China has achieved high economic growth for over 30 years. There is no doubt that the increasing of GDP in China has occupied a more and more significant position in international market. This economical development not only enhances the comprehensive national strength, but also strongly improves people’s living standard. Due to the huge population of China, food poverty is a dramatically crucial problem, especially in remote villages. Although a great number of people think economic growth is a directly measure to solve it, there is still someone debating that the high-speed economic growth will bring some passive influence to rural food poverty to some extent. As for me, I prefer the latter point, and I will provide some analysis from different aspects in this paper.

 

First of all, economic growth is regarded as the precondition of poverty reduction. The Oxfam Policy director, Forsyth believes that “there is plenty of evidence that current patterns of growth and globalization are widening income disparities and hence acting as a break on poverty reduction” (2000, p6). As for food poverty in China, adequate lands and advanced technologies are keys to increase food production and achieve food poverty reduction. However, it is a basic principle that the economic base determines the superstructure. Human capital and physical capital of livelihoods are affected by economical background. Therefore, no matter income or fund supporting, financial capital is one of the determinants to solve food poverty problems in developing countries.

 

On the other hand, the high-speed economic growth can bring varieties of social problems. In China, the huge gap between rich and poor from cities to countryside is the most serious one. Yao concludes in his research that “the slow progress in reducing poverty has been caused by rising inequality, particularly the urban-rural divide and interregional inequality” (2004). In the meantime, urbanization development has reached its peak in this country. According to the GDP of some Chinese urban during these years, several ones have already attached to the level of moderately developed countries such as Shanghai and Shenzhen. On the contrary, what makes us unbelievable is that there are plenty of villages, which cannot afford the food to their daily lives like Guizhou Province. This phenomenon indicates that the development of several advanced cities cannot avoid the influence of rural food poverty in this country.

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With the analysis of the former factors, there is an issue to prove that disadvantageous social and human capital can aggravate the food poverty. Under the urbanization development in China, in order to find more work chances, a great number of rural residents have begun to move out from countryside to cities to make a living. They depend on the identity of labor force instead of the farmer to acquire better individual development. Due to the strong demand for labor in cities, more farmers hope to acquire high incomes in cities instead of farming in their hometown. The direct consequence of this social phenomenon is land idle and grain shortage. Obviously, the food productivity reduction is the most serious cause of food poverty in China results from the large number of population. The population migration from villages to cities not only decreases the food productivity, but also affects the export of crops to cities. Besides, the high rate of children and old people who lack labor capacity in villages leads to exacerbating the poverty of countryside. Therefore, the changing workforce can be strongly associated with the food poverty, even provides the negative impact to rural poverty reduction.

 

The inequitable development is commonplace between city and village in China. In order to provide adequate food to urban, and raise the value of exported productivity, more and more lands are used to producing organic food to satisfy the urban market. However, there is no doubt that those organic foods are special for the urban residences, for the increasing living standard has changed the living requirements in cities. Farmers and other rural residents cannot afford those expensive foods. Though the food economic grows and the income of agriculture increases, there is still severely rural food poverty results from the limited lands, as well as land degradation.

 

Why does the land degradation occur much easier in China than other countries? Obviously, the reason is strongly associated with developing economic. Drought, flood disaster and land acidification can decrease the productivity of vegetative growth and livelihood activities. Apart from some climate changes, long-term anti natural human behaviors also can change the environment. In other words, in order to increase the income, majority of farmers has begun to overgraze, as well as excessive land reclamation and excessive deforestation without relevant legislation or against policies. Undoubtedly, these man-made behaviors not only just obtain a short time profit, but also can influence the environment changes. However, no matter land acidification or flood disaster can dramatically drop off the food productivity; particularly in destroy the crop farming.

 

Overall, due to the largest number of population that locates in China, food poverty is a long-term developing problem to deal with. Though China has strongly achieved high economic growth for over 30 years, and it has basically solved the food poverty problem; there is still rural food poverty that needs to be focused. According to the former analysis, rural food poverty is affected by labor migration from countryside to city, the gap between rich and poor, as well as environment changes. Therefore, we need to look for more solutions to face them. As for farmers, protecting the lands and increasing the food productivity by advanced technologies is the most significant stage. Besides, relevant policies by governance can provide the direction of food poverty reduction. Fund support from governments can be regarded as one of the effective measures. Furthermore, I insist that the developed cities have responsibilities to protect the nearby villages from food poverty.