China And Global Food Security

In less than half a century (1978–2020), China has transformed itself from a country that barely fed itself to a powerful player in the global food system, characterized by massive food imports, active overseas agricultural engagement, and the global expansion of Chinese agribusiness. This Element offers a nuanced analysis of China's global food strategy and its impacts on food security and the international agri-food order. To feed a population of 1.4 billion, China actively seeks overseas agri-food resources whilst maintaining a high level of domestic food production. This strategy gives China an advantageous position in the global food system, but it also creates contradictions and problems within and beyond the country. This could potentially worsen global food insecurity in the long term.

This book offers a snappy but comprehensive investigation of how the resource needs of today could become the resource conflicts of tomorrow. As the most populous country in the world, the security of China’s “rice bowl” is not only a top political priority for China’s policymakers but increasingly a critical global concern as the country emerges as a leading food importer and a major player in outward agricultural investment. This book sheds light on China’s efforts, both at home and abroad, to safeguard its food security and how these efforts will affect global food systems. This book will be of interest to industry analysts, institutional investors, and scholars of China's global rise.

Through decades of efforts, China has overall achieved self-sufficiency in food supply, which is the result of effective policies and measures adopted by the Chinese government. This book focuses on China’s food security strategy and agricultural going global strategy and goes into details on policies and measures for achieving domestic food security. It specially analyzes status and development trend of China’s corn industry since corn is the most sensitive grain variety that plays an important role as food, feed and raw material for bioenergy. It also studies overseas agricultural development potential for agricultural investment and cooperation globally. It finally elaborates China’s agricultural going global strategy, with specific cases to evaluate policy effect, in order to promote international cooperation in agriculture. The conclusions are that as the world’s most populated country, China should rely on its domestic production to ensure food supply. However, with intensified constraints on resources and environment, China should appropriately adjust its food security goals to ensure the basic self-sufficiency of cereals and rely more on global markets for non-cereal grain varieties. Looking to the future, China should establish a food security system that is efficient, open and sustainable through profound reform to increase its domestic food productivity, promote sustainable development of agriculture, and expand international cooperation in agriculture.

This book makes a systematic study of the history, current situation and trend of China's food security and the global food security. COVID-19 has triggered a world food crisis. Understanding the history, current situation and trend of China's and global food security is conducive to the rational arrangement of agricultural production, food storage, scheduling and import by management departments; it is conducive to the understanding of the situation of food supply and demand; it is conducive to the rational arrangement of production and operation planning. This book systematically studies the history and experience of China's food security, analyzes the 9 major problems facing the current food security, calculates the potential food production, puts forward the strategies and countermeasures for food security in the next 20 years and puts forward 4 strategies and 8 countermeasures for ensuring food security. This book will be of great value to scholars of international relations and sinologists, and has special relevance to United Nations sustainable development goal 2, eliminating hunger.

The world’s key resources of energy, food and water, which are closely connected and interdependent on each other, are coming under increasing pressure, as a result of increasing population, development and climate change. In the case of China, following its recent economic surge, energy, food and water are already nearing the point of shortage. This book considers how China is working to avoid shortages of energy, food and water, and the effect this is having internationally. Subjects covered include domestic policy debates on China’s resource strategies, challenges for managing transboundary waters related to China, responses from various regions and countries to China’s ‘Go Out’ strategy, and China’s increasing energy links with Russia and declining agricultural trade with the United States. The book concludes by discussing in comparative perspective China’s outward resource acquisition activities and the consequent policy implications.

The objective of publishing this book is to let the general public have a better understanding of the food security situation in China and better comprehension of the merit of allocating land through market mechanism. In addition, it makes the public aware of the inefficiencies of current government regulated land system. As a populous country in the world, China emphasizes too much importance of food to ensure people's sufficient consumption. There is a national policy to protect farm land, farm land protection refers to 18 hundred million mu of farmland which is specifically designated for food production only. Unirule defined the national food security as the capability to solve food shortages, and calculated the gap between food supply and demand. Two approaches can be used to solve the above food gap. Food security problems will not happen under situations of free trade and factors substitution in market economy, substantial storage and foreign exchange income. In modern China, food insecurity or great famine only happened in planned economy. To link tightly farm land size and grain yield and even food security is baseless both in theory and practices. The previous red line of 21 hundred million mu was already broken through. The current red line of 18 hundred million mu will also be broken through, in view of the process of industrialization and urbanization. In fact, farm land protection should focus on protecting the employment right of peasant in land. Contents:Research on the Total Area, Structure and Quality of China's Cultivated LandThe Unsuccessful Cultivated Land Protection SystemFree Trade of Property Rights of Land is an Effective Land-Saving System — On Property Rights of Land Transaction System ReformLiterature Review on Food SecurityAnalysis on the Causes and Results of the Great Famine of China (1959–1961)Retrospect and Prospect of China's Food TradeChina's Grain DistributionInternational Food Security and Food TradeMeasurement of Food Security — Food GapDomestic Solutions to China's Food ShortageInternational Solutions to China's Food Shortage Readership: Researchers, professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, and general readers interested in the land protection, food security, food trade and food shortage in China. Keywords:Land Protection;Food Security;Food Trade;Food ShortageKey Features:The subject of farm land protection and food security is very important to not only China but also most countries of the world, and the food security situation of China is attractive to a worldwide audienceThis book provides a unique way to rethink the food security problem, and concludes that there is no severe food security problem in ChinaVigorously argues for market mechanism solutions in solving food security problemsReviews: "Rapid economic growth is transforming China into an urban society, with far-reaching implications for the rural sector and agricultural economy. The policy of self-sufficiency in grain production, which is enshrined in law, limits conversion of agricultural land. This book convincingly shows that this policy is an obstacle to China's prosperity, and leads to many social tensions. The authors argue that the policy comes at high costs because China is not exploiting the full advantages of globalization. This brilliant insight should offer great relief to policymakers, and should stimulate bold initiatives in reforms of land use." Professor Carsten Herrmann-Pillathan Frankfurt School of Finance & Management "Public policies of farmland protection and food security in China always have an influence on its economy, society, law and politics. They have hampered institutional change in China undergoing transition. Based on a systematic examination of the problem and analysis of the logic behind the existing policies, Professor Mao and his team have written a significant research monograph. It is bound to stimulate reexamination and readjustment of the relevant policies." Professor Lu Feng Peking University "In-depth reform and sustainable development in China can be found in a critical and cool-headed re-examination of its land use based on concern for food security. This book argues cogently that market mechanism is more powerful and more efficient than government intervention in food security and land resource allocation." Professor Xu Dianqing University of Western Ontario "This book convincingly demonstrates why for a nation endowed with a huge population but limited natural resources, China's future lies in urbanization and globalization. The current land system, despite its rampant inefficiency and injustice, remains almost unchanged from China's Central Planning Era out of ungrounded fear of losing food security and arable land. Mao and his co-authors pointed out that it is high time China reforms its land system so that its rural population will be in a better position to share the prosperity that urbanization and globalization have brought about in China since it abandoned the Central Planning System about 20 years ago." Professor James Wen Guanzhong Trinity College "The book introduces the development of regulatory farmland protection, food security policies and institutional drawbacks in a comprehensive and systematic way from historical and realistic perspectives. In addition, it offers some innovative and insightful ideas. From the perspectives of the global market, the book argues that market and privatization (reconstruction of the land ownership of farmers) are the best way to ensure food security in China." Professor Zhang Zhenqiang Hubei University, China "Farmland in China is a scarce resource, which needs protection, the more the better. However, the protection incurs great cost. On the one hand, farmland is protected at the expense of other land uses; on the other hand, the implementation costs of different protection methods are not the same. This book is a must read for insights into this problem." Professor Zhou Qiren Peking University "This book provides a comprehensive assessment of China's food security policy, with a special focus on the farm land protection system which is the most important tool of intervention in the agro-food market." Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture 53 (2014)

China’s food security has never failed to attract the public’s attention. Feeding China’s large population has always been a huge challenge. The latest large-scale famine took place in 1958–62 during which approximately 37 million people died of starvation. However, since the early 1980s, China’s food availability has improved drastically. The important question is then: has China achieved its food security? Although China’s food availability has significantly improved, it has not achieved a high level of food security due to the lack of progress in several other important dimensions of food security. The book examines China’s food security practices in the past six decades, explores the root causes that led to food shortages or abundances, and elaborates on the challenges that China has to deal with in order to improve its future food security. China’s quest for food security serves as a valuable lesson for many other countries to learn through China’s experiences and to better manage their food security in the future. The book also draws attention to the fact that China’s food security status has a huge impact on the global community and hence global collaboration is a mutually beneficial approach.

Abstract This chapter defines food security as the condition reached when a nation’s population has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet its dietary needs and food preferences. It stresses China’s importance to global food security because of its population size. The chapter introduces the contents of the volume and then treats briefly food security in ancient and dynastic (211 bc–1912) China. It examines environmental stressors, such as population growth, natural disasters, and insect pests as well as imperial responses (for example, irrigation, flood control, storage and transportation systems). The chapter also briefly int- duces the Republican era (1912–1949) and compares environmental stressors and government responses then to those of the imperial period. Keywords Food system • Food security • Food production regions • Environmental stressors (Population growth • Natural disasters • Insect pests and Plant diseases • Deforestation • Climate change) • Irrigation systems • Flood control • Grand Canal 1. 1 The Problem of Food Security and Environmental Change Food is the material basis to human survival, and in each nation-state, providing a system for the development, production, and distribution of food and its security is a primary national objective. Many forces have influenced the food security of peoples since ancient times, with particular challenges from natural disasters (floods, famines, drought, and pestilence) and growing populations globally.