TRANSFORMING CHINESE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE

Highlights

● The goals of Chinese food and agriculture have shifted from grain self-sufficiency to diversified goals, including protecting natural resources, reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and improving food safety and nutrition.

● Addressing the challenges and achieving future goals requires a systems approach to transforming the Chinese food and agriculture sector.

● The nexus of food, nutrition and the environment is at the core of food systems.

● Pathways are proposed, which include repositioning subsidies/supports, promoting multiple benefit technologies, reorienting investment and finance, guiding consumer behavior, and catalyzing global cooperation.

Abstract

After decades of development, China has made significant progress in ensuring national food security. However, the country currently faces multiple challenges, including the double burden of malnutrition, i.e., micronutrient deficiencies and overweight/obesity, climate change, resource stress and environmental degradation, and an increasingly complex global market. This paper reviews past developments in food and agriculture, and offers initial insights into transforming the Chinese food system for achieving multiple national development goals using a systems approach. Strategies and solutions from China can also inform the design and implementation of food system transformation in other emerging economies.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

food systems / food security / nutrition / climate change

References

[1] United Nations (UN)/Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). UN/DESA Policy Brief #102: Population, Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainable Development. UN/DESA, 2021. Available at UN/DESA website on December 20, 2022

[2] Fan S, Headey D, Rue C, Thomas T . Food systems for human and planetary health: economic perspectives and challenges. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 2021, 13(1): 131–156

[3] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022. Rome: FAO, 2022. Available at FAO website on December 20, 2022

[4] Zhao Y. Measures Counter Food Security Risks. China Daily, 2022. Available at China Daily website on December 20, 2022

[5] The Economist Group. Global Food Security Index (GFSI). The Economist Group, 2022

[6] Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS). Scientific Research Report on Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents. CNS, 2021

[7] Cui Q, Ali T, Xie W, Huang J, Wang J . The uncertainty of climate change impacts on China’s agricultural economy based on an integrated assessment approach. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2022, 27(3): 25

[8] General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC). Table of National Import Key Commodities in December 2022 (USD value). Beijing: GACC, 2023. Available at GACC website on December 20, 2022

[9] Wang G, Qian L. Grain security strategy in the 70 years since the founding of New China: evolution path and internal logic. China’s Rural Economy, 2019, (9): 15−29 (in Chinese)

[10] Xin X, Liu R, Wang J. Development and enlightenment of new China’s grain security in the past 70 years: based on the evolution of the relationship between grain self-sufficiency rate and grain security. Issues in Agricultural Economy, 2020, (10): 19−31 (in Chinese)

[11] Huang J . China’s food security and agricultural development: past and future. Agricultural Comprehensive Development in China, 2020, (11): 8–10

[12] Cheng G, Zhu M. Agricultural subsidy system and policy choice in the middle stage of industrialization in China. Journal of Management World, 2012, (1): 9−20 (in Chinese)

[13] Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy (AGFEP). China and Global Food Policy Report: Reforming Agricultural Support Policy for Transforming Agrifood systems. Beijing: AGFEP, 2022

[14] He P, Baiocchi G, Feng K, Hubacek K, Yu Y . Environmental impacts of dietary quality improvement in China. Journal of Environmental Management, 2019, 240: 518–526

[15] National Health Commission Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention. Report on Chinese Residents’ Chronic Diseases and Nutrition. Beijing: People’s Health Publishing House, 2021, 98–99

[16] Ministry of Water Resource of the People’s Republic of China (MWRC). Beijing: China Water Resources Bulletin. MWRC, 2021. Available at MWRC website on December 20, 2022

[17] Ren S, Song C, Ye S, Cheng C, Gao P. The spatiotemporal variation in heavy metals in China’s farmland soil over the past 20 years: a meta-analysis. Science of the Total Environment, 2022, 806(Pt 2): 150322

[18] Cai D, Chen Y, Wang C, Li J, Han D. Current situation and analysis of China’s crop germplasm resources reserve. Agriculture and Technology, 2021, 41(1): 8−10 (in Chinese)

[19] National Data, National Bureau of Statistics of China. Annual Data, 2020. Available at National Data website on December 20, 2022

[20] Jiao D. Promoting the High-Quality Development of Agricultural Trade in the New Development Pattern of ‘dual circulation’. 2020. Beijing: China Farmer Net (CFN). Available at CFN website on February 24, 2023

[21] General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC). Table of National Import of Key Commodities in December 2021 (CNY). GACC, 2022. Available at GACC website on December 20, 2022

[22] ThePaper.cn. National Bureau of Statistics: China’s Total Grain Output in 2022 was 686.53 Million Tons. Beijing: ThePaper.cn, 2023. Available at ThePaper.cn website on February 24, 2023

[23] Yan W, Cai Y, Lin F, Ambaw D T . The impacts of trade restrictions on world agricultural price volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic. China & World Economy, 2021, 29(6): 139–158

[24] Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy, China Agricultural University (AGFEP); China Academy for Rural Development, Zhejiang University (CARD); Centre for International Food and Agricultural Economics, Nanjing Agricultural University (CIFAE); Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IAED); and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 2021 China and Global Food Policy Report: Rethinking Agrifood Systems for the Post-COVID World. China and Global Food Policy Report, 2021

[25] Marion B W. The Organization and Performance of the U.S. Food System. Lexington Books, 1986

[26] Traill B. Prospects for the European Food System. London: Elsevier Applied Science, 1989

[27] Tagtow A M, Roberts S L. Cultivating Resilience: A Food System Blueprint that Advances the Health of Iowans, Farms and Communities. Elkhart, IA: Iowa Food Systems Council, 2011

[28] Benton T G, Beddington J, Thomas S M, Flynn D J, Fan S, Webb P A . ‘net zero’ equivalent target is needed to transform food systems. Nature Food, 2021, 2(12): 905–906

[29] Zhang Y, Diao X . The changing role of agriculture with economic structural change—The case of China. China Economic Review, 2020, 62: 101504

[30] Zhou Y, Wang S, Yan B. The structure, evolution and prospect of food system in China. Issues in Agricultural Economic, 2022, (1): 100−113 (in Chinese)

[31] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Second International Conference on Nutrition. Rome: FAO, 2014. Available at FAO website on December 20, 2022

[32] Springmann M, Wiebe K, Mason-D’Croz D, Sulser T B, Rayner M, Scarborough P . Health and nutritional aspects of sustainable diet strategies and their association with environmental impacts: a global modelling analysis with country-level detail. Lancet: Planetary Health, 2018, 2(10): e451–e461

[33] Zhang L, Bai Y, Sun M, Xu X, He J. Views on agricultural green production from the perspective of system science. Issues in Agricultural Economy, 2021, (10): 42−50 (in Chinese)

[34] Green R, Milner J, Dangour A D, Haines A, Chalabi Z, Markandya A, Spadaro J, Wilkinson P. The potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the UK through healthy and realistic dietary change. Climatic Change, 2015, 129(1−2): 253−265

[35] Fan S, Zhou Y. Reorient Funding to Boost Agricultural Sustainability. China Daily, 2022. Available at China Daily website on February 24, 2023

[36] Zhang F. Small science and technology courtyard: a pioneer in cultivating talents who know and love agriculture and strengthen and rejuvenate agriculture. Science & Technology Review, 2020, 38(19): 11−15 (in Chinese)

[37] Behrens P, Kiefte-de Jong J C, Bosker T, Rodrigues J F D, de Koning A, Tukker A . Evaluating the environmental impacts of dietary recommendations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017, 114(51): 13412–13417

[38] Tilman D, Clark M . Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature, 2014, 515(7528): 518–522

[39] Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, Springmann M, Lang T, Vermeulen S, Garnett T, Tilman D, DeClerck F, Wood A, Jonell M, Clark M, Gordon L J, Fanzo J, Hawkes C, Zurayk R, Rivera J A, De Vries W, Majele Sibanda L, Afshin A, Chaudhary A, Herrero M, Agustina R, Branca F, Lartey A, Fan S, Crona B, Fox E, Bignet V, Troell M, Lindahl T, Singh S, Cornell S E, Srinath Reddy K, Narain S, Nishtar S, Murray C J L . Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet, 2019, 393(10170): 447–492

[40] Xue L, Liu X, Lu S, Cheng G, Hu Y, Liu J, Dou Z, Cheng S, Liu G . China’s food loss and waste embodies increasing environmental impacts. Nature Food, 2021, 2(7): 519–528

[41] China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED). Sustainable Agrifood Systems: Meeting China’s Food and Climate Security Goals. CCICED, 2022

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72061147002, 72103188), the National Social Science Foundation of China (22&ZD085), the Chinese Academy of Engineering (2022-HZ-07)，and the 2115 Talent Development Program of China Agricultural University.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Ting Meng and Shenggen Fan declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2023. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)