With plans to destroy surrounding villages and farms, building one of the world's largest airports when the dust settles, will China be able to feed its large population?

China's transformation into an urban hub does not come without sacrifices. A step towards urbanization is a large airport twice the size of Heathrow airport.

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The sacrifice though can be seen an hour's travel to south of Beijing. There, a field is littered with medium buildings and farms. Brick houses are scattered with coal and cabbages piling up on the door step.

The village is called Nanzhuang and is located about 30 miles south of Beijing.

Pretty soon, Nanzhuang will be torn down and the government will begin building its massive airport. Apart from that, 10 other villages surrounding Nanzhuang will also be affected.

The farms, once filled with corn, wheat, radish, and cabbage, will be replaced by roads, runways, and terminals.

Currently, China has to feed a fifth of the world's total population with only 7% of suitable land. However, nearly half of that usable land has been diminished due to numerous developments.

Despite the fact that the Chinese government has released a policy document last February 2 on rural reform, experts say that the country's food safety and security are too big for just one policy to change.

The document enumerated points that would seem like a dream come true: modern farms, clean water and soil, sophisticated rural infrastructure, and prosperous farmers.

John Yasuda, part of University of Pennsylvania's contemporary China center, says that their situation is like a game of whack-a-mole. Hitting one issue will only raise more, and they all need to be fixed in order for the problem to be fixed.

He also points out that the turn to large-scale, industrial agriculture may create more problems than it was intended to solve.

The Chinese government is now depending on imports to keep up with demands.

With the new airport aimed for completion in 2018, the Chinese government still has time to think of ways to keep their people fed.

Tagsfeed, Large Populations