Potential and observed food flows in a Chinese city: a case study of Tianjin

Dingyang Zhou (), Hirotaka Matsuda, Yuji Hara and Kazuhiko Takeuchi

Agriculture and Human Values, 2012, vol. 29, issue 4, 492 pages

Abstract: This study examines the food flow in Tianjin, divided into three areas (urban, suburban, and rural), as a case study to gain a better understanding of local and regional food flows and ecosystem performance. The study has the following objectives: (1) to evaluate the capacity for self-sufficiency within Tianjin’s administrative boundary by estimating a self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) using statistical data at both the city and local scales, (2) to estimate food flow at the city scale from field surveys of the local markets and statistics provided by the local government, and (3) to examine the real flows of the two primary types of arable crops (cereal grains and vegetables) at the local level by conducting semi-structured household interviews. The results of this study show that Tianjin has experienced a rapid increase of self-sufficiency capacity since the 1980s, and it appears to have the capacity to support the citizens within its borders. Rural areas have had a surplus in all of the studied food categories since the 1980s, and suburban areas have a history of high estimated SSR for vegetables, poultry, and fish. However, a low degree of locally sourced product flow was observed in this study. Most of the local cereal crops were consumed in the agricultural production areas, but 70 % of the vegetables produced in the rural areas flowed outside of Tianjin and did not support Tianjin local consumption. To reduce its vulnerability to food security issues and to promote a more environmentally desirable local food system, Tianjin needs to recognize the high productivity of its local ecosystem and reduce its dependence on other remote ecosystems for its food needs. A stronger relationship between urban and rural areas should also be established. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Keywords: Food flow; Ecosystem; Self-sufficiency; Urban–rural linkage; Sustainability; Tianjin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10460-012-9374-x (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:spr:agrhuv:v:29:y:2012:i:4:p:481-492

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10460

DOI: 10.1007/s10460-012-9374-x

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture and Human Values is currently edited by Harvey S. James Jr.

More articles in Agriculture and Human Values from Springer, The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().