China’s Food Security Governance from a Hydraulic Society to a Corporate Food Regime and COVID-19

Abstract

Although the main purpose of food security governance in China is to increase grain yield, the traditional and contemporary methods employed to achieve food security governance differ in polemic terms. The traditional method relies on organizations such as peasant collectives to properly manage water and other natural resources on farmlands. The food security governance of traditional China can best be described as a “hydraulic society”. Shifting from a pre-capitalist to a capitalist model, the contemporary method is centered on several large-scale agricultural and food (A&F) corporations and involves the capitalization of grain production resources, genetic modifications of grain seedlings through science and technology, and intensive scales of grain production. A “corporate food regime” is, therefore, what best defines the governance mechanisms of food security in contemporary China. This paper aims to examine how the governance of food security has been reshaped by this emerging corporate food regime. Findings indicate that China’s food security governance has transformed into a corporate food regime to increase grain yield. In this regime, the Chinese government supports the establishment of a few large-scale A&F corporations, allowing them to have an oligopoly over the domestic grain market. Internationally, China has become a major investor through its transnational agricultural land grabbing. The formation of this new food security governance has not only affected the traditional Chinese culture of peasant collectives, but also challenged the global A&F market system. However, COVID-19 and the promulgation of the Biosecurity Law are likely to alter the development of China’s A&F corporations and its food security governance.