ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the institutional, commercial and cultural settings for sustainable food consumption in China more broadly, and in Guangzhou specifically. China has become one of the largest food markets in the world, and it continues to grow rapidly. In terms of institutional context, the chapter explains that the state has historically been the major actor in modes of food provisioning. Concerns with the effects of pollution on food and damage to the environment are reflected in the country’s five-year plans. Market-led reforms have created a complex institutional foodscape from large “dragonhead” state-related providers and contracts with small farms to a consumer market mixing transnational/national retailers and traditional wet markets. The chapter highlights the diversifying “foodscape” (understood as a landscape of food retail outlets, markets and food service) of Guangzhou.
