S ummary Our research analyzed food consumption patterns by Chinese households in both rural and urban areas. We used household survey data from the coastal region of Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong provinces in China. These data were used to estimate statistical models of food demand. From these models, we can understand the important factors affecting food choices by Chinese households. Our statistical results show that the most important factors are prices, income, and demographic characteristics of households.
Income is among the most important factors for projecting the long-term food consumption in China.
We found that income effects differ drastically between urban and rural households. It is therefore very crucial to incorporate these factors in projecting future food demand for China. China is a huge country with 1.2 billion people and its economic reforms during the last twenty years have caused a large wave of migration from rural to urban areas. Urbanization and changing patterns of food consumption in China will significantly impact the world food market in the future, which, in turn, will affect the performance of American agriculture. The challenge was to understand the dynamics of price and income and food consumption patterns in China and the implications for global food security.