Property Rights and the Soybean Revolution: Shaping How China and Brazil Are Telecoupled

Sara M. Torres, Emilio F. Moran and Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva
Additional contact information
Sara M. Torres: Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
Emilio F. Moran: Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva: Center for Environmental Studies and Research, State University of Campinas, 13083-867 Campinas, Brazil

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: China currently has the largest population in the world and is currently experiencing rapid economic and urban growth, becoming the world’s number one pork and poultry consumer. In order to meet this growing demand for meat, China has increased its demand for soybeans to produce chicken and pork. It has imported soybeans from the United States, Brazil, and Argentina, while keeping its soybean production for direct human consumption stable at home. Brazil has become the largest soybean exporter to China, and, in response specifically to Chinese demand, has become the second largest producer of soybeans in the world. This has changed land use in Brazil, particularly in its central plateau. In this paper, we indicate how these two countries, telecoupled by trade in soybeans, are depending on each other as they try to balance environmental and economic objectives. Brazil, as a sending system, has created pressures on its natural ecosystems, which have led to losses particularly in the Cerrado biome and its ecotones in the Amazon’s tropical moist forest biome. China, as a receiving system, has created a land asset important to regenerating its lost natural systems (e.g., forest cover areas). Both countries have different property rights regimes, which have created distinct circumstances in which they are to protect or regenerate their natural ecosystems. Throughout this paper, we analyze how both countries have dealt with the lure offered by the soybean commodity trade.

Keywords: property rights; telecoupling; agribusiness; Brazil; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/6/954/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/6/954/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:6:p:954-:d:100555

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().