For the past three decades an onslaught of urban development, desertification, and pollution has been eating away at China’s once-endless sprawl of tiny farms. How can the country address the dilemma of ramping up urbanization and maintaining food safety and security?
For the past three decades an onslaught of urban development, desertification, and pollution has been eating away at China’s once-endless sprawl of tiny farms. China is facing radical challenge to feed its large population. “You have urbanization — people travel abroad,” says Susan Chan Shifflett, China Environment Forum’s associate. “They go to France, they see cheese, and they think, ‘why can’t I have brie in China?’ They’re changing their diets — meat consumption has quadrupled over the past 30 years.”
However, China must feed a fifth of the world’s population with about 7% of its arable land, according to the UN’s food and agriculture organization, and nearly half of that land has been “degraded” by decades of unchecked development. “It’s a zero-sum game,” said Shifflett. “You have less and less resources, but more and more people who need them.”
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Since 1997, the China Environment Forum's mission has been to forge US-China cooperation on energy, environment, and sustainable development challenges. We play a unique nonpartisan role in creating multi-stakeholder dialogues around these issues. Read more
