Abstract
Food system transformation has been a widely discussed topic in international society over time. For the last few decades, China has made remarkable achievements in food production and has contributed greatly to the reduction in global hunger and poverty. Examining experiences and lessons from China’s food security practices over the years is helpful to promote a national food system transformation for China, as well as other developing countries. This study systematically reviews the literature on Chinese food security studies, with the aim of assessing China’s food security achievements and examining the remaining and emerging issues in the pursuit of food system transformation. The results show that China has continuously promoted food system transformation in land consolidation, agri-food production technologies, management and organization modes, food reserves, trade governance, and food consumption. These transformations ensure not only food availability, timeliness, and nutrition, but also in terms of the ecological, social, and economic sustainability, feasibility, and justice of food security. However, China is also confronting new challenges in food security, for example, malnutrition, environmental unsustainability, and reductions in diversified agri-food. In the future, China is expected to be committed to promoting healthy diets, sustainable agricultural production, climate change mitigation, and the reduction of food waste and loss to enhance its agri-food system’s resilience.
Highlights
Achieving the goal of global food security, together with environmental sustainability and socio-economic justice, is one of the greatest challenges for human beings in the 21st century [1]
Food systems that rely heavily on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and antibiotics [6] have driven the widespread degradation of land, water and ecosystems, high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity losses [7], and the spread of pathogens [8], which in turn lead to food insecurity in many countries [9]
One problem is that with China’s aging population, many formerly rural laborers have moved to urban areas, and most rural areas face prominent non-agricultural livelihood transformations, leaving questions such as: “Who will cultivate the land in China?”, exerting a negative impact on the domestic food supply [35,36]
Summary
Achieving the goal of global food security, together with environmental sustainability and socio-economic justice, is one of the greatest challenges for human beings in the 21st century [1]. As food system transformation is expected to reflect the approach of pursuing social, environmental, nutritional and health outcomes and potential influences, ensuring global food security to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals will depend on the potential of food systems to increase the efficiency and resilience of the food supply chain. China and India are considered the countries that are best equipped to instigate food system changes, because they have the necessary “technological capacities, state-regulatory systems and socio-economic need” [24] It would be valuable for other developing countries to analyze the experience of China’s food system transformation, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all countries. With the expansion of urbanization, Chinese meat consumption is anticipated to arrive at its peak of 123.44 million tons in 2030, leaving great scope for growth in demand for dairy and aquatic products [33]
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