Guardian UK: More wealth, more meat. How China's rise spells trouble

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More wealth, more meat. How China's rise spells trouble
In the fourth part of our series, Jonathan Watts reports from China, where rising demand for meat from a growing middle class is destabilising world food prices

Jonathan Watts The Guardian, Friday May 30 2008


Before lunch Zhang Xiuwen asks his family to give thanks. The table in their small Beijing flat is set with a simple meal: garlic pork in vinegar, fresh tomatoes, leavened bread, potato, cauliflower, and fried egg with cucumber. But for Chinese migrants such as Zhang and his wife it is a feast that they could only have dreamed about when growing up in a poor country village.

Ten years ago Zhang swapped the mountain skyline of his rural home near Shangrila in south-western Yunnan province for the grimy suburbs of west Beijing. For Zhang what he sacrificed in scenery he has more than made up for in lifestyle and diet. Once a rural farmer, Zhang is now an urban tennis coach. He no longer grows food, he buys it. Often hungry during a poor childhood, he can now afford meat every day.

It is a trend repeated across the most populous nation that is affecting global prices of grain and dairy products, and raising the risk of hunger among the world's poor as grain is diverted to fatten up animals.

Western suppliers claim the shift will ripple through world markets for years. "This is the end of self-sufficiency for China," says James Rice, chief of China operations for Tyson Foods, the world's biggest meat producer. "This year will be the last in which China produces enough corn for itself, and the last that it is self-sufficient in protein."

He predicts China will be importing $4.5bn (£2.27bn) worth of protein by 2010. "Whenever China goes from being a net exporter to a net importer of anything, it has a big impact on global prices. Just look at oil. The $40 per barrel price popped just when China started buying." .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/30/food.china1