Commercial genetically modified corn and soybean are poised following pilot planting in China

"Who will feed China?" This was a question raised by Lester Brown, the director of the World Watch Institute in the United States, in 1994. He predicted that China's grain production would decrease from 340 million tons in 1990 to 272 million tons by 2030, a 20% decrease, while China's population would reach 1.6 billion ( Brown, 1995 Brown L.R. Who will feed China?. Wake-up Call for a Small Planet. W. W. Norton & Company, 1995 Google Scholar ). If the dietary structure was not improved, China would need to import 200–369 million tons of grain, equivalent to the global grain trade at the time. He projected the high possibility of a food crisis in China, which might further trigger a global food crisis. However, with the joint efforts of national agricultural researchers, represented by Yuan Longping, and the Chinese government, China's grain production has achieved 18 consecutive increases from 2004 to 2021. In 2022, grain production in China reached 633 million tons ( NBS and Statistics, 2022 NBSStatistics N.B.o. Announcement of the National Bureau of Statistics on Grain Production Data for 2022. 2022 Google Scholar ), while the population remained stable at 1.4 billion. As a result, China has achieved complete self-sufficiency in its staple food supply and has demonstrated to the international community through practical actions that the Chinese people can feed themselves.