Green Food Development in China: Experiences and Challenges

Jiuliang Xu, Zhihua Zhang, Xian Zhang, Muhammad Ishfaq, Jiahui Zhong, Wei Li, Fusuo Zhang and Xuexian Li
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Jiuliang Xu: Department of Plant Nutrition, The Key Plant-Soil Interaction Laboratory, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Zhihua Zhang: China Green Food Development Center, Beijing 100081, China
Xian Zhang: China Green Food Development Center, Beijing 100081, China
Muhammad Ishfaq: Department of Plant Nutrition, The Key Plant-Soil Interaction Laboratory, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Jiahui Zhong: Department of Plant Nutrition, The Key Plant-Soil Interaction Laboratory, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Wei Li: Fujian Key Laboratory of Agro-Product Quality and Safety, Fuzhou 350003, China
Fusuo Zhang: Department of Plant Nutrition, The Key Plant-Soil Interaction Laboratory, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Xuexian Li: Department of Plant Nutrition, The Key Plant-Soil Interaction Laboratory, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: China feeds approximately 22% of the global population with only 7% of the global arable land because of its surprising success in intensive agriculture. This outstanding achievement is partially overshadowed by agriculture-related large-scale environmental pollution across the nation. To ensure nutrition security and environmental sustainability, China proposed the Green Food Strategy in the 1990s and set up a specialized management agency, the China Green Food Development Center, with a monitoring network for policy and standard creation, brand authorization, and product inspection. Following these 140 environmental and operational standards, 15,984 green food companies provided 36,345 kinds of products in 2019. The cultivation area and annual domestic sales (CNY 465.7 billion) of green food accounted for 8.2% of the total farmland area and 9.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) from agriculture in China. Herein, we systemically reviewed the regulation, standards, and authorization system of green food and its current advances in China, and then outlined its environmental benefits, challenges, and probable strategies for future optimization and upscaling. The rapid development of the green food industry in China suggests an applicable triple-win strategy for protecting the environment, promoting agroeconomic development, and improving human nutrition and health in other developing countries or regions.

Keywords: green food; authorization; standard; food quality; environment; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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