The challenges of carnivorous China

Overview

Rising meat demand in China points to longer-term strains upon agriculture. After changing little in the first decades of Communist rule, consumption patterns are evolving rapidly under the impact of urbanisation and growing rural demand, but output of animal feeds is limited by the loss of arable land and slow development of higher yielding crop strains. The obvious policy response lies in increased imports of meat and feedstuffs, but this would mean renouncing the government's 95 per...