Study Notes/Questions

Brown, Lester. 1995. Who Will Feed China? Wake-up Call for a Small Planet. W. W. Norton and Co.: New York.

Editor's Note

Does this book deal with an issue in China or a global issue?

Forward

What was the initial official Chinese response to Brown's hypothesis? Why? What was their later response?

1. Overview: The Wake-up Call

1. Based on this reading, does Lester Brown expect that the rest of the world can reach the same level of consumption as the United States and the other industrial states?

2. What is one of the earliest constraints that he feels consumers will face in attempting to make such a transformation?

3. What about resource constraints that producers will face?

4. In China, if internal constraints are faced by producers, what solution will the state most likely pursue? Is their historical precedent for such a solution? What impacts can be expected from such an approach both internally and globally?

5. Based on your reading of Brown, from the standpoint of China discuss the relationship between industrialization, farmland, consumers, and international trade.

6. In some detail discuss the precise relationships between grain lands and industrialization in China. How does this relate to Brown's statement that grain production will fall not as a result of agricultural failure, but from industrial success.

7. What is the "wake-up call"?

2. Another Half-Billion

Describe the population trends in China between 1990 and 2045. What will the impacts be of these trends on agricultural land?

3. Moving Up the Food Chain

How does "moving up the food chain" effect agriculture in China? Discuss this in some detail.

4. The Shrinking Cropland Base

What trends are occurring in China's total agricultural land and why? What historical precedent exists to understand these trends?

5. Spreading Water Scarcity

What are the causes? Is there any hope?

6. Raising Cropland Productivity

Is there much room for increased productivity?

7. Growing Grain Deficit

What was the Japanese experience? How could the Japanese experience effect China?

8. Competition for Grain

What might world markets look like in the near future?

9. Entering a New Era

How does the seafood example place this whole discussion in perspective?

10. Priorities in an Era of Scarcity

What needs to be done?