Pig In the Middle Working Group

Livestock rearing is increasingly recognized as a major source of greenhouse gases and environmental pollution, and excessive consumption of meat is also associated with a number of negative health effects. As pork is the most popular meat in China, concerns about the environmental and health impacts of livestock rearing therefore centre on pig farming, and a series of government policies have been rolled out to address these, including stricter pollution control requirements, scaling up of facilities, and prohibition of pig farming in ecologically sensitive   areas. However, pig -farming has also been a major strategy for poverty alleviation in many parts of rural China and there are concerns about the impact of these policies on smallholders dependent on the sector for their livelihoods.

In 2016 FORHEAD gave a set of small grants to researchers from different disciplines to explore synergies and tradeoffs between the environment, health and development dimensions of the pork sector and related policies (click here to see the policies in Chinese).  

Pig in the Middle Working Group members: 

Chen Chuanbo, School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development,Renmin University of China

LI Xiaowei, FORHEAD

SUN Juanjuan, Governance of Food Safety, Collaborative Innovation Center, Renmen University of China

Yang Lichao, School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University

SU Shipeng, School of Public Administration, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University

JIN Shuqin, Research Center for Rural Economy, Ministry of Agriculture

FANG Jing, Kunming Medical University

Mao Guorui, Colorado State University, USA

HOLDAWAY, Jennifer, FORHEAD

Du Yanqiang, School of Public Administration, Nanjing Agricultural University

WANG Wuyi, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences