Food Security and Farm Land Protection in China
Food Security and Farm Land Protection in China

Author: Yushi Mao

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2012-12-31

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9814412066

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

News: Mao Yushi, one of China''s most outspoken and influential activists for individual rights and free markets, has been named the 2012 winner of the Cato Institute''s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty . The objective of publishing this book is to let the general public have a better understanding of the food security situation in China and better comprehension of the merit of allocating land through market mechanism. In addition, it makes the public aware of the inefficiencies of current government regulated land system.As a populous country in the world, China emphasizes too much importance of food to ensure people''s sufficient consumption. There is a national policy to protect farm land, farm land protection refers to 18 hundred million mu of farmland which is specifically designated for food production only. Unirule defined the national food security as the capability to solve food shortages, and calculated the gap between food supply and demand. Two approaches can be used to solve the above food gap. Food security problems will not happen under situations of free trade and factors substitution in market economy, substantial storage and foreign exchange income. In modern China, food insecurity or great famine only happened in planned economy. To link tightly farm land size and grain yield and even food security is baseless both in theory and practices. The previous red line of 21 hundred million mu was already broken through. The current red line of 18 hundred million mu will also be broken through, in view of the process of industrialization and urbanization. In fact, farm land protection should focus on protecting the employment right of peasant in land.

Urban China
Urban China

Author: World Bank

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2014-07-29

Total Pages: 583

ISBN-13: 1464802068

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the last 30 years, China’s record economic growth lifted half a billion people out of poverty, with rapid urbanization providing abundant labor, cheap land, and good infrastructure. While China has avoided some of the common ills of urbanization, strains are showing as inefficient land development leads to urban sprawl and ghost towns, pollution threatens people’s health, and farmland and water resources are becoming scarce. With China’s urban population projected to rise to about one billion – or close to 70 percent of the country’s population – by 2030, China’s leaders are seeking a more coordinated urbanization process. Urban China is a joint research report by a team from the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council which was established to address the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in China and to help China forge a new model of urbanization. The report takes as its point of departure the conviction that China's urbanization can become more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable. However, it stresses that achieving this vision will require strong support from both government and the markets for policy reforms in a number of area. The report proposes six main areas for reform: first, amending land management institutions to foster more efficient land use, denser cities, modernized agriculture, and more equitable wealth distribution; second, adjusting the hukou household registration system to increase labor mobility and provide urban migrant workers equal access to a common standard of public services; third, placing urban finances on a more sustainable footing while fostering financial discipline among local governments; fourth, improving urban planning to enhance connectivity and encourage scale and agglomeration economies; fifth, reducing environmental pressures through more efficient resource management; and sixth, improving governance at the local level.

Food Consumption in China
Food Consumption in China

Author: Zhang-Yue Zhou

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2014-03-28

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 178254920X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Recent decades have seen China�s domestic consumption in sectors such as food, housing, health care, education and travel greatly increase. This important book assesses China�s current food consumption trends and the outlook for its future needs of suc

Food Security and Social Protection for the Rural Poor in China
Food Security and Social Protection for the Rural Poor in China

Author: Ling Zhu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-03-27

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1315278030

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Economic growth and its relevant subjects have been given the first priority in the research agenda since China initiated economic reforms in 1978, while the topics of social protection and gender equality have been largely left at the periphery for a long period. This book is a collection of evidence-based studies conducted mainly in poor areas of rural China during the recent two decades. Based on individual interviews and sample data analyses, this book emphasizes the importance of cooperative organizations to poverty reduction, and puts forward that gender equality is closely related with sustainable development. In addition, it addresses the issues of food security and elimination of social exclusion - the key to bridging economic divide. It also studies social protection, including basic health protection system, nutrition and healthcare for children, old age security for landless farmers and rural migrant workers. By providing first-hand accounts of different vulnerable groups, such as the poor, women, migrant workers, ethnic minorities and small farmers, this book offers valuable insights into studies of contemporary Chinese society and economy.

The Dragon and the Elephant
The Dragon and the Elephant

Author: Ashok Gulati

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Published: 2007-11-20

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780801887864

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

China and India are the most extraordinary economic success stories of the developing world. Both nations’ economies have grown dramatically over the past few decades, elevating them from two of the world’s poorest countries into projected economic superpowers. As a result, the numbers of Chinese and Indians living in poverty have rapidly fallen and per capita incomes in China and India have quadrupled and doubled, respectively. This book investigates the reasons for these staggering accomplishments and the lessons that can be applied both to other developing nations and to the problem of poverty that remains in these two countries. The contributors pay particular attention to agriculture and the rural economy, examining how initial conditions and investments and the prioritization and sequencing of different policies and strategies have led to successes, and how the agricultural and rural sectors connect to overall economic expansion. They also emphasize the importance of anti-poverty programs and safety nets in helping poor people escape poverty. The book offers a set of policy and strategic options for future growth and poverty reduction. These include setting the right priorities for public spending, identifying trade and market reforms, building social safety nets for the poorest of the poor, and building accountable institutions that can provide public goods and services effectively. The book concludes by examining future challenges to China and India’s economic development, such as the need to ensure growth that is sustainable, equitable, and environmentally friendly. The Dragon and the Elephant offers valuable insights to development specialists anxious to multiply the benefits experienced by two of the greatest economic successes in recent times.

Who Will Feed China?
Who Will Feed China?

Author: Lester Russell Brown

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780393038972

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

To feed its 1.2 billion people, China may soon have to import so much grain that this action could trigger unprecedented rises in world food prices. In Who Will Feed China: Wake-up Call for a Small Planet, Lester Brown shows that even as water becomes more scarce in a land where 80 percent of the grain crop is irrigated, as per-acre yield gains are erased by the loss of cropland to industrialization, and as food production stagnates, China still increases its population by the equivalent of a new Beijing each year. When Japan, a nation of just 125 million, began to import food, world grain markets rejoiced. But when China, a market ten times bigger, starts importing, there may not be enough grain in the world to meet that need - and food prices will rise steeply for everyone. Analysts foresaw that the recent four-year doubling of income for China's 1.2 billion consumers would increase food demand, especially for meat, eggs, and beer. But these analysts assumed that food production would rise to meet those demands. Brown shows that cropland losses are heavy in countries that are densely populated before industrialization, and that these countries quickly become net grain importers. We can see that process now in newspaper accounts from China as the government struggles with this problem.

Urban Water Security
Urban Water Security

Author: Robert C. Brears

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-01-17

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1119131731

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the 21st Century, the world will see an unprecedented migration of people moving from rural to urban areas. With global demand for water projected to outstrip supply in the coming decades, cities will likely face water insecurity as a result of climate change and the various impacts of urbanisation. Traditionally, urban water managers have relied on large-scale, supply-side infrastructural projects to meet increased demands for water; however, these projects are environmentally, economically and politically costly. Urban Water Security argues that cities need to transition from supply-side to demand-side management to achieve urban water security. This book provides readers with a series of in-depth case studies of leading developed cities, of differing climates, incomes and lifestyles from around the world, that have used demand management tools to modify the attitudes and behaviour of water users in an attempt to achieve urban water security. Urban Water Security will be of particular interest to town and regional planners, water conservation managers and policymakers, international companies and organisations with large water footprints, environmental and water NGOs, researchers, graduate and undergraduate students.

Urbanization with Chinese Characteristics: The Hukou System and Migration
Urbanization with Chinese Characteristics: The Hukou System and Migration

Author: Kam Wing Chan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-04-19

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1351658263

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many agree that rapid urbanization in China in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is a mega process significantly reshaping China and the global economy. China’s urbanization also carries a certain mystique, which has long fascinated generations of scholars and journalists alike. As it has turned out, many of the asserted Chinese feats are mostly fancied claims or gross misinterpretations (of statistics, for example). There does exist, however, an urbanization that displays rather uncommon "Chinese" characteristics that remain to inadequately understood. Building on his three decades of careful research, Professor Kam Wing Chan expertly dissects the complexity of China’s hukou system, migration, urbanization and their interrelationships in this set of journal articles published in the last ten years. These works range from seminal papers on Chinese urban definitions and statistics; and broad-perspective analysis of the hukou system of its first semi-centennial; to examinations of migration trends and geography; and critical evaluations of China’s 2014 urbanization blueprint and hukou reform plan. This convenient assemblage contains many of Chan’s recent important works. Together they also form a relatively coherent set on this topic. They are essential readings to anyone serious about gaining a true understanding of the prodigious urbanization in contemporary China.

Environmental Change and Food Security in China
Environmental Change and Food Security in China

Author: Jenifer Huang McBeath

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-03-25

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 140209180X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Abstract This chapter defines food security as the condition reached when a nation’s population has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet its dietary needs and food preferences. It stresses China’s importance to global food security because of its population size. The chapter introduces the contents of the volume and then treats briefly food security in ancient and dynastic (211 bc–1912) China. It examines environmental stressors, such as population growth, natural disasters, and insect pests as well as imperial responses (for example, irrigation, flood control, storage and transportation systems). The chapter also briefly int- duces the Republican era (1912–1949) and compares environmental stressors and government responses then to those of the imperial period. Keywords Food system • Food security • Food production regions • Environmental stressors (Population growth • Natural disasters • Insect pests and Plant diseases • Deforestation • Climate change) • Irrigation systems • Flood control • Grand Canal 1. 1 The Problem of Food Security and Environmental Change Food is the material basis to human survival, and in each nation-state, providing a system for the development, production, and distribution of food and its security is a primary national objective. Many forces have influenced the food security of peoples since ancient times, with particular challenges from natural disasters (floods, famines, drought, and pestilence) and growing populations globally.

Climate change: Unpacking the burden on food safety
Climate change: Unpacking the burden on food safety

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2020-03-01

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9251322937

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Climate change is causing unprecedented damage to our ecosystem. Increasing temperatures, ocean warming and acidification, severe droughts, wildfires, altered precipitation patterns, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and amplification of extreme weather events have direct implications for our food systems. While the impacts of such environmental factors on food security are well known, the effects on food safety receive less attention. The purpose of Climate change: Unpacking the burden on food safety is to identify and attempt to quantify some current and anticipated food safety issues that are associated with climate change. The food safety hazards considered in the publication are foodborne pathogens and parasites, harmful algal blooms, pesticides, mycotoxins and heavy metals with emphasis on methylmercury. There is also, a dedicated section on the benefits of forward-looking approaches such as horizon scanning and foresight, which will not only aid in anticipating future challenges in a shifting global food safety landscape, but also help build resilient food systems that can be continually updated as more knowledge is assimilated. By building a more widespread and better understanding of the consequences climate change has on food safety, it is hoped that this document will aid in fostering stronger international cooperation in making our food safer by reducing the global burden of these concerns.