ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the aims of the book and provides an outline of its structure. To introduce the themes of food system sustainability and sustainable food consumption, it presents an overview of debates in these fields and describes how food is produced, processed, transported, retailed and consumed and how the governance of food has evolved in a complex web of interactions across many actors across the globe. Thus, the chapter highlights how food systems today are seen as complex socio-ecological systems operating across multiple spatial, temporal and jurisdictional scales, including in China. Following this, the chapter provides an overview of the book’s structure and remaining chapters.
