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Big Meat: The rise and impact of mega-farming in China's beef, sheep and dairy industries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
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The incredible growth of China's cattle, sheep and dairy production is a visible phenomenon of the past twenty years, but its foundations were laid decades earlier. Seeking to industrialize its hinterland, and exploit its vast wealth of grazing livestock, China created slaughtering and processing facilities across its northern grasslands during the 1950s. Since the 1980s, much of this infrastructure has been privatized by companies which, like their predecessors, seek efficiency through economies of scale. Brutal competition over price and constant arrival of new domestic and foreign players have encouraged the integration of processing chains, but also sidelined small operators, and created gaps in safety best epitomized by the 2008 tainted milk scandal. Despite steps taken to “green” the production chain, it remains to be seen if such gaps have been adequately filled.
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References
Notes
1 Production statistics from FAO.
2 “稳定发展生猪和禽蛋生产，加快发展肉牛、肉羊和肉禽生产，突出发展奶牛和优质细毛羊生产” Guanghong Zhou, Wangang Zhang and Xinglian Xu.“China's Meat Industry Revolution: Challenges and Opportunities for the Future.” Meat Science (2012) 92: 188-196, 189.
3 FAO.
4 Baotou; counting both contracts and agreements, Baotou news cites a figure five times as high here. See here.
5 China Animal Husbandry Industry Yearbook. Beijing: China Agriculture Press (2012). China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Yearbook. Beijing: China Agriculture Press (2015).
6 China Animal Husbandry Industry Yearbook. Beijing: China Agriculture Press (2012). China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Yearbook. Beijing: China Agriculture Press (2015).
7 See here, here, here and here.
8 China Animal Husbandry Industry Yearbook. Beijing: China Agriculture Press (2011). China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Yearbook. Beijing: China Agriculture Press (2015).
9 See here, Renmin ribao (RMRB) 56/7/4, 57/9/26
10 Peter J. Li. “Exponential Growth, Animal Welfare, Environmental and Food Safety Impact: The Case of China's Livestock Production.” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (2009) 22:217-240. 230.
11 Jacob A. Hoefer and Patricia Jones Tsuchitani, Animal Agriculture in China: A Report of the Visit of the CSCPRC Animal Sciences Delegation. Washington D.C.: National Academy Press (1980), 69
12 Qian Forrest Zhang and John Andrew Donaldson. “The Rise of Agrarian Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Agricultural Modernization, Agribusiness and Collective Land Rights.” The China Journal (2008) 60: 25-47. 29.
13 RMRB, 88/7/12, 95/2/10, 99/5/29
14 China Animal Husbandry Industry Yearbook. Beijing: China Agriculture Press (2002):87. This document was first drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1999.
15 RMRB, 88/9/8; Zheng Yougui, et al, “The South-to-North and North-to-South Flows of Grains and Cereals—Changes to Directions and Quantities of Flows of Grains and Cereals between North and South in Contemporary China,” in Thomas DuBois and Huaiyin Li, eds. Agricultural Reform and Rural Transformation in China since 1949 (Brill 2016): 267-286.
16 RMRB 97/2/14
17 RMRB 54/1/29
18 Something similar was seen in early twentieth century Argentina, leading to fairly brutal competition between British and American firms over the processing bottleneck in Buenos Aires.
19 Early twentieth century buyers for the Harbin slaughterhouses concentrated on Hulunbuir, and would only venture to Xilingol when unusually high sale prices warranted the extra cost of transportation to Hailar. After 1980, these costs were often passed onto the seller. China Eastern Railway (CER), North Manchuria and the Chinese Eastern Railway, Harbin, China: CER Printing Office, 1924, 135-150. Xilingol transporation costs are mentioned in Wang Xiaoqiang and Bai Nanfeng, The poverty of plenty. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1991.
20 Surveys of small dairies in 1930s shows a similar mix of feed strategies.
21 Zhongguo naiye 50 nian (Beijing: Haiyang chubanshe, 2000) 3; China, the livestock sector. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1987 (unpaginated).
22 Changbai Xiu, K.K. Klein, “Melamine in milk products in China: Examining the factors that led to deliberate use of the contaminant? Food Policy 35 (2010) 463–470. Li Chengguo, et al. eds., Zhongguo naiye shi [History of Chinese dairy] (Beijing: Zhongguo nongye, 2013) 314-321.
23 Jingjing Wang, Mei Chen, Peter G. Klein. “China's Dairy United: A New Model for Milk Production” American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2015) 97 (2): 618-627.
24 Zhongguo naiye shi, 282. Changbai Xiu, K.K. Klein, “Melamine in milk products in China: Examining the factors that led to deliberate use of the contaminant? Food Policy 35 (2010) 463–470. Shefali Sharma and Zhang Rou. ”China's dairy dilemma: the evolution and future trends of China's dairy industry.“ Washington: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). (2014): 9.
25 See here.
26 Hulunbeier meng zhi, 810-811
27 James R. Simpson and Ou Li. “Feasibility Analysis for Development of Northern China's Beef Industry and Grazing Lands.” Journal of Range Management (1996) 49(6): 560-564. The wide diversity of pastoral systems, and the relative ecological impact of different sorts of production are outlined in detail in Caroline Humphrey, and David Sneath. 1999. The end of nomadism? society, state, and the environment in Inner Asia. Durham: Duke University Press.
28 Scott Waldron, Colin Brown and John Longworth. “Grassland Degradation and Livelihoods in China's Western Pastoral Region: A Framework for Understanding and Refining China's Recent Policy Responses” China Agricultural Economic Review 2(3). 2010. 298-320. It should be noted that this statistic has been criticized as being over generalized and based on meager evidence. See Emily T. Yeh. “Green Governmentality and Pastoralism in Western China: ‘Converting Pastures to Grasslands.‘” Nomadic Peoples (2005) 9 (1-2): 9-30. Over-grazing was one of the top official reasons given for grassland degradation by the Ministry of Agriculture. Limin Hua and Victor R. Squires. “Managing China's Pastoral Lands: Current Problems and Future Prospects.” (2015) 43: 129-137.
29 Li 2009, 232.
30 National Bureau of Statistics. China Statistical Yearbook, Beijing: China Statistics Publishing House (2016).
31 A People's Daily article called for the industrial production of fermented green fertilizer as early as 1960: RMRB 60/3/5. Zhongguo naiye shi [History of Chinese dairy] (Beijing: Zhongguo nongye, 2013) 294. More recent programs to expand feed production are discussed here and here.
32 See here.
33 Mak Sau Wa. 2012. Milk and Modernity: Health and Culinary Heritage in South China, PhD thesis, Anthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
34 OECD-FAO Agricultural Data.
35 RMRB 81/8/24.
36 See here, RMRB 13/4/22.
37 See here.
38 RMRB 80/3/28, 83/7/11, 84/2/17, 87/7/17.
39 Changbai Xiu, K.K. Klein, “Melamine in milk products in China: Examining the factors that led to deliberate use of the contaminant? Food Policy 35 (2010) 463–470
40 Ruijia Yang, Wei Huang, Lishi Zhang, Miles Thomas & Xiaofang Pei, “Milk adulteration with melamine in China: crisis and response” Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods, 1, 2 (2009): 111-116. Changbai Xiu, K.K. Klein, “Melamine in milk products in China: Examining the factors that led to deliberate use of the contaminant? Food Policy 35 (2010) 463–470.
41 Zhongguo naiye shi [History of Chinese dairy] (Beijing: Zhongguo nongye, 2013) 290-291.
42 Zhen Zhong, Shufen Chen, Xiangzhi Kong, Megan Tracy, Why improving agrifood quality is difficult in China: Evidence from dairy industry, China Economic Review 31 (2014) 74–83. Changbai Xiu, K.K. Klein, “Melamine in milk products in China: Examining the factors that led to deliberate use of the contaminant? Food Policy 35 (2010) 463–470.
43 See here.
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