Trade | TableDebates

China lifts 13 year ban on U.S. meat

China’s premier has announced that the country will begin accepting U.S. beef from animals under 30 months of age. When speaking to U.S. business groups, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China would soon allow imports of U.S. beef. China has conditionally lifted an import ban on some shipments of U.S. boneless beef and beef on the bone, and will also ease restrictions on Canadian beef, the Asian nation's agriculture ministry and its premier said on Thursday.

Photo: Masahiro Ihara , Flickr, Creative Commons License 2.0

The impact of high-end climate change on agricultural welfare

The agricultural sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change; a small increase of 1 degree Celsius can have significant negative impacts on crop yields, especially in the tropics. Global economic losses in production of three major crops (wheat, maize, and barley) attributed to climate change in the recent past are estimated at approximately US$5 billion per year.

Special Issue: Linking Local Consumption to Global Impacts

This special issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology takes a closer look at how consumption is increasingly met by global supply chains that often involve large geographical distances.

A cargo ship arriving into a port. Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi via Unsplash.

The UK is increasingly “outsourcing” the environmental impact of its food supply

This piece discusses the findings of a recent paper by de Ruiter and colleagues, Global cropland and greenhouse gas impacts of UK food supply are increasingly located overseas. The full abstract and citation are provided below. This post is written by FCRN member Henri de Ruiter. Henri is a PhD Student at the University of Aberdeen and the James Hutton Institute. Henri graduated with a Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Behavioural and Neurosciences from the University of Groningen. His current PhD project considers the implications of meeting a healthy and environmentally sustainable diet for future land use.Henri would welcome your thoughts on the paper. Add a comment in the field below this blog-post, but note that you need to be signed in as a member to write a comment.

The Triangle: The Evolution and Future of Industrial Animal Agriculture in the U.S., China, and Brazil

This discussion paper entitled The Triangle: The Evolution and Future of Industrial Animal Agriculture in the U.S., China, and Brazil provides an analysis of the modern livestock industry and of so called factory farming. The paper focuses on the connections between the three most important countries in today´s meat and feed industries: the United States, China, and Brazil. The underlying emphasis of the paper is that as living standards improve in emerging economies, rising consumption of animal products is one of the factors fuelling the expansion of Western-style, large-scale, intensive animal farming and feed crop monoculture.

Global or local food chains? Uncovering the dilemmas in Senegal and Peru – new report by IIED

This International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) report looks into the dilemma facing developing countries and emerging economies in deciding whether they should favour local over global food chains. Using case studies from Senegal and Peru this paper shows a new and complex reality that challenges ideological views about re-localising food production and consumption. It analyses national policies and food chain practices of increasingly globalised markets, and shows that in both countries local food chains are complementary rather than an alternative to imported food.

FAO report - Climate Change and Food Systems: Global assessments and implications for food security and trade

This report synthesises the findings of a group of scientists and economists who analysed the impacts of climate change on food and agriculture at global and regional levels over the past two decades.

A cargo ship sailing off into a sunset. Photo by Anastasios Antoniadis via Unsplash.

What will TTIP mean for food and climate?

In this piece, FCRN advisory board member Vicki Hird covers the contention of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty, introducing the politics and potential of the major negotiation. Vicki (MSC FRES RSA) is a food, farming and environmental professional with 25 years’ experience in research, policy advocacy and campaigning with some great wins, some moderate successes, some useful failures, many reports and a book on food and farming policy. She started out studying slime mould ecology and agricultural pest control but got sidetracked…

Global consumption an increasingly significant driver of tropical deforestation

In this report commissioned by Center for Global Development, researchers at Chalmers University, Linköping University and Vienna University describe how international trade with agricultural and wood products is an increasingly important driver of tropical deforestation. More than a third of recent deforestation can be tied to production of beef, soy, palm oil and timber.