By To-Wen Tseng

Food preferences in China are changing rapidly. Today, Chinese people not only eat much more meat than two decades ago, but there is also a trend toward a more diverse diet. Consumption of vegetables, fruit, alcohol, sugar, eggs, and dairy products has increased rapidly, while the consumption of pulses, roots, and tubers has declined. With increased affluence, China’s average diet can be expected to change further, becoming similar to that of other developed Asian countries.

In the mid 1960s, before China started its great economic reforms, people lived on a diet of rice, wheat, and starchy roots, with rare servings of vegetables, meat, or fish. According to estimates from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, meat contributed only 77 kcal, or 3.9%, to the average daily per capita calorie supply during 1964 to 1966. On the other hand, cereals such as rice or wheat contributed 1,299 kcal, or 67%. Starchy roots such as potatoes provided 269 kcal per person per day, or 14 %.

Sweeties were extremely rare in China in the mid 1960s. Sweeteners, such as sugar, contributed only 26 kcal, or 1.3%, per day to the average diet. The diet was not very rich in vitamins. On average, people had a supply of only 104.5 lbs of vegetables and only 27.3 lbs of fruit per year. This was equivalent to a daily calorie supply of 38 kcal from vegetables and 9 kcal from fruits—or only 1.9% and 0.5% of the total calorie supply per person per day, respectively. Stimulants such as tea or coffee, spices, and alcoholic beverages combined contributed only 12 kcal, or 0.6%, to the average diet.

All situations above have changed dramatically. Food production in China has increased significantly between the mid 1960s and the early 1990s. The overall calorie supply, for instance, has increased from 1,953 to 2,766 kcal per person per day. The per capita supply of meat has quadrupled, growing from 77 kcal per person per day in the mid 1960s to 320 kcal per person per day in the mid 1990s. While the Chinese population had a higher per capita supply of rice in the mid 1990s—923 kcal, up from 733 cal in the 1960s—, the share of rice in the overall calorie supply declined: from 1994 to 1996, its share was only 27.7%. Starchy root was no longer a major food commodity. In the mid 1960s the average per capita supply was 224.87 lbs per year; in the mid 1990s, it was only 133.38lbs per year.

Today, the Chinese population has a much richer, more diverse diet. Vegetables and fruits, for instance, now contributed around 5% to the average calorie supply. Between 1994 and 1996, each person in China, on average, had a supply of 297.62lbs of vegetables or 105.88lbs fruit per year. The supply of alcoholic beverages increased almost 15-times—from 3.31 to 48.28lbs per person per year. However, it is still much lower than in many developed Asian countries.

The supply of sweeteners such as sugar almost tripled. So did the supply of animal fats and milk. Today, people in China eat about six times as many eggs as in the mid 1960s. The supply of fish has more than quadrupled from 9.7 to 40.35lbs per person per year. On balance, animal products contributed 114 kcal, or 5.8%, to the diet during 1964 and 1966; in the mid 1990s, they supplied 461 kcal, or 16.7% per person per year.

China’s change in diet has already affected agriculture in two different ways. First, land formerly used to grow grain and especially land for cultivation of roots, tubers, and pulses is gradually becoming land for vegetable and tobacco cultivation, orchards, or fishponds. Second, the increase in meat consumption requires massive expansion of feed grain cultivation, such as soybeans and maize. Due to the low energy efficiency of cycling grain through animals, more valuable cropland is needed to support a meat-based diet than a vegetarian diet.