The use of smartphones has profoundly changed the consumption patterns and living conditions of rural residents, but there is little research on how smartphone use affects the food consumption patterns of rural residents. This paper uses survey data from 1047 farmers from five Chinese provinces in 2020 to investigate the impact of smartphone use on the dietary diversity of rural residents, the underlying mechanism, and the corresponding group-level heterogeneity. The study finds that smartphone use has a significantly positive effect on the dietary diversity of rural residents and that the dietary diversity scores of rural residents who use smartphones to access the internet are a significant 4.2% higher than those of rural residents who do not. The results are robust to the use of instrumental variables and propensity score matching to account for potential endogeneity. The income effect and the transaction cost effect are the two mechanisms by which smartphone use improves the dietary diversity of rural residents. Compared with elderly residents and members of low-income households, young and middle-aged people and members of high-income households are more likely to use smartphones to improve their dietary diversity. The following recommendations for further improving the dietary diversity of rural residents are made: continue to increase the internet penetration rate and smartphone coverage rate in rural areas, conduct public welfare lectures on smartphone usage and nutrition and health knowledge, and improve the e-commerce distribution infrastructure in rural areas.

Considering the contradiction between the need to change the food consumption structure of Chinese residents and the constraints of resources and the environment, as well as the changes in the consumption structure of Chinese residents in the Yangtze River Delta, we explore the path to achieve environmental sustainability while maintaining residents’ dietary health. Based on 1995–2019 Yangtze River Delta food consumption data, this paper uses the two-stage Engel–QUAIDS model to conduct an empirical analysis of the food consumption and carbon emissions of urban and rural residents in the Yangtze River Delta and simulates the impact of income growth and food price changes on per capita food consumption carbon emissions and nutrient intake. The results show that the residents of the Yangtze River Delta consume too much meat and poultry, and the carbon emissions are high; the consumption of eggs and fruits is obviously insufficient, and the carbon emissions are low. With an increase in income, the increase in food carbon emissions among rural residents (0.406%) is greater than that among urban residents (0.247%); higher prices of meat, poultry, and aquatic products can significantly reduce food carbon emissions, and higher prices of fruits will promote food carbon emissions. The nutritional intake of residents can still be guaranteed under the low-carbon policy. It is worth mentioning that after the price adjustment simulation, residents’ fat intake will be significantly reduced within the recommended range, which is also beneficial to residents’ health. Therefore, appropriately regulating food prices and increasing people’s income would not only ensure nutritional health but also contribute to reducing carbon emissions and creating a sustainable agricultural food system.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to assess the impact of rising food prices on food demand and nutrient intake among rural–urban migrants and whether such impact varies across income classes.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this study adopts a quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) for food demand elasticity and an indirect estimation method for nutrient elasticity to investigate the effects of rising food prices on food demand and nutrient intake among rural–urban migrants.FindingsThe estimated results indicate that an increase in the price of pork alone would lead to a larger reduction in most nutrients among rural–urban migrants than other single targeted food group, and a simultaneous rise in the price of all food groups would have a remarkably adverse effect on the nutritional status of rural–urban migrants in comparison to the nutritional effects of a rise in one targeted food group. In addition, the nutritional effects of food prices across income classes show that the nutritional status is particularly vulnerable to rising food prices among low-income rural–urban migrants.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on analyzing the impact of rising food prices on the nutritional status of rural–urban migrants, a topic that is very limited in the literature. This study provides a fresh look at the effect of volatile food prices on food demand and nutrient intake among rural–urban migrants. The results indicate that income growth would have a remarkable positive effect on nutrient intake for rural–urban migrants, especially for low-income rural–urban migrants. However, an increment in nutrients due to a growth in income would not be far from enough to cover the reduction in nutrients as a result of a simultaneous rise in price of all the studied food categories at the same rate.

Pork price fluctuations are closely related to the national economy and people’s livelihoods in China. Based on the monthly pork price fluctuations in China from January 2011 to August 2022, this study uses ARCH family models to assess the characteristics and laws of these fluctuations in China. The pork price fluctuations show obvious clustering, with external shock information from the previous month affecting the pork price in the following period; the pork market price is characterized by risk compensation, with the high risk of pork supply driving the pork price up. In addition, the pork price fluctuations are characterized by asymmetry, with a greater impact of good than of bad news on the pork price. Due to the pork industry’ low entry threshold and the existence of sunk costs, positive information on the pork market has a stronger impact on price fluctuations than negative information. To guide pork supply, we recommend improving monitoring and early-warning mechanisms in the pork market to identify the pork price volatility threshold and measure the price volatility. In addition, price index insurance products should be constantly strengthened, with different types of insurance products being offered to meeting the insurance demand of various sectors in the pig meat supply chain.