Worldwatch Warns of Chinese Agricultural Crisis

China News Digest (URL: http://www.cnd.org), 18 September 1995

[CND, 09/18/95] WASHINGTON -- China's growing demand for agricultural products will create problems of scarcity and inflation not just for itself, but for the whole world, warned Lester R. Brown of Worldwatch in a report described by AP.

China's increasing prosperity and growing food demands, coupled with its huge size, push up prices on the world market, according to Who Will Feed China? Wake-up Call for a Small Planet, a report published by the environmental and social watch group.

China has recently become a net importer of 16 million tons of grain annually after exporting 8 million tons two years ago. Last year, grain prices rose 60 percent because of China's poor harvest and a low world supply.

The report recommends that China continue to curb population growth and carefully shepherd water and land use. Chinese officials, who have criticized Brown's findings in the past, reject many of his comparisons and projections, insisting that China can produce enough food to support its population of 1.2 billion. Balancing agricultural production with China's burgeoning economic growth has become a serious dilemma for the nation's leaders. (Adam Johnson, Jian LIU)