Food production standards and the Chinese local state: exploring new patterns of environmental governance in the bamboo shoot industry in Lin'an

Abstract

Although current studies into Chinese food supply and quality provide explanations for the causality of food problems, there is limited inquiry into the role of the county government. This is a serious omission for two main reasons: first, because county governments perform a key role in providing support for farmers through agricultural extension services and farmers' cooperatives, and second, because county-level administrative divisions are central to developing novel instruments to manage supply chain relationships, such as food production standards. We investigate the key players involved in standard making and delivery at the county level. We also analyse how and why the county government engages in standard-setting activities. We use Lin'an's bamboo shoot production industry as a case study to understand how the local state implements hazard-free, green and forest food production standards. The paper concludes that traditional conceptualizations of the local state do not sufficiently address how nature, knowledge of standards and state authority co-produce institutional capacity to control food supply and quality in China. In practice, the local state engages with non-state actors to achieve superficial environmental efforts, such as developing food production standards to throw a green cloak over a productivist model.