Guest Lecture with Professor Robert Ash, School of Oriental Studies and African Studies, University of London

Recent years have seen significant adjustments in the Chinese government’s approach to food security in response to the growing complexity of the challenge of feeding a fifth of global population. On the one hand, action is needed to address the problem of chronic hunger, which still affects large numbers of impoverished peasants. On the other hand, on-going efforts are needed to meet the challenge of meeting the aspirations of an increasingly affluent population that is demanding a more diversified, protein-based diet. For many years, the Chinese government’s food security policy was dominated by the twin imperatives of achieving 95 percent self-sufficiency in grain and minimising imports of major foodstuffs. But recently the government has recognised that as China grows richer, it will have no choice but to turn to imports, especially to provide livestock feed to meet burgeoning demand for meat and dairy products. The new thinking also acknowledges that for many consumers the key problem is no longer the availability of food, but its quality and safety.

Robert Ash is Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He has held visiting research and teaching positions at universities in Australia, Hong Kong, France and Italy. Although now semi-retired, he continues to teach at SOAS, where he is also a Professorial Fellow at the SOAS China Institute. His current research focus is on China’s food security.

The guest lecture is organised by Asia Research Centre, it is free and everyone is welcome, but please sign up at arc.int@cbs.dk