meat is an important part of people’s nightlife.

Shown on June 20, the series has had more than 80 million clicks on the video site bilibili.com. To find the most popular barbecue stalls (摊位), the production team travelled to more than 500 locations in 30 cities across the country. Some viewers compare Chinese Barbecue to Midnight Diner, a Japanese TV series telling stories from late-night informal Japanese bars.

“I’m happy to hear this comparison because Midnight Diner is a good program, and we share the same topic — night food,” Chinese Barbecue’s director Chen Yingjie said. “However, in terms of the tone, they are quite different.” He said that Midnight Diner focused more on food itself, though there was some conversation while people were eating. In contrast, the night food scene of Chinese people means joy and a more lively spirit. People eating these barbecue snacks develop a feeling of connection, which can be a cure for loneliness.

The barbecue, regarded as the most ordinary and common night street snack, is different from home-made food by mothers as that is a symbol of family, and kinship. The barbecue is where you go to become connected to people in society. And unlike official business lunches, during which people are rather reserved and polite, the barbecue lets people relax with old friends and new friends, leaving a lasting impression of friendship.

The world, as a whole, holds deep-rooted good feelings toward the barbecue, either for the taste or the warmth produced by fire. “What we should do is present the Chinese barbecue just the way it is because with its special ingredients (食材), ways of cooking, and more importantly, the special environment and people, the world will recognize it and might fall in love with it just as we do,” said Chen.

【推荐3】What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a shop? The products displayed at the entrance? Or the soft background music?

But have you ever noticed the smell? Unless it is bad, the answer is likely to be no. But while a shop’s scent (香味) may not be outstanding compared with sights and sounds, it is certainly there. And it is proving to be an increasing powerful tool in encouraging people to purchase.

A brand store has become famous for its distinctive (独特的) scent which floats through the fairly dark hall and out to the entrance, by scent machines. A smell may be attractive but it may not just be used for freshening air. One sports goods company once reported that when it first introduced scent into its stores, customers’ intention to purchase increased by 80 percent.

But while e-shops can only use sights and sounds, bricks-and-mortar stores (实体店) can offer a full experience from the minute customers step through the door to the moment they leave. Another brand store seeks to be much more than a shop, but rather a destination. And scent is just one way to achieve this.

Now a famous store uses complex man-made smell to make sure that the soft scent of baby powder floats through the kid department, and coconut (椰子)scent in the swimsuit section. A department store has even opened a new lab, inviting customers on a journey into the store’s windows to smell books, pots and drawers, in search of their perfect scent.