|
Arguments - Intervention Possibilities |
| Diet |
Not much can be done to influence people's dietary preferences, at least not
in a free society. Compulsory measures to restrict production of meat, for instance, or
economic interventions to increase meat prices are counterproductive to China's economic
reforms and would probably backfire. Although Chinese health officials are becoming
concerned about the increasing health risk associated with the already high levels of meat
and animal fat consumption in some urban areas, these concerns are not relevant
for a great majority of the population. In fact, in many parts of rural China, animal
protein consumption is still quite low (the average is misleading due to the
skewed distribution of meat supply between cities and rural areas). |
| Crucial
Issues |
| Here, we
discuss three questions: |
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Why would the Chinese
authorities want to influence the food preferences of the population? |
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What possibilities
exist for influencing dietary preferences? |
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Can we expect these
measures to be effective? |
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| Discussion |
| Why would the Chinese authorities want to influence the food preferences of
the population? |
|
| There are
two primary reasons. First, the authorities might want to reduce (or stabilize) the
people’s meat and animal fat consumption to slow the rapid increase in feed crop
demand. Feed crop cultivation directly competes with food crop production for high-quality
cropland. The authorities might also have environmental concerns (such as problems with
manure). Second, they might want to promote public health. In some big cities, such as
Beijing or Shanghai, public health campaigns have been started to educate the public about
the dangers of excessive animal meat and fat consumption. Their objective is to prevent an
increase in obesity and circulatory diseases, which are beginning to show up in these
urban areas. Depending on the objective, different intervention measures would be
necessary. |
|
| What possibilities exist for influencing dietary preferences? |
|
| In
principle, three measures might influence diet preferences. (1) One could run information
and education campaigns that would try to convince people that reduced consumption of meat
and animal products would be good for their health. (2) It is possible to implement
economic interventions (taxes, production restrictions, etc.) that would increase meat
prices. (3) Free trade in meat and animal products could be restricted by the state and be
handled by a state distribution system. These intervention measures, however, are only
theoretical possibilities. They are either not very effective or counterproductive to
China's economic reforms. |
|
| Can we expect these measures to be effective? |
Traditional
Chinese dishes are often rich in meat, animal fat, and other animal products, such as
offal. Beijing duck and numerous pork dishes are famous Chinese specialities. For the
average person, one of the great achievements of China's economic reforms was that such
delicacies became available to broad sections of the population. Protein-rich food has a
high priority in China's everyday life. Unlike the mostly vegetarian food cultures of
India and Japan, that of China has a positive image of (red) meat and other animal-based
foods. This would make it very difficult to lower China's demand for (red) meat. We should
also not forget that in rural areas many people still cannot afford to consume large
amounts of meat and animal products.
Moreover, it would not only be difficult to convince consumers in China of the
advantages of a vegetarian diet, but farmers would probably also resist such measures. For
farmers, raising livestock is an important insurance policy against crop failure - meat is
not a seasonal product, such as grain or vegetables. Animals can be slaughtered when
drought or flooding has destroyed the harvest. |
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| Related Arguments |
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Diet Change: Trends
Impact Data Quality Prediction Error Intervention Possibilities Intervention Costs
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Revision 2.0 (First revision published in 1999)
- Copyright © 2011 by Gerhard K. Heilig. All rights reserved. (First revision: Copyright © 1999 by IIASA.) |
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