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Xinhua: With Rapid Urbanization, Who Will Grow Grain in China?

By the end of 2011, the number of Chinese in urban areas reached 51.3 percent of the population; more than 250 million migrant workers from the countryside reside in cities. “To solve the problem of ‘who will grow grain’ tomorrow is an urgent priority.”

“On the one hand, rapid urbanization has resulted in the loss of high quality arable land, a mass departure of rural young adults, a continuous increase in labor costs, and a lack of successors for food production. On the other hand, with rapid economic growth and rising incomes, the structure of the Chinese diet has been changing rapidly. The amount that many families spend on meat exceeds their spending on staple foods, which has caused a surge in the demand for feed grain.”

Source: Xinhua, March 3, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2013-03/03/c_114869161.htm