Feeding the World

Can China Feed Itself? (Chapter 9) Return to Unit List

In this unit we consider the question of China's food security. China has a rapidly expanding population, which, by 2000, had reached 1.3 billion. One fifth of the world's population lives in China, and yet China has only 7 percent of the world's arable land resources. Some people feel that as its population grows, and as its economy becomes stronger, China will increasingly turn to the world grain market to meet its food needs. This prospect has alarmed Lester Brown, president of the Worldwatch Institute, who wrote a book in 1995 entitled Who Will Feed China? In this book, Brown argued that China's modernization would involve the sacrifice of its arable land resources to industrial and urban uses (such as building roads, housing, factories, and other non-agricultural conversions). China's resulting reliance on the world market, Brown argued, would severely destabilize the world's food security, since China would become such a massive buyer of grain.

See several synopses of Brown's argument at the following sites:

http://www.emagazine.com/january-february_1997/0197feat2.html

http://www.igc.org/desip/BrownFeedChina.html

http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/books/brown.htm

What are the key components of Brown's argument? Why does he believe China's food production will not be able to keep pace with its growing population? Why would China's buying food on the international market be a problem, according to Brown?

Brown's "Wake-Up Call" struck a nerve both within China and among international politicians and food security experts. While many disputed the accuracy of his findings, China itself took the position that it would—through technological improvements in its agricultural sector—be able to meet its own food security needs without relying heavily on the international market, as Brown claimed. See China's "White Paper" on the food security issue at: China's "White Paper" on the food security issue.

Meanwhile, a research institute based in Austria, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, decided to look into the question. The result was a comprehensive on-line resource addressing the multiple dimensions of China's food security.

View the IIASA site, Can China Feed Itself?: View the IIASA site here, Can China Feed Itself?

This is a very comprehensive resource with many data, analyses, graphs, and charts, all dealing with the complexity of the question raised by Brown. After spending some time exploring the site, answer the following questions:

According to IIASA, can China feed itself?
What has to happen in order to einsure that China continues to feed itself?
Do you think there is any reason to worry about the possibility of China purchasing more food on the international market?
How do you think a grain farmer in Kansas or Iowa would feel about the potential of China buying more food on the international market?
Do you think China should try to and be self-sufficient in grain, despite the environmental costs such a strategy might entail? Or should China become more dependent on the international market? What are the advantages and drawbacks of each of these options for China? What are the advantages or drawbacks for the rest of the world?

Finally, one additional answer to the question of whether China can feed itself was recently provided by the United Nations Food Program (WFP), which by December 2004 was claiming that China no longer had a food security problem and thus was no longer in need to international food aid. Indeed the WFP urged China to play a larger role as an international food donor, arguing that China now has the resources to provide food aid to needy countries in Asia and Africa.

Does the WFP's claim mean that people no longer go hungry in China? Is food insecurity caused by insufficient food production?