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1. Multiple perspectives on sufficiency

Sufficiency: Can we find a middle way for animal-based foods in China?

Marius Korsnes
p. 32-35

Abstract

The idea of sufficiency is an enlightening one for rethinking human consumption, beyond the single paradigm of efficiency. The MidWay research project examines the concept of sufficiency in relation to the evolution of meat and milk consumption in China, and highlights the historical, cultural, political and social determinants of consumption. In so doing, it raises several broader questions concerning food safety, the role of government bodies and sustainable consumption. Ultimately, sufficiency can be analyzed taking into account the specific characteristics of each country and can constitute a relevant paradigm for initiating a sustainable transition in our consumption behaviors.

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Backyard garden, countryside

Backyard garden, countryside

© Marius Korsnes

Introduction

1Human consumption and production directly impact Earth’s ecological state. Strangely, however, although planetary boundaries are increasingly breached or threatened (Richardson et al., 20231), neither government, industry, nor academia appear very concerned with limiting consumption levels. This apparent indifference is due to an ingrained belief in efficiency and technological improvements that allegedly will enable humans to continue with status quo. Nevertheless, as a large and increasing strand of research has shown, efficiency efforts do not lead to reductions in overall consumption levels. Never in history have humans extracted as many resources from Earth’s surface as today. The Global Resources Outlook shows that our use of resources has more than tripled since the 1970s, and it continues to grow (IRP 20192). These resources are used unevenly around the world and cause harmful impacts on the environment and human health. Between 1970 and 2017, high-income nations were responsible for almost three-fourths of global resource extraction (Hickel et al., 20223). For these reasons, research on sufficiency, i.e. the possibility of having enough of something for a specific purpose, is urgent. This article explains some of the recent work on sufficiency and connects it to the consumption of animal-based foods, particularly meat and milk, in China.

Small pork farm with maize production for feed.

Small pork farm with maize production for feed.

© Marius Korsnes

Sufficiency

2There has been an increased interest in sufficiency in recent years. Although the ideas behind it are older, the coining of the notion, as used in the social sciences (distinguished from its usage in philosophy), is often attributed to the work of Wolfgang Sachs4 in the 1990s. He convincingly argued sufficiency as necessary for limiting efficiency: “While efficiency is about doing things right, sufficiency is about doing the right things” (Sachs, 1999, p. xi). The concept has been further developed by the work of Thomas Princen, particularly in his book The Logic of Sufficiency (2005), which conceptualises the idea as a social organising principle working as a guideline for societal discussions and questions around constraints to continued growth and expansion.

3At its most superficial level, sufficiency is about having enough of something; not too little or too much. Nevertheless, precisely what is enough and too much depends on time and place, as well as social, cultural, and historical context. Over time, our needs and wants are socially constructed through escalating increases in resource intensity, leading to a normalisation of needs at unsustainable levels (Shove, 20035). The entrenchment of efficiency as a dominant organising principle is criticized by sufficiency approaches since efficiency thinking appears only to exacerbate global ecological degradation. The increasing dominance of efficiency logics corresponds with expanding new needs and wants. Without any limitations to this expansion, planetary boundaries will be transgressed within a short time (Richardson et al., 20236).

4An open definition of sufficiency is helpful to consider that needs are not static and that present-day levels of demand are not necessary or given: the possibility of having enough – not too little and not too much – of something for a particular purpose (Darby & Fawcett, 20187). This also includes scrutiny of the purpose a service is supposed to cover. For example, putting on another layer of clothing covers the service of staying warm just as well as a heat pump. Still, only the heat pump counts as efficient. The same could be said for using a clothesline versus a drier, and so on. In other words, any serious analysis of sufficiency cannot accept the present-day efficiency regime as a point of departure for providing solutions. This also leads to another important consideration when talking about sufficiency. Defining the concept from the point of view where increasing affluence is recognized as the main culprit, we thus place the onus on the present-day rich and middle-income groups and countries (Callmer, 20198). In summary, acknowledging that current consumption levels are neither inevitable nor necessary, the concept of sufficiency allows for a critical examination of how needs are constructed by questioning what constitutes adequacy and excess (Korsnes and Solbu, 20249).

The MidWay project: A Middle Way?

5The project “A Middle Way? Probing Sufficiency through Meat and Milk in China” (MidWay) (ERC 2022-2027) sets out to study the concept of sufficiency through the cases of meat and dairy consumption and production practices in China. These cases are interesting because, although both products were sparingly consumed in Chinese history, consumption has boomed over the past 40 years. While meat was an established high-status product in China, milk was historically considered a ‘barbarian’ food, and most Chinese were intolerant to it. Since 1978, the Chinese government and domestic and international actors have made a concerted effort to integrate meat and dairy products into Chinese food practices. Seeing China as a strategic research site to ask questions about the supply and demand of animal foods, the MidWay project hypothesises that what has made meat and milk integral to Chinese food practices might also be ‘otherwise’, i.e., opening for a possible future disembedding of meat and dairy from food practices.

  • 10 Conceptualising demand: A distinctive approach to consumption and practice.

6The ultimate objective of the MidWay project is to probe the concept of sufficiency as an applicable organising principle to achieve reduced consumption – highlighted through the sub-objectives of understanding how meat and milk have been rendered desirable in China. The MidWay project develops a perspective which shows how food is connected to social, technical, political, historical, and cultural variables, which can lead to profound changes by facilitating a multifaceted policy response. Concretely, this includes looking at both historical processes of rendering certain types of animal-based foods desirable and studying the reproduction of meat and milk within contemporary food practices in urban China. Thus, meat and milk are not treated as products to be examined in isolation but as outcomes of social practices (see Rinkinen et al. 202010), which have quickly changed in the past 40 years.

Meat and milk in historical China and today

  • 11 Woolgar, S., & Lezaun, J. (2013). The wrong bin bag: A turn to ontology in science and technology s (...)
  • 12 DuBois, T., & Gao, A. (2017). Big Meat: The rise and impact of mega-farming in China's beef, sheep (...)

7The cases of meat and milk in China are interesting to study from a sufficiency perspective because they show the extent to which needs and wants are socially constructed – and ‘could be otherwise’ (Woolgar & Lezaun, 201311). Comparing these two cases enables a more comprehensive understanding of the journey from low to high consumption levels, as the role of historical status differs for the two products. Both meat and dairy have received government support and have been subject to massive industrial efforts that have rendered them popular and desirable (DuBois & Gao, 201712). This recognition is helpful for our understanding of sufficiency. If milk and meat have become commonplace today, they could also be rendered less common in the future. Using this lens, the MidWay project has thus far focussed on historical accounts of how meat and milk have been rendered desirable. We have concentrated on meat consumption, particularly the history of pigs and pork.

  • 13 Korsnes, M., & Liu, C. (2021). Meating demand in China: Changes in Chinese meat cultures through ti (...)
  • 14 Chang, K. C. (Ed.) (1977). Food in Chinese Culture. Anthropological and historical perspectives. Ne (...)
  • 15 Sterckx, R. (2019). Chinese Thought: From Confucius to Cook Ding. Penguin UK.

8Looking at meat in earlier times, Korsnes and Liu (202113) pointed out that animals and meat are deeply entangled in the Chinese way of life as they co-evolved through time. Although access to sufficient food was a clear outcome of social division, frugality and moderation were relatively widespread virtues amongst the elite. For millennia, parents have said to their children that “70 percent full and not more” is the proper level of consumption (Chang, 197714). One of the oldest texts in China, the Neiye, put it this way: “In eating it is best not to fill up; in thinking it is best not to overdo” (quoted in Sterckx 2019,15 chap. 9).

  • 16 Simoons, F.J. (1991). Food in China. A cultural and historical inquiry. CRC Press, Boca Raton.
  • 17 Bray, Francesca. (2018). “Ch. 6. Where Did the Animals Go? Presence and Absence of Livestock in Chi (...)
  • 18 Bray, F. (1984). Science and Civilisation in China, Part 2, Agriculture (Vol. 6). Cambridge Univers (...)
  • 19 Schneider, M. (2013), Modern Meat, Industrial Swine: China and the Remaking of Agri-Food Politics i (...)

9Vegetarianism was widely practised in Chinese history (Simoons, 199116), mainly due to the proliferation of Buddhism. Confucianists generally did not oppose meat consumption and slaughtering, but Daoists were recommended to refrain from eating animal flesh (ibid.). On average, meat was consumed in minimal quantities in Chinese history (Chang, 1977). Meat products were mainly “consumed more often as flavoring for vegetables and as the basis of a sauce than as the principal component of a dish” (ibid., 201) or for special festivities or family celebrations (Simoons, 1991). As elsewhere, however, poor people – i.e. most of the population – consumed less meat than wealthier people. A pillar in the Confucian order was a harmonious interrelation between humans and animals through properly conducted farming (Bray, 201817). Although animal husbandry was widespread, it is interesting that animals were more valuable as service providers in the household and farm than they were as food. Because China was a grain-based society (Bray 198418), animals came in handy as draught animals or manure providers and household and farm waste product consumers. In short, animals were more valuable when alive than dead (Schneider, 201319).

10From this basis of animals and humans living in relatively harmonious relations to ensure enough food on the plate for households in a confined area, the situation changed dramatically with the opening up of China in 1978. It has been estimated that around 95 percent of food energy from an average diet came from plants in the 1960s and 70s, but this was radically changed after 1978 (Smil, 200420). Consumption of meat, milk and eggs increased by about 4, 10 and 7 times per capita between 1980 and 2010 (Bai et al., 201821). Since the opening-up period, agricultural production increased considerably, and ensuring enough food for people became essential for Deng Xiaoping, to avoid social unrest (Yasuda, 201822). Today, the composition of Chinese meals has changed rapidly, connected to trends such as eating out, increases in fast food consumption, and buying food via online or app-based platforms such as Meituan or ele.me. The various ways in which animal products have become embedded in such consumer cultures is what the MidWay project will study over the next four years.

11As part of this endeavour, the MidWay project organised a workshop in Guangzhou in August 2023, serving as a point of departure to say something about changes in contemporary food practices in urban China. The workshop focussed on Urban food, sufficiency, and sustainable agriculture in China. It featured presentations from experts from academia and industry on meat and milk consumption and production in China. The workshop also discussed pathways for a more sustainable agri-food system in China, where insightful points emerged. The most pressing issues that arose from the group discussion were the following points:

    • 23 Shapiro, J. (2012). China’s Environmental Challenges, Cambridge, Polity Press.

    With almost one-fifth of the world’s population but only 9 percent of its arable land and 5 percent of its water resources (Shapiro, 201223), China faces significant challenges with food security and environmental burdens. How can the trade-offs between resource constraints, food security, environmental sustainability, and social welfare be balanced? This includes the question of healthy and nutritious foods, where health is also related to the ideal level/forms of consumption. Questions of nutrition and sustainability could be seen together, as government recommendations could include planetary and human health in food recommendations.

  • The sufficiency question: how to measure and achieve sufficiency in food production and consumption, considering the future demand and supply scenarios, the limited resources, and the environmental impacts of animal-based agriculture? This includes the questions of overconsumption and food waste, which are increasing problems in China. An ideal level of animal-based food consumption could be defined as ‘enough’ and ‘good enough’, which means sufficient, high-quality, and sustainable.

  • The different scales and structures of animal agriculture: how to learn from the experiences and mistakes of industrialisation in other countries, and how to explore and systematise the existing practices and initiatives that could contribute to a better food system in China, such as small-scale farming, alternative food networks, green development, and food waste reduction? How to deal with the relatively few large-scale companies, the closed loop systems for fertilisation, the small-mid scale level of farms and cooperatives, and the different animals and their requirements? There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but there is a need for balance and diversity. The production scale involves a trade-off between large-scale and small-scale farming, which have different implications for food security, environmental protection, rural development and health and wellbeing.

  • The consumer versus the system: how to cope with the need to avoid food waste, personal health, and the demand for quality and safety of animal products versus the need for economic feasibility, industrial efficiency, and scale? Who is responsible for making decisions about health, nutrition, or sustainability, and how can food practices change to become more sustainable?

  • The role of the government: how to understand the central planning in China, the balance between state control and privatisation, the top-down versus bottom-up solutions, and the communication with the government? The Chinese government, without a doubt, has the tools available to make the right changes. However, the question is whether economic aspects still trump social and environmental sustainability concerns.

Conclusion

12Studying sufficiency in a Chinese context might offer novel tools to address the negative consequences of human action on Earth’s biosphere. To avoid simplistic portrayals, the MidWay project seeks to disentangle the processes behind today’s meat and milk production and consumption practices in China. Through a detailed understanding of how demand and supply are co-shaped, the perspective can help to understand the multiple ways in which what we eat and drink is connected to changing diets, forms of production, new technologies, understandings of health, fashion and so on. Gaining such a more detailed comprehension could assist us in better understanding how demand might be reduced in the future. This, in turn, can aid us in designing more accurate and potentially more tolerable policy responses to address the issue.

13Nevertheless, it is important to stress that ‘sufficiency’ does not necessarily have a direct relevance to Chinese society and culture. The MidWay project is still open to the question of whether the concept is helpful in a Chinese context and whether there could be other more suitable concepts from Chinese history and culture. In Chinese tradition, notions such as moderation, balance and frugality have been central, with connotations and meanings that might fit better than ‘sufficiency’. Moreover, it is important to stress that sufficiency concerns should be addressed from the ‘top-down’ as pointed out by Callmer (2019, p. 11) – implying that those who already have more than enough should be the primary focus of analyses and change.

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Notes

1 https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.adh2458.

2 IRP (2019). Global Resources Outlook 2019: Natural Resources for the Future We Want. Oberle, B., Bringezu, S., Hatfeld-Dodds, S., Hellweg, S., Schandl, H., Clement, J., and Cabernard, L., Che, N., Chen, D., Droz-Georget, H., Ekins, P., FischerKowalski, M., Flörke, M., Frank, S., Froemelt , A., Geschke, A., Haupt , M., Havlik, P., Hüfner, R., Lenzen, M., Lieber, M., Liu, B., Lu, Y., Lutter, S., Mehr , J., Miatto, A., Newth, D., Oberschelp , C., Obersteiner, M., Pfster, S., Piccoli, E., Schaldach, R., Schüngel, J., Sonderegger, T., Sudheshwar, A., Tanikawa, H., van der Voet, E., Walker, C., West, J., Wang, Z., Zhu, B. A Report of the International Resource Panel. United Nations Environment Programme. Nairobi, Kenya.

3 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(22)00044-4/fulltext.

4 https://d-nb.info/1059157284/34.

5 Shove, E. (2003). Comfort, cleanliness and convenience: the social organization of normality, Oxford, New York: Berg.

6 https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.adh2458.

7 Darby, S. & Fawcett, T. (2018). Energy sufficiency: a concept paper for eceee, online, URL: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3472d9c4-51bf-4ffe-95fe-94143235eeed/files/m68be18268c889556c11d51488f165019.

8 https://kth.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1380175&dswid=-3833.

9 Korsnes, M. and Solbu, G. (2024). Can sufficiency become the new normal? Exploring consumption patterns of low-income groups in Norway, Forthcoming in Consumption and Society.

10 Conceptualising demand: A distinctive approach to consumption and practice.

11 Woolgar, S., & Lezaun, J. (2013). The wrong bin bag: A turn to ontology in science and technology studies?. Social studies of science, 43(3), 321-340.

12 DuBois, T., & Gao, A. (2017). Big Meat: The rise and impact of mega-farming in China's beef, sheep and dairy industries. Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus, 15(17).

13 Korsnes, M., & Liu, C. (2021). Meating demand in China: Changes in Chinese meat cultures through time. In Hansen and Syse 2021, Changing meat cultures: Food practices, global capitalism, and the consumption of animals, 79-97.

14 Chang, K. C. (Ed.) (1977). Food in Chinese Culture. Anthropological and historical perspectives. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

15 Sterckx, R. (2019). Chinese Thought: From Confucius to Cook Ding. Penguin UK.

16 Simoons, F.J. (1991). Food in China. A cultural and historical inquiry. CRC Press, Boca Raton.

17 Bray, Francesca. (2018). “Ch. 6. Where Did the Animals Go? Presence and Absence of Livestock in Chinese Agricultural Treatises.” In Animals through Chinese History: Earliest Times to 1911, edited by Roel Sterckx, Martina Siebert and Dagmar Schäfer. Cambridge University Press.

18 Bray, F. (1984). Science and Civilisation in China, Part 2, Agriculture (Vol. 6). Cambridge University Press.

19 Schneider, M. (2013), Modern Meat, Industrial Swine: China and the Remaking of Agri-Food Politics in the 21st Century, PhD Thesis: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/bbf69683-094e-4b90-8711-9dc40679a776/content.

20 Smil, Vaclav. (2004). China’s Past, China’s Future: Energy, Food, Environment. New York & London: RoutledgeCurzon.

21 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aar8534.

22 Yasuda, J. K. (2018). On Feeding the Masses. An Anatomy of Regulatory Failure in China. Cambridge University Press.

23 Shapiro, J. (2012). China’s Environmental Challenges, Cambridge, Polity Press.

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List of illustrations

Title Backyard garden, countryside
Credits © Marius Korsnes
URL http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/docannexe/image/7430/img-1.jpg
File image/jpeg, 464k
Title Small pork farm with maize production for feed.
Credits © Marius Korsnes
URL http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/docannexe/image/7430/img-2.jpg
File image/jpeg, 429k
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References

Bibliographical reference

Marius Korsnes, “Sufficiency: Can we find a middle way for animal-based foods in China?”Field Actions Science Reports, Special Issue 26 | 2024, 32-35.

Electronic reference

Marius Korsnes, “Sufficiency: Can we find a middle way for animal-based foods in China?”Field Actions Science Reports [Online], Special Issue 26 | 2024, Online since 10 August 2024, connection on 12 November 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/7430

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About the author

Marius Korsnes

Associate Professor at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Marius Korsnes is an Associate Professor at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He is currently leading the project “A middle way? Probing Sufficiency through Meat and Milk in China” which aims to gain a better understanding of the concept of sufficiency using the cases of meat and milk production and consumption in China.
Marius is also engaged in research on deep decarbonization and wide societal change in the Norwegian Centre for Energy Transition Strategies, the MEATigation project, which explores how meat is embedded in Norwegian food practices, the COJUST-project, and the GreenBlack-project.
He has a Master of Philosophy in Culture, Environment and Sustainability from the University of Oslo. He wrote his thesis on “The Growth of a Green Industry – Wind Turbines and innovation in China”. In 2019, Marius wrote “Wind and Solar Energy Transition in China” which explores the mobilization of China’s wind and solar industries and examines the implications of this development for energy generation and distribution, innovation, and governance.

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Copyright

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The text only may be used under licence CC BY 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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