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

• Published in: Agriculture and human values Vol. 41; no. 2; pp. 647 - 659
• Main Authors: Jehlička, Petr, Ma, Huidi, Kostelecký, Tomáš, Smith, Joe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-06-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural Economics; Agricultural Ethics; Biodiversity; Climate change; Creativity; Developing countries; Development Studies; Education; Environmental Sociology; Farmers; Food; Households; Humanities and Social Sciences; Innovations; LDCs; Multiculturalism & pluralism; multidisciplinary; Natural & organic foods; Philosophy; Production methods; Provisioning; Science; Sustainability; Sustainable Development; Urban areas; Urban studies; Food self-provisioning; Innovation; Maintenance; Alternative food networks; China; Sustainability
• ISSN: 0889-048X; 1572-8366
• DOI: 10.1007/s10460-023-10506-7

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.