China has put food security at the centre of its new five-year rural revitalisation plan for good reason. China accounts for nearly 20 per cent of the world’s population, but according to the World Bank, only less than 13 per cent of the country’s land area is arable. Rapid urbanisation and other environmental factors have also put increasing pressure on China’s limited land resources. Planners have set ambitious targets in the 14th five-year plan , which includes a goal to reach peak carbon emissions before 2030 – greener agricultural practices will also have to be adopted to reach that goal. This is a great opportunity to re-evaluate China’s agricultural sector and introduce measures to ensure greener and more sustainable food production. Critically, food producers and consumers also support making food production more sustainable. Research conducted by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in partnership with Edelman Data x Intelligence found that 76 per cent of informed consumers in China said food and beverage (F&B) companies should focus on environmental sustainability, on a par with those who prioritised better nutrition and ahead of the 66 per cent who said profitability should be top priority. Consequently, 40 per cent of F&B companies in China put environmental sustainability as their top priority for the next three years, compared to only 14 per cent who said their top priority is profitability. The TNC data shows that China’s food producers and consumers share concern for the environment, with both groups listing reducing water use , optimising use of natural resources such as water and land, and reducing the environmental footprint from the food/drink production process as top concerns. There is also growing awareness that there is a big difference between doing no harm and doing good, and surprisingly, producers think this is even more important than consumers do. Over 60 per cent of consumers say it is important to actively do good for the environment, with 80 per cent of producers agreeing. Although industry decision-makers have prioritised sustainability, there are significant barriers to implementing environmental sustainability initiatives, including lack of strategy to implement changes, ineffective regulations, lack of guidance from government, and lack of consistent industry standards. As a result, TNC found that 37 per cent of F&B industry decision-makers said that their company would need changes in policy and regulation to deepen commitments to environmental sustainability. China can ensure its ambitious food security goals are met in an environmentally sustainable way by encouraging better enforcement and more consistent standards in the agricultural and food production supply chain. Companies have an important role to play in raising the bar and providing more eco-friendly options to customers. Lulu Zhou, director of strategic partnerships, The Nature Conservancy – Asia Pacific