Building Sustainable Food Systems in China

One could argue that the Chinese invented organic agriculture. A combination of recycling, composting, green mulches, intercropping and other ingenious practices allowed Chinese farmers to farm continuously on the same land for thousands of years. F.H. King's description of these practices in 1911, Farmers of Forty Centuries, had a great influence on the modern organic movement. Likewise the Chinese diet, very low in red meat with almost all calories coming from vegetables and grains, has been held up in nutritional research as a far healthier alternative to its Western counterpart, which is much higher in animal protein, fats and sweeteners.

Over the past quarter century, however, China's farming and food have been transformed dramatically. Adoption of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has increased yields, but at a tremendous environmental cost to land, water, biological diversity and human health. Pollution problems have been compounded by an explosion in industrial animal feeding operations. And the meat from these factory farms, combined with aggressively marketed Western junk food, has fuelled an obesity epidemic in China's cities. For many urban people these problems have been regrettable side effects of increased affluence, but hundreds of millions in China's cities and countryside suffer from both a poisoned environment and grinding poverty. And the unsustainable, runaway growth of the Chinese economy is increasingly recognized as enriching a minority of Chinese and international corporations while threatening the health of the entire planet.

There is widespread concern in China about some consequences of the drastic transformation of the farming and food system, such as poisoned land and water, growing income gaps, food safety concerns and the obesity epidemic. But the phenomenon itself is seen by the government and many others as a necessary and inevitable part of "modernization." Those few groups trying to promote better lives for farmers or a more sustainable farming system lack access to the rich experience accumulated in other countries, and this puts them at a disadvantage as they seek alternatives to the dominant model of agriculture and trade. IATP is supporting those working for a more just and sustainable food system in China through networking, information exchange, research and education activities.

My Alternative Farming Experience in America: Blog entries from a Chinese graduate student working at a small farm in Minnesota.
August 20, 2008 | Shi Yan | PDF

Think Forward/China: Analysis and observations about food systems in China.
IATP | BLOG

U.S.-China Agreement on Food Safety: Terms and Enforcement Capacity: Analysis of an agreement on food safety regulatory systems between the U.S. and China.
May 27, 2008 | Steve Suppan | PDF

IATP Launches New Initiative on Food and Agriculture in China: Press release in English and Chinese announcing the new program.
June 4, 2007 | IATP | PDF

Fixing Our Broken Food System: Commentary on the discovery of industrial chemicals in animal feed imported from China and links to the global food system.
May 24, 2007 | Jim Harkness | PDF