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https://theconversation.com/china-wants-more-people-to-eat-potatoes-how-changing-national-diets-could-help-fix-our-global-food-crisis-podcast-196159>
"How do you get a country to change its national diet? That’s what China has
been trying by introducing potato as a staple as part of an effort to improve
food security. In this episode of
The Conversation Weekly, we talk to three
experts about why countries need to shift what their citizens eat, and what the
optimum diet for our planet might be.
Chinese farmers plant the largest amount of potatoes in the world, and the
country produces about 20% of the global potato output. But while fresh
potatoes are a traditional part of the Chinese national diet, they’re viewed as
a vegetable rather than as a staple, and China’s per capita consumption of
potato is below the global average.
In 2015, the Chinese government decided to try and change that. It introduced a
policy to promote the potato as the country’s fourth staple alongside rice,
wheat and maize. As Xiaobo Xue Romeiko, a professor at the University at
Albany, State University of New York in the US explains, behind the strategy
lay concerns over food security and the availability of arable land. “Potato is
more versatile and it can be grown in marginal land which is not suitable as
our arable land,” she says.
Potatoes are also less energy intensive to grow and, according to her research,
have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food production in
China, particularly if it introduces varieties with higher yields.
Other countries may need to follow China’s lead. As pressures mount on the
global food system thanks to climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine, food security has become a central issue for many more
governments. “At the moment the food system really is under the highest
stress,” says Paul Behrens, associate professor in environmental change at
Leiden University in the Netherlands. In 2022, the UN’s food price index, which
measures monthly changes in international prices of a basket of food
commodities, has hit record highs."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
