Contemporary Issues, 2nd prize
Feeding China
George Steinmetz
13 June, 2016
Soybeans are offloaded at Zhangjiagang harbor, eastern China. Some 60 percent of soybeans traded worldwide are bought by China, with more than half the imports coming from Brazil.
Rapidly rising incomes in China have led to a changing diet and increasing demand for meat, dairy and processed foods. China needs to make use of some 12 percent of the world’s arable land to feed nearly 19% of the global population.
New technologies and agricultural reform offer a partial solution, but problems remain as farmers and the young flock to work in cities, leaving an aging rural population, and as land becomes contaminated by industry.
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