Pressures on global supply and demand for food are not new. However, recent increases in demand, from a growing population with increasing incomes, and impacts on production, from changing climates to geopolitics, have increased the pressure to new levels. The impact of these global pressures on Canadian agriculture and food are also increasing.   

It is impossible to understand this evolution and what it means for Canada without a deeper understanding of China’s impact on the global food system. Canada has experienced fluctuating agri-food trade relations with China, yet with China’s population and economy, and willingness to intervene in the global system, it cannot simply be worked around.  

In this paper, CAPI Distinguished Fellow Ted Bilyea frames the food security situation facing the world today, outlines China’s concerns and perspectives it brings to agri-food trade.  He then links the dynamics inside China and to the position and potential influence of a narrow slice of countries with exportable surpluses (which includes Canada), including China’s interaction with them, how this situation could play out, and Canada’s potential role.  

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