Can China continue to feed itself? It is one of the great questions of this century – not just for the Chinese but for the rest of the world. With its fast growth rate and increasing wealth China is consuming more food, yet climate change threatens to hit production of the staple crops rice, wheat and maize by as much as 37% by 2080, exacerbating pressures already created by urbanisation and over-irrigation. Within a few years China’s current surplus of food is expected to turn into a deficit, and using its newfound economic strength the government is expected to start importing grain to fulfil the needs of its 1.46 billion people. Currently impoverished countries rely on food surpluses, given as aid, in a crisis. But soon these surpluses may already have been sold to China.