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Commodification and Westernization: Explaining Declining Nutritional Intake in Contemporary Rural C hina
Author(s) -
Xu Zhun,
Zhang Wei
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/joac.12119
Subject(s) - westernization , commodification , china , agrarian society , context (archaeology) , rural area , consumption (sociology) , development economics , economic growth , economics , population growth , population , geography , agricultural economics , socioeconomics , political science , environmental health , economy , agriculture , medicine , sociology , social science , modernization theory , archaeology , law
Despite C hina's rapid growth in the past decade, C hinese rural residents suffer from a continuing decline of both calorie and protein intakes. We investigate the dramatic historical changes in nutritional intake in the C hinese countryside. There are two main explanations for the decline: first, the changing demographic and economic structure contributes to a lower demand for energy compared to traditional rural society; and, second, the rising cost of non‐food essential goods could lead to a squeeze in the food budget. Using both national‐level and provincial‐level data, we find evidence for both factors. We further argue that the current abnormally low level of nutritional intake is mainly due to commodification in the context of diet westernization. Rural residents' nutritional intake declines as they divert their consumption from relatively cheap sources of energy (grain and vegetable) to more expensive alternatives (meat and poultry) under a squeezed budget. The shocking failure of sustaining a healthy rural population is a unique manifestation of the contradiction in the C hinese agrarian relations.