Arable land and water footprints for food consumption in China: From the perspective of urban and rural dietary change

Yan, Dongdong; Wu, Shaohua; Tang, Yisheng; Zhu, Jiang; Zhou, Shenglü; Xu, Zhenci

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155749

Cited by 29 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In contrast to rural areas, urban areas have 22% less arable land that is used to meet per capita cereal consumption. Long-term trends show that the amount of arable land needed to produce the per capita food consumption in urban and rural areas is on the rise from 1093 and 947 m 2 year −1 in 2020 to 1277 (1420) and 1049 (1235) m 2 year −1 in 2030 (2050), respectively, which is basically consistent with the conclusions of Daohao Yan et al [25]. In China, the demand for cereals, vegetables, and beef and mutton is relatively high from the standpoint of arable land meeting per capita food consumption, accounting for roughly 54-59% of the total arable land meeting food consumption in 2020 (Table 3).…”

Section: Arable Land Requirement Of Future Food Consumption In Chinasupporting

confidence: 89%

Future Dietary Transformation and Its Impacts on the Environment in China

Sun,

Zhu,

Cao

2023

Sustainability

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Meeting China’s future food consumption needs without increasing the environmental burden is one of the largest sustainability challenges in the ensuing decades. China is a typical urban–rural binary society, and there is a certain gap in the diets of urban and rural residents. With the advancement of urbanization, the future trend of Chinese urban and rural residents’ diets and its impact on the environment is a topic worth exploring. This study intends to examine the future changes in dietary intake of urban and rural residents in China as well as their impact on carbon emissions, virtual water, and arable land. These results indicate that the trend of decreasing grain consumption and increasing animal food consumption in China over the next 30 years will continue. However, the gap in per capita consumption of ruminant meat, aquatic products, and eggs between urban and rural residents will not be narrowed in the future. The combination of structural demand trends and population urbanization will likely impose stress on domestic food supplies over the long term. In addition, the burden of the dietary environment in China will further increase in the future, especially in urban areas, but rural areas will significantly decrease with a decrease in population size. In theory, if three alternative dietary scenarios are adopted, the environmental impact of Chinese residents’ diets can be significantly reduced in the future. More specifically, the demand gap for carbon emissions, virtual water, and arable land for urban residents’ diets in the future will exhibit heterogeneity under three alternative dietary scenarios. To achieve the long-term goals of ensuring food safety and sustainable environmental development in China in the future, it is necessary to take multiple measures, such as consuming a reasonable and balanced diet, reducing food waste, increasing agricultural technology investment, and increasing the import of resource-intensive food.

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Section: Arable Land Requirement Of Future Food Consumption In Chinasupporting

confidence: 89%

Future Dietary Transformation and Its Impacts on the Environment in China

Sun,

Zhu,

Cao

2023

Sustainability

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“…Most previous studies used food types, such as grains, fresh vegetables, meat and products and poultry, as the indicators of dietary structure (He et al, 2019; Yan et al, 2022). However, there are some limitations in characterizing the dietary structure of residents only by such general food types.…”

Section: Research Methodology Selection Of Indicators and Data Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present, many scholars have examined the relationship between the food structure of residents on the consumption side and the utilisation of arable land on the supply side (Franco et al, 2022; Frehner et al, 2022; Ma et al, 2022), including the relationship between people and food and changes in the carrying capacity of land resources (Wang et al, 2019a), the impact of changes in the residents' dietary structure on arable land resources (Yu and Du, 2022), the environmental effects of changes in the food consumption structure measured using the footprint of arable land (Yan et al, 2022), and other topics. Gao et al (2017) assessed the potential of arable land conservation under the food consumption structure of residents by establishing a correlation mechanism between the food consumption structure of rural residents and the demand for arable land, and found that animal food consumes three times more arable land resources than plant food at the same dietary nutritional level (Gerbens-Leenes and Nonhebel, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Upgrading the Dietary Structure of Residents on Non-grain Production of Cultivated Land

Qianru,

Manyu,

Hongchen

et al. 2023

Journal of Resources and Ecology

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“…In addition, as disposable income increased, the diet structure tended to change in a direction that was not conducive to water conservation (Pang et al, 2021;Vanham et al, 2016). For example, the proportion of foods with a high water footprint, such as meat and dairy products, increases, whereas the proportion of foods with a low water footprint, such as grains and vegetables, decreases, leading to an increase in water resources (Wang et al, 2022;Yan et al, 2022). Therefore, it is necessary to change the consumption patterns of urban residents.…”

Section: Driving Factors Of Water Use In Different Sectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The driving factors of water use and its decoupling relationship with economic development: A multi-sectoral perspective

Wang

Jian

Wang

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The water resource situation in China is severe, and conflicts between the supply and demand of water resources are prominent. Competition for water from key sectors, such as agriculture, industry, and domestic use, is widespread. The Yellow River, as one of the longest rivers in the world, is an important economic belt and an ecological barrier in China. This study considered the nine provinces along the Yellow River as the study area and the three major water-use sectors: agriculture, industry, and domestic as the research objects. The drivers of water consumption in each sector in the nine provinces along the Yellow River were analyzed using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index method. Based on this, a decoupling model was used to explore the relationship between water use in each sector and the corresponding level of economic development. It was found that water use intensity and economic development level were the largest negative and positive influencing factors on water use in each sector, respectively, and the opposite effects of the two may cause the Jevons paradox in water use. The overall agricultural water-saving level in the basin is high and has a large water-saving potential. The negative driving effect of the industrial structure was more significant in provinces with higher development levels. The positive driving effect of residents' consumption levels on domestic water use in rural areas was more obvious than in urban areas. The degree of decoupling between per capita and domestic water consumption in urban areas was the worst in the decoupling of water use in the agricultural, industrial, and domestic sectors and their corresponding levels of economic development. Therefore, focusing on areas with weak agricultural water conservation, promoting industrial structure upgrading, strengthening water conservation education in rural areas, and guiding the water-saving consumption habits of residents can promote the sustainable development of water resources in the provinces along the Yellow River. The research results provide insights into water conservation management in the Yellow River Basin.

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Arable land and water footprints for food consumption in China: From the perspective of urban and rural dietary change

Cited by 29 publications

References 51 publications

Future Dietary Transformation and Its Impacts on the Environment in China

Future Dietary Transformation and Its Impacts on the Environment in China

The Effect of Upgrading the Dietary Structure of Residents on Non-grain Production of Cultivated Land

The driving factors of water use and its decoupling relationship with economic development: A multi-sectoral perspective

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