China Tells

Despite the one-child policy, China’s population continues to grow. Meanwhile, rapid urbanisation threatens a reduction in the country’s cropland. Brown points out that a massive switch from the traditional Maoist policy of self-sufficiency in grain to a strategy involving large-scale food imports would tip the balance in world food markets. This short study raises more questions than it answers, but, as the title says, its function is to wake us up to the problem, and it certainly does just that.