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Chinese food self-provisioning: key sustainability policy lessons hidden in plain sight

Author

Listed:
  • Petr Jehlička

    (Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences)

  • Huidi Ma

    (Chinese National Academy of Arts)

  • Tomáš Kostelecký

    (Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences)

  • Joe Smith

    (Royal Geographical Society (with IBG))

Abstract

Drawing on an exploratory study of urban food self-provisioning (FSP) in China, this article argues that progress in sustainability scholarship can be accelerated by embracing a greater diversity of framings of sustainability. It brings four important empirical findings concerning the prevalence of Chinese urban FSP, the social diversity of its practitioners, their primarily non-economic motivations, and production methods meeting the criteria for organic food that are deployed by more than a third of urban food growers. On this basis, the article highlights the importance of greater attention to identifying and valuing ‘already existing sustainability’ in non-Western contexts, rather than privileging Western conceptualizations of sustainability that promise sustainability innovation in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Petr Jehlička & Huidi Ma & Tomáš Kostelecký & Joe Smith, 2024. "Chinese food self-provisioning: key sustainability policy lessons hidden in plain sight," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(2), pages 647-659, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:41:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10460-023-10506-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-023-10506-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chen Liu & Lily Chen & Robert M. Vanderbeck & Gill Valentine & Mei Zhang & Kristina Diprose & Katie McQuaid, 2018. "A Chinese route to sustainability: Postsocialist transitions and the construction of ecological civilization," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(6), pages 741-748, November.
    2. Petr Gibas & Irena Boumová, 2020. "The Urbanization of Nature in a (Post)Socialist Metropolis: An Urban Political Ecology of Allotment Gardening," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 18-37, January.
    3. Roberta Sonnino & Christopher Griggs-Trevarthen, 2013. "A resilient social economy? Insights from the community food sector in the UK," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3-4), pages 272-292, April.
    4. Asa Roast, 2022. "THEORY FROM EMPTY LAND: Informal Commoning Outside/Within Economies and Ecologies of the Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 387-404, May.
    5. Zhenzhong Si & Theresa Schumilas & Steffanie Scott, 2015. "Characterizing alternative food networks in China," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(2), pages 299-313, June.
    6. Jens Alber & Ulrich Kohler, 2008. "Informal Food Production in the Enlarged European Union," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 89(1), pages 113-127, October.
    7. Wojciech Goszczyński & Ruta Śpiewak & Aleksandra Bilewicz & Michał Wróblewski, 2019. "Between Imitation and Embeddedness: Three Types of Polish Alternative Food Networks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-19, December.
    8. Lucie Sovová & Esther J. Veen, 2020. "Neither Poor nor Cool: Practising Food Self-Provisioning in Allotment Gardens in the Netherlands and Czechia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-18, June.
    9. Petr Jehlička & Tomáš Kostelecký & Joe Smith, 2013. "Food Self-Provisioning in Czechia: Beyond Coping Strategy of the Poor: A Response to Alber and Kohler’s ‘Informal Food Production in the Enlarged European Union’ (2008)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 219-234, March.
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