Who Will Feed China?: Wake-Up Call for a Small Planet (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series) [Hardcover]

Lester Russell Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995 | Series: Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Brown, president of the Worldwatch Institute and recipient of numerous environmental awards, predicts that China's current breakneck industrialization will lead to massive world grain shortages early in the next century. He states that political leaders everywhere need to recognize that "the world is now on a demographic and economic path that is environmentally unsustainable." Using Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan as the only examples of countries that were densely populated when they embarked on rapid industrialization, similar to China's present situation, Brown points out that these countries developed in such a way that they were compelled to import the majority of the grain their populations consumed. He cites many reasons for the dependence on foreign grain, including growing land scarcity, migration to the city from farms, overpopulation, water scarcity, and unstable prices on the world market. Brown argues persuasively that the major world challenge in the future is not military aggression but, rather, food scarcity. No other book develops this theme in as straightforward a fashion. Highly recommended.
Peggy Spitzer Christoff, Oak Park, Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 163 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393038971
• ISBN-13: 978-0393038972
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,958,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lester R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, is one of the world's most widely published authors with books in more than 40 languages.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 12 years later, August 27, 2006

By 

Igor (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Will Feed China?: Wake-Up Call for a Small Planet (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series) (Paperback)

According to United Nations' World Food Program(WFP) 2005 annual report, China has become a food donor country from a donation receiving country. China has increased its food donation over 200% alone in year 2005, and is helping other developing countries to improve their agriculcure production.

"It was not all bad news, however. Last year was

the year in which WFP concluded its assistance

to China, having provided 30 million people with

food aid for the past 26 years. We are now

looking to China, which has lifted some

300 million of its own people out of poverty,

to help provide the expertise that will enable

other countries achieve such stunning progress."

Quite a different outcome from the author's prediction 12 years ago considering that during this period China has probably increased its population by at least 100 million (more people to feed), lifted hundreds of millions more out of poverty (more per capita food consumption) and lost some of its best land to industrialiation.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uncanny view of our future., May 30, 2008

By 

N. Flattes "Worldly Trader" (Boston,MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Who Will Feed China?: Wake-Up Call for a Small Planet (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series) (Paperback)

Looking at today's newspaper headlines we can now see how the rising demand for food in the emerging nations of China and India has rocked the world food markets. This is a situation that will only increase in intensity until an equitable solution is found. Please read this special report by the Guardian newspaper to see how the world will forever be changed by China's increasing demands for food.

[...]

5.0 out of 5 stars A wake uo call, July 26, 2009

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Who Will Feed China?: Wake-Up Call for a Small Planet (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series) (Paperback)

I read this book in the late 90's and didn't give much thought. Now with the USA being so much in debt to China this book is truly a "Wake Up Call."

If we the American people are unable to pay our debt to China and they need to foreclose, what do you think they will need the most..? It wont be an Army or land,it will be food! American food to feed their people. Happy reading and please wake up America!