Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.
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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!

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!

A disturbing analysis of the effect in the near future of China's population on world food requirements. Eminently readable. My only regret is that the writer did not even hint at possible solutions.

I don't tend to read too much of this sort of thing,but this short book left me flabbergasted.The signs for a massive problem seem to be getting in place.This book was published in 1995,and probably the data was even somewhat out-of-date at that time.10 years has gone by and the population and fantastic economic development has continued to explode and no signs of any attempts to confront the impending pressures.In all the years that I have read books that attempted to forsee developing conditions and then to predict future events;I can't think of any prediction that was on the mark.That is not to say, that the problems aren't very severe;something will come about,but it will be completely different than the senario predicted.
The book quotes a lot of facts and trends,suggests that it will result in very high prices for food,particularly grain in the future.I doubt it will be that simple,the extreme demand will be there and all the price increases in the world for the limited supply will not produce a solution.The book reminds me of the kind of thing one can expect from government and other bureaucrats;simply a definition of the problem ,but totally devoid of any solutions.
Since it is not a subject I have read much about;I have not seen any data to show what the numbers are now,10 years later.I suspect the trends have continued unabated.One must consider that people are very resilient and can adjust to about any amount of deprivation until some event becomes the straw that breaks the camels back--then LOOK-OUT major calamity will occur;history has shown that to be the case time and time again.
The author quite correctly reminds us that "Socialist ideology makes it easy to dismiss problems"."He also quotes Michael Teitelbaum, a demographer;"For Marx,the fact that people were producers as well as consumers meant that the resource limits emphasized by the classical economists could arise under capitalism,but not under socialism."The folly of that thinking has been proven disasterous in the past,and it is likely to be repeated as long as China embrases socialism.
The authors main point is that as a country develops,its people will want the best lifestyle possible.It is easy for the Chinese to see what is possible,as it is already realized in many countries around the world.The problem is that China does not have the resources,nor are there such resources in the rest of the world--and therein lies the problem.
These numbers tell the story:

Annual Per Capita Consumption in 100 kilos
Country Grain Beef Pork Poultry Mutton Milk Eggs
USA 800 42 28 44 1 271 16
Italy 400 16 20 19 1 182 12
China 300 1 21 3 1 4 7
India 200 - 0.4 0.4 0.2 31 13

Kinda scary,ain't it

We are 2 years away from his 10 year prediction, and no world food shortage or huge price increase is in sight.