Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ensuring that sufficient food is available
mantanng relatvely stable food supples
allowng access to food for those n need of t
ensurng the bologcal utlsaton of food.
Like other Asian countries, however, food security in China almost
exclusively has meant food self-sufficiency, or grain self-sufficiency. A 95 per
cent grain self-sufficiency level has been set as the target. The followings
are some of the arguments made for Chna to mantan a certan rate of
grain self-sufficiency and responses to these arguments.
First, China is a very large country in population terms and cannot
rely on the world market for ts food supples. Brown (1995) panted a
terrfyng pcture of Chna's food supply and demand to the effect that a
food shortage n Chna would severely deplete world food supples and hurt
other developng countres. Although Brown's arguments were dsmssed
by the Chinese government and scholars, they increased concerns about
Chna's food supply capacty.
Second, food is a special good and the independence of food supply has
poltcal and economc mportance. Some people even fear the possblty
of a food embargo as China has many ideological, political and strategic
differences with major western powers. However, Lu (1997) and Yang (2000)
point out that a food embargo against China is unlikely. Globally, food was
often excluded from lsts of embargoed commodtes n the past because
of humanitarian considerations. Moreover, a food embargo is difficult to
apply and often means even hgher economc costs for the countres that
ntate the embargo.
Third, as many Chinese farmers earn their income exclusively from
producing food, they may be badly hurt by cheaper food prices after WTO
accesson (Zhou 2001). Ths knd of mpact has been seen prevously n
China and other developing countries. For example, in order to solve their
food surplus problem in the early 1930s, a number of countries, including
the United States, dumped a huge amount of food into the Chinese market
and significantly depressed food prices. As a result, many Chinese farmers
went bankrupt and Chna's gran sector was serously njured (Xu 1996).
Chapter 6 (this volume) discusses the income effects, especially the
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