Will Food Import Guarantee Safer Food?

Will Food Import Guarantee Safer Food?

Abstract

Arable land and water resources are two major factors deciding whether there will be sufficient agricultural production or not. In addition to the limited land and water resources, with more than 7 billion population in the world right now, food security issue has become one of the major problems posing great threat to local health and social development in many countries, especially but not exclusively in low-income food deficit countries (LIFDCs) and least developed countries (LDCs). Therefore, to address this problem, many countries turn to food import. However, in terms of food security of this approach, people’s opinions about the advantages and disadvantages are different. In this article, except contrasting and analyzing the different aspects of importing food in terms of food and water security in general, this article mainly focuses on the particular situation in China, which shares something in common with other countries experiencing booming food import, and has some unique characteristics at the same time with respect to China’s reliance on food import.

Key words: Food import; Food security; Water security; Water transfer; China

Introduction

The world population has hit 7 billion on October 31, 2011, and now it almost reaches 7.2 billion at a rate of approximately 2 newborns per second. It is expected to reach 9.6 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion in 2100 (UNDESA, 2013). On the other hand, from 2011 to 2013, a total of 842 million people or approximately 12% of the people in the world, were estimated suffering from hunger chronically, regularly cannot get enough food to conduct an active life (FAO, 2013). In another word, 12% of people on this planet have no guaranteed access to food security, or fundamental-level of food security.

It is widely acknowledged that crop production accounts for the biggest water use (70%) in the world (Hamdy et al. 2003), therefore water security practically is the prerequisite of food security. In several parts of the world, like in North Africa, Middle East, and Central and South Asia, water scarcity has always been the biggest barrier to their development, including the improvement of their food production (Yang and Zehnder, 2002). Without sufficient water resources and enough arable land, plus a huge burden of population, the food deficit leaves them few choices to address the issue. Importing food is one of the resorts. By importing food, the amount of water that has been contained in the food actually compensates the water that would be used if these countries produced the part of food (Yang and Zehnder, 2002).

Food security

As for the definition of “food security”, the most commonly used one is from the World Food Summit in 1996, it defined food security as a state of “all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”(World Food Summit, 1996). Furthermore, this year’s edition of The State of Food Insecurity in the World presents and analyses a suite of indicators that describe these four dimensions of food security: food availability, economic and physical access to food, food utilization and stability over time (FAO, 2013). This suite of indicators includes 30 with 28 already come out and 2 are forthcoming, which are the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency and the prevalence of iodine deficiency. Compared with the food security exclusively refers to the availability or the quantity of food, the multi-dimentional definition of food security makes a more sound food security assessing system, but also makes it more complicated to evaluate and quantify the state of food security in a specific area.

Food import

Lack of access to sufficient amount of water combines with rapid population growth leave the growth in agricultural production lag behind.  For example, the present population of China is more than 1.3 billion and has been increasing. Huge population, limited and unevenly distributed water resources necessitate food import in China.

At the beginning of this year, the spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China admitted that the amount of imported food tripled in 2012, compared with the figure in the previous year. The total volume of wheat, maize and rice was 1077.5×104, equivalent to a substantial 294.5% year-on-year growth. Facing China’s surge in importing food, arguments about the advantages and disadvantages stir up again.

Advantages

Alleviating the pressure from food production and supply stress is the most direct advantage of importing food. People therefore have access to enough food instantly, which is indispensible to their survivals. According to Allan’s definition of ‘virtual water’, which is the water embodied in food crops that are traded on international food market (Allan, 1996a,b, 1998), to a large extent, importing food is importing water, namely, the virtual water, which seems to be, at least for now, one of the solutions to a long historical issue in China.

The uneven distribution of water resources in China has constrained the development of China since the ancient time. Specifically speaking, the southern area suffers from flood while the north afflicted with frequent drought. In 1952, Mao firstly proposed a long-term South-north water transfer project, however this project officially started in 2002, half a century late after Mao’s proposition. Therefore, it is not hard to understand how difficult the project is. Additionally, the project is extremely expensive. As for the first stage, it cost US$7B, plus a following US$3B in accessory costs. It costs approximately US$17B to transfer 20 km3 of water (WWF, 2001). Besides, the first stage of the project involves the resettlement of up to 300,000 people (WWF, 2001; US Embassy, 2001).

Unquestionably, this project benefits countless people, since “Water will be the major constraint to achieve food security in many developing countries” (Rosegrant and Ringler, 2000). One of the most significant contributions of the South-North Water Transfer Project is the increased level of food security in China’s northern area. However, compared with its huge cost and irreversible environmental implications, no one can be a hundred percent sure about whether the project is worth the cost. Besides, since the project is still ongoing, several new issues have already surfaced. One of these concerned with food security.