China grapples with food for fifth of world

Feeding nearly a fifth of the world’s population is no easy feat – and the Chinese government says farming methods will have to be overhauled if it’s going to feed its 1.3 billion people in the future.

A visiting senior Chinese government official and agricultural expert, Chen Xiwen, told a meeting at the Beehive on Tuesday that while agricultural productivity has been increasing, Chinese farming is facing hurdles in producing its own food.

Chen Xiwen being welcomed to Parliament by St Patrick’s College kapa haka group.

Mr Chen, through an interpreter, said China’s farmers had been using twice the amount of fertiliser and chemicals used internationally causing significant ecological and environmental damage.

Radio NZ

16 Comments on "China grapples with food for fifth of world"

Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 12:16 pm 



The Chinese will be among the first to face the hard fact of the limits of growth. They are facing it now with a failing financial system, pollution, and wealth transfer. They made the mistake of pursuing the failing western example of prosperity. An agricultural system that was very efficient and much more self-sustaining was replaced with production Ag, industry, cities. The peasants were poor but they had a culture, community, and a degree of happiness. The bad side of poverty was present and always will be but their new policy will result in a support system that is brittle and unsustainable. We are talking destruction too. Much farmland, good water, and the culture of sustainable Ag is gone. We are talking hunger returning with an educated middle class to reason this out and revolt. It will be a bad situation when the finance system implodes and further reduces their ability to import food. Look for a very dangerous situation in China. Yet, the whole world is in this boat. The china situation will play out for a fifth of the over populated earth

ghung on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 2:54 pm 



The Chinese are outsourcing food production much in the same way the US outsourced industrial production. They’ve been buying up the means of production in Africa and other places, including the US and Canada (the largest pork producing/processing company in North America, VA based Smithfield Foods is now Chinese owned: Smithfield, Gwaltney, Ekrich, Aberdeen,, even Weight Watchers, etc.).

I’m not sure how they plan to hold and control their growing agricultural empire in the face of global economic turmoil; likely a strategy of causing even more economic turmoil if agricultural producers decide they don’t want to play nice. “No bacon, no smart phones.”

We’re clearly into the phase of too many claims on too few resources. Won’t be easy for the distracted and deluded masses to ignore for much longer. May you live in interesting times…

Kenz300 on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 3:17 pm 



China has been poisoning the very land and water they need to grow food. The public has started to complain about the air quality. Once they realize that their food and water is slowly being poisoned they will demand action from the government.

Northwest Resident on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 5:09 pm 



Another perspective, which tends to support my opinion that China is heading for big trouble in the very near future in regards to food, or lack thereof:

“China may be 97% self sufficient in basic staples, but it is only 80% self sufficient in total agricultural products. And there are still an estimated 158 million undernourished people in China. The drive to bring this number down and maintain food security has stretched China’s agricultural capacity to its limits.

The size and fragmentation of China’s food chain, still dominated by small household farms, makes it difficult to control the origin and production of food. The pressure to meet production targets, together with widespread corruption and a fragmented, overstretched regulatory system, has resulted in a cascade of food safety scandals that have undermined public trust in the food they eat.

Meanwhile Chinese agriculture is inefficient and environmentally unsustainable. Agriculture contributes an estimated 20% of China’s GHG emissions and 60% of its water consumption. Most land suitable for cultivation is in the dry north, where farmers depend on inefficient irrigation systems to water their crops and stave off soil erosion. The energy-intensive pumps that farmers use to extract water from aquifers are responsible for carbon emissions equivalent to the entire emissions of New Zealand.”

http://opentoexport.com/article/can-china-feed-itself-july-2013/

Also, I have read articles detailing how that “dry north” is getting even dryer and hotter due to climate change issues.

Northwest Resident on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 5:37 pm 



BTW, please note the cruel irony in that link I just posted. The “take away” from that article is that there is a lot of profit to be made in feeding the starving Chinese.

Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 5:47 pm 



@N/R the new growth industry I imagine!

GregT on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 6:40 pm 



“Yet, the whole world is in this boat.”

This is the sad truth.

Sorry guys, not American bashing here, but much of what you are saying about China is true of the US, and pretty much everywhere else in the world for that matter.

Future food production is going to be a monumental issue worldwide. Modern industrial agriculture is environmentally destructive, and not sustainable. Those that are fortunate enough to be able to return to small rural farms will be the least effected, and will have the greatest chance of making it through the bottleneck.

andya on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 7:35 pm 



I think you’ll find most of the developed world uses double the world average fertiliser.

Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 8:22 pm 



@andya – dead zones don’t lie

James on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 11:09 pm 



Not to be mean. But, if China and the U.S. are planning on getting into a war, this would alleviate the overcrowding problem.

energy investor on Wed, 19th Feb 2014 11:28 pm 



New Zealand is a very sophisticated producer of dairy products and agriculture is the main export…hence this meeting at our parliament.

Take away oil and how do we get our wood, meat, wool, dairy etc to China?

But also how do we produce the stuff?

Chinese immigrants are now about 14% of our population and growing.

So perhaps they will all migrate to NZ and Oz?

Kenz300 on Thu, 20th Feb 2014 1:53 am 



Every year we need to FEED, house, and clothe 80 million more people on this planet………..

Maybe the problems is that there are too many people.

If you can not provide for yourself you can not provide for a child.

Makati1 on Thu, 20th Feb 2014 3:41 am 



GregT, many Americans need to look in a mirror when they point fingers at others actions. The US is guilty of most, if not all, of them and, in most cases, more so. I think this year is going to be a wake up call for many of them as food and energy prices start to skyrocket. The US imports 20% of it’s food, and I think this year is going to see a huge jump in that number. Also, I believe that this winter is going to become the norm not the exception.

rollin on Thu, 20th Feb 2014 6:02 am 



“The problems include a lack of irrigable land, access to fresh water, and a toxic legacy from farming in some areas.”

That is an amazingly sweeping and horrific statement. Sounds like big trouble in big China.

GregT on Thu, 20th Feb 2014 6:36 am 



“The problems include a lack of irrigable land, access to fresh water, and a toxic legacy from farming in some areas.”

China is not the only nation facing these problems. It might be wiser to stop focussing on others’ problems, until ones own problems have been addressed first. And before the usual accusations, I live in Canada, and I am very well aware of the implications of what is already occurring in the States, my food costs are soaring also.

My concern is not with what is happening in some far away land on the other side of the planet. My concern is with what is happening to OUR food, water, and agricultural lands here, in North America. It isn’t going to get any better, and it IS going to continue to get a lot worse.

Sounds like big trouble, in every nation on the planet. Amazingly sweeping, and horrific for sure, or at least it should be, for anyone that is actually paying attention.

Davy, Hermann, MO on Thu, 20th Feb 2014 3:27 pm 



@Makati – US imports 20% of its food

Yea Makati food we don’t need. Toxic food from polluted Asia. Non seasonal fruits and veggies from South America. Exotic foods from Europe. Even within the US there is way too much from California, Florida, and Texas in an energy/water constrained world. The US will have plenty of food here relative to other areas. It may be in the wrong places to properly feed Americans everywhere without dangers of hunger but don’t expect a leading exporter of the basics of the industrial agricultural food chain to run out overnight. People can last a long time on corn, soy, and wheat. We are a leading producer of cattle. Plenty of cattle can be grazed without difficulty. Will it be the fat corn feed cattle, no. Yet, do we need that.

Makati look around:
The population of the Philippines has been steadily growing for many years. In 2013, it is the 12th most populated country in the world. GeZe ,Makati, how are you going to manage to compete with 12 million other people for food in and around the Manila area? I am not buying all the happy Philippines talk.