Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

ARTICLE: "On China Farms, Push for Consolidation Is Growing," by Nicholas Zamiska, Wall Street Journal, 25 July 2008, p. A9.

Average farm in China is 16 acres, but 441 in U.S.

When I was a kid starting grade school at Immaculate Conception, a big proportion of kids were "farm kids." By the time we graduated from high school, many of those same kids walked to school, their parents having sold their farms and moved their families to town. Some big Chicago concern, known as Windward Farms, was buying out small farmers and consolidating their lands into a large-scale agribusiness.

Deng kicks off China's rise by promoting the de facto decollectivization of its ag sector, but consolidation remains. The trick is, China has to create so many millions of jobs each year to handle that flow, that any further speeding up of the migration process seems awfully intimidating to the leadership.

And yet accelerate it must, for many reasons.