Environmental impacts of Chinese Diet through a life-cycle approach

Vitor Vieira Vasconcelos

PhD in Natural Sciences
Stockholm Environment Institute Asia Centre
August 2015

During the last century, Chinas has changed from an agricultural country to the main industrial
workshop of the world. These changes reflected in shifts of consumption patterns, from a previously
predominant poor rural population that, migrating to the industrialized cities, now enjoy an increasingly
western consumption standard. The aim of this essays is to explore how the changes in food consumption
in China, as home of approximately one fifth of the world population, have a huge effect on the demand
of natural resources and on environmental impacts, not only within China, but also worldwide. The essay
starts from the early 20th century China, and explore the changes in rural and urban population, tracking
the consequent shift in the population diet. The impacts of the food consumption trends are analyzed
through a life-cycle approach, and some reflections are made about the possibility of a more sustainable
development in China.
In the beginning of the 20th century, most of the Chinese population was living from traditional
family subsistence farming, as explained by Fawssett et al (2009, p.67-83). In this traditional system, the
families tried to cycle the nutrients as much as possible, collecting the organic residue from plants, animals
and humans to re-enter it in the production cycle as food for animals or manure for crops. The farms also
used other sustainable practices for water and soil conservation, such as terracing and multiple cropping.
The basic meal would consist of staple food (rice or wheat), adding one kind of vegetable as a side dish.
In some occasions, a small amount of meat from small animals nourished in the farm would be part of the
meal.
Some changes started to occur during the Mao Zedong socialist regime, from 1948 to 1976, as
the national government assumed the role to buy and distribute food, and this management system
helped to guarantee food security (Fawssett, et al, 2009, p.86-90). The new system of collective farms,
replacing partially the family farming, also helped to introduce technological innovations, such as new
machinery.
However, the biggest changes would happen with the Economic Reform, after 1978, when the
Chinese government would progressively open its market to foreign investment, as well as to national
private entrepreneurs, to stimulate industrial development. As an result of this industrialization trend, the
Chinese living in city changed from 16.2% of the population in 1960 to 54.4% in 2014 (World Bank, 2015),
becoming the largest migration phenomenon ever seen in history. This development also increased the
average yearly income from US$88.72, in 1960 to US$7,593.88 in 2010 (World Bank, 2015). The health
indicators also improved, as the under-five mortality rate decreased from 119.1 deaths in each 1000
newborns in 1969 to 12.7 in 2014 and the average life expectancy increased from 43.46 years in 1960 to
75.35 years in 2014 (World Bank, 2015).
The peasants saw migration as a way to improve their quality of life. Many of them would plan to
earn some money in the city in order to send it back to their families in the countryside, or would try to
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save money in order to come back and have a better quality of life in their homeland. Others would make
a complete transition, if they were able to change their registration (Hukou) to formal urban citizens.
Throughout those decades, economic development in China also changed the consumption
patterns. Regarding food consumption, the basic meal consisting of mainly staple food that predominated
in the early 20th century gave space to a more diversified diet with growing demand for vegetables, dairy
and meat (Fawssett, et al, 2009, p.100-101). The consume of bottled water is also another increasing trend
(Fawssett, et al, 2009, p.148).
But what would be the environmental impacts of that increasing consumption? First of all, it is
important to be aware that China is not isolated of the rest of the world, but interlinked with the global
food market chain. To better evaluate those consequences, a life-cycle approach is useful, investigating
the environmental impact since the beginning of the production process, and including the production of
agricultural machinery, extraction of raw materials for agricultural inputs, food processing, distribution,
use and final disposal. Each of these steps may cause environmental impacts, such as energy use, carbon
emissions, pollution, deforestation of native ecosystems, waste generation, among others. Every time the
population in China or elsewhere increases the changes its consumption pattern, it leads to changes
production and, consequently, a different environmental impact in the whole life-cycle of the product. In
an increasingly globalized market, these impacts may be shared in many places of the world, although, as
consumption and production is concentrating rapidly in Chinas territory, the impacts tend to concentrate
there, too.
As regards recent changes in Chinese food consumption, it is noteworthy that the production
process to provide the same amount of energy and protein from meat, comparing with grains, requires
much more land and water use (Fawssett, et al, 2009, p.102-109). The extensive production systems for
cattle animals need a vast area support their demand for grass and herbaceous vegetation. On the other
hand, the intensive meat and dairy production systems need to provide to animals the water, grains and
other food supplements that otherwise could be consumed directly by humans in a more efficient lifecycle. Henceforth, every time the Chinese population replaces grain consumption for meat consumption,
there is an increasingly pressure on land and water use. Often, this pressure for new agricultural and
pasture lands causes overexploitation of soils that are not suitable for intensive production, leading to
desertification or erosional processes. These impacts may happen not only in China: for example, the beef
production to appease Chinas demand may increase the pressure of new lands for pasture and soya crops
in Brazil, causing more deforestation of the Amazon forest (Gillman, 2009, p.110)
Notwithstanding, it is in the emerging megacities of China that people are starting to suffer the
most conspicuous effects of the environmental impacts from their own consumption choices. The impact
assessment of food diet would not be complete if we do not consider the pollution from agriculture
machinery and inputs industry, and the sewage and waste generated by the concentrated consumption
of food in the cities. The pollution of water supply sources in China is demanding the government to
invest in more and more expensive solutions in order to meet the increasing water demand (Fawssett, et
al, 2009, p.51-52).
The water pollution also makes citizens suspecting about the potability of the tap water, and thus
many of them start to consume more bottled water. Considering its life-cycle analysis, the bottled water
demands much more energy and causes more environmental impacts than the consumption of tap water.

For example, there are the impacts of production and disposal of the plastic bottles, and the energy and
pollutions involved in the transportation process of the product (Fawssett, et al, 2009, p.148).
The increasing environmental impacts of this new consumption pattern may paint a dark future
to Chinas development history. However, there is still opportunity for many improvements that would at
least partially mitigate these impacts. One interesting way to evaluate these possibilities within the lifecycle approach is to reason on the 4 Rs: reduce use, reuse, recycle and recover, in this respective order
of preference. Consumers in China may try to waste less food in their daily lives, or choose food products
that generate less impacts along their life-cycles, in order to allow a more sustainable development. The
cooperation between private sector, citizens and government in reuse and recycle schemes for food
package is a way to decrease the demand for raw materials and energy, while also decreasing waste
disposal. The food residues can also be collected separately as organic input for composting facilities.
Sustainable landfills and sewage treatment facilities can include biodigesters to recover energy, while
capturing methane emissions that otherwise could contribute to the greenhouse effect.
In fact, environmental awareness of Chinese population is important factor to define Chinas
future. Chinese social organizations and citizens in general are becoming more aware and active in issues
involving biodiversity conservation and pollution control (Fawssett, et al, 2009, p.50-53), and this
awareness may possibly lead to greener consumption choices. The government leaders, attentive to these
social changes, are also incorporating values of environmental sustainability in their discourses and
strategies (Fawssett et al., 2009, p.173), and may develop strategies that mitigate the life-cycle impacts
of food consumption. In China, the Party has a very high control on many aspects of development, and
thus their decision towards public policies oriented to sustainable consumption would be crucial to ensure
a sustainable future for China.
In conclusion, Chinas recent diet changes, when evaluated through a file-cycle approach, clarify
how the new consuming patterns in the country impact natural resources consumption and cause
pollution on production, consumption and disposal in the food chain. From the facts and arguments
presented, it is possible to understand that Chinas increasing urbanization led to new food consumption
patterns that pose challenges regarding environmental health and the limits of available natural
resources. These limits clearly sign that it would not be possible to continue in the same development
strategy in the long term. Changes to a more sustainable development are needed, and it may depend on
consumer choices, as well as on wise government choices.
References:
Fawssett, S, Morris, D and Warren, J (2009) Changing China: U116, Block 5, Milton Keynes, The Open
University
Gillman, M (2009) Life in Amazon: U116, Block 4, Milton Keynes, The Open University
World
Bank
(2015)
World
Development
http://data.worldbank.org/country/china?display=default accessed 14 July 2015.

Indicators.