686 tions for the environmental outcomes of labor out-migration in rural origin areas. In developing countries rural poverty is often closely linked to environmental degradation, because the economically disadvantaged primarily live in rural areas and directly depend on local natural resources (Bilsborrow 1992). Rural population growth and persistent poverty can lead to the overexploitation and consequent deterioration of natural resources, which further threaten food security and rural livelihoods. This study shows one of the largest differences between these two household groups is in income and consumption, with labor-migrant house- holds in general having higher rural cash income and consumer assets than non-labor-migrant households. Labor migration thus appears to contribute to increased capital assets and improved material well-being for participating households, and to reduce overall poverty in rural origin areas, which in turn can reduce pressure on local natural resources and promote sustainable rural development. No significant difference was found between rural labor- migrant and non-labor-migrant households with respect to cash living expenses. This is probably due to the fact that remaining members of rural migrant households are mostly elders and children, who generally have relatively lower levels of consumption. Another explanation for the seem- ingly limited impact of migration on rural consumption is that rural migrant households consider income from labor migration as temporary and hence do not increase con- sumption proportionally (Zhao 1999). Overall, rural labor out-migration has mixed impacts on rural consumption. On one hand, even if labor migrants do not remit enhanced income, their absence reduces overall rural household consumption needs. In addition, labor migration tends to check the increase in numbers of rural households because labor-migrant households are more likely than non-labor- migrant households to maintain a multi-generational family structure, and thus may contribute to higher efficiency of rural household resource consumption. The combination of reduced absolute consumption demands and increased consumption efficiency can in turn lead to lower pressure on the rural environment. On the other hand, labor migration enhances the consumption level of rural migrant households. Key informant interviews revealed that migrant remittances generally improved the standard of living of rural households. One Banliao resident explained, “When people go to work in city and earn higher income, their families’ food, clothing, and other living conditions will certainly get better. They have more money now, so they will consume more.” In the bivariate comparisons involving the two subgroups of non-labor-migrant households, labor- migrant households on average had significantly higher per capita annual cash living expenditure than farming house- holds. Both the bivariate and multivariate discriminant analyses also showed that labor-migrant households had Hum Ecol (2010) 38:675–690 significantly more consumer assets than non-labor-migrant households (particularly farming households). Given the lack of efficient waste disposal in most rural areas of China, this increased household consumption may worsen already serious residential pollution problems in rural villages (Le 2004). The results also showed that labor-migrant households used land less intensively (smaller cultivated land size per laborer, lower rice yield and fertilizer/pesticide expense per mu of land) than non-labor-migrant households, particularly farming households. Additional analyses and comments of key informants revealed that labor migration served as a substitution for smallholder agricultural production, and that farming was generally left to the hands of older generations. Labor shortages resulting from the absence of key household laborers, combined with the unprofitability of agriculture, can lead to increasing abandonment of previously cultivated distant farmland. To the extent that most of the abandoned land is located on steep hillsides and of poor quality, less intensive cultivation should reduce pressure on local land resources. Many key informants commented on the natural re-growth of vegetation cover on recently abandoned farmland. As one Tuanjie Village informant described: After those fields near the hill sides were left idle, grasses and trees grow up naturally there. Over time these fields largely become forested land. In a sense, abandoning farmland is just like reforesting the cultivated land. This should be good for reducing landslide and soil erosion. Labor scarcity and land abandonment caused by rural labor out-migration have complex effects on land quality and soil erosion, especially in hill-mountain areas that have been substantially transformed by human settlement and maintained with labor-intensive production practices. Pre- vious studies offer conflicting findings about the ecological impacts of labor migration and reduced agricultural intensity. It was found that migration-induced land aban- donment contributed to less environmental degradation and more vegetation regeneration in the Swiss mountains, central Mexico, southern Bolivia, and many other Latin American countries (Preston et al. 1997; Preston 1998; Aide and Grau 2004; López et al. 2006; Gellrich et al. 2007), but accelerated rainfall runoff and soil erosion in the Ecuadorian Andes, Spanish Pyrenees, and Himalaya moun- tain regions (Harden 1993, 1996; Garcia-Ruiz et al. 1995). In addition, labor shortages caused by labor migration may have negative effects on agricultural biodiversity and sustainable agricultural practices (Zimmerer 1991; Hyden et al. 1993; Turner 1999). Impacts of labor-migrant house- holds’ withdrawal from agricultural production on rural land quality and soil erosion thus appear to largely depend