China's countryside isn't heading toward one future. Sociologist Forrest Zhang walks us through four different scenarios: suburbanizing villages turned tourist destinations, industrial-scale grain belts managed by smart phones, intensive vegetable farms facing a looming labor crisis, and aging villagers returning to subsistence farming. We explore the shift from socialist to capitalist agriculture, and ask whether the next era may take a "sustainability turn,” a door opened by a shrinking population, food oversupply, and a rising public health crisis.

For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode104

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Listen to China's Food Future (Part 1).

Guest

• Prof Qian Forrest Zhang, Singapore Management University

Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

China is currently the world's largest importer of agricultural products, buying 60% of globally traded soy. But a 2026 consultation paper by SystemIQ argues China may be approaching a turning point. In the coming decades, China could shift from being a net food importer to net food exporter of animal proteins. We dive into the analysis with the paper's authors to see how plausible that scenario might be, what it would take to get there including the role of alternative proteins in that future, and what might be the implications for global food systems.

For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode103

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Read the consultation paper: China's Food Future (SystemIQ, 2026)

Guests

• Anna Morser, Director at SystemIQ
• Alex Andreoli, Manager at SystemIQ
• Fengwei Ina Liu, Director of FOLU China

Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping's government decided not to regulate its fishing sector. What grew out of that space was extraordinary. Today China produces 76 million tonnes of seafood a year, and a mounting environmental cost. This episode follows the small farms and the global infrastructure that connects them, and asks what happens when a government tries to course correct a system it deliberately set loose.

For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode102

Want to share your reflections on the episode? Send us an email or voice memo to podcast@tabledebates.org

Guests

• Han Han, Founder and director of NGO China Blue Sustainability Institute
• Xuefei Shi, Researcher at Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway
• James Keeley, Food and agricultural development consultant and China specialist

Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Sound mixing by Martin Palmqvist. Music by Blue dot sessions.