Some farming statistics

Some China farming statistics from a great Foreign Policy interview with Lester Brown, who wrote Who Will Feed China? before it was on everyone’s radar:

• “China, like the United States, produces 400 million tons of grain a year.”
• “Last year, there were 12 million new car sales in China… In this country, the rule of thumb is that for every five cars you have to pave one acre — roughly a football field.”
• “…all the leaders in Beijing at that time and indeed today are survivors of the great famine of 1959 to 1961, when according to official numbers, 30 million people starved to death.”
• “In 1996, China produced almost 15 million tons of soybeans. They consumed 15 million tons of soybeans. In 2010, they will again produce 15 million tons of soybeans, and they will consume 61 million tons — which means they’re importing like 46 million tons of soybeans.”

Via @pdenlinger.