Feed: a food systems podcast

China is currently the world's largest importer of agricultural products, buying 60% of globally traded soy. But a 2026 consultation paper by SystemIQ argues China may be approaching a turning point. In the coming decades, China could shift from being a net food importer to net food exporter of animal proteins. We dive into the analysis with the paper's authors to see how plausible that scenario might be, what it would take to get there including the role of alternative proteins in that future, and what might be the implications for global food systems.
For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode103
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Read the consultation paper: China's Food Future (SystemIQ, 2026)
Guests
Anna Morser, Director at SystemIQ
Alex Andreoli, Manager at SystemIQ
Fengwei Ina Liu, Director of FOLU China
Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping's government decided not to regulate its fishing sector. What grew out of that space was extraordinary. Today China produces 76 million tonnes of seafood a year, and a mounting environmental cost. This episode follows the small farms and the global infrastructure that connects them, and asks what happens when a government tries to course correct a system it deliberately set loose.
For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode102
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Guests
Han Han, Founder and director of NGO China Blue Sustainability Institute
Xuefei Shi, Researcher at Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway
James Keeley, Food and agricultural development consultant and China specialist
Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Sound mixing by Martin Palmqvist. Music by Blue dot sessions.

One-third of the world's rice is grown in China, on less than a fifth of the world's rice-growing area, by farmers whose average age is over 55, in a countryside that is slowly emptying. This episode asks how that's possible, and how much longer it can last.
For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode101
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Guests
Lena Kaufmann, Social Anthropologist at Université de Fribourg
Li Zhang, Prof in Sociology and Environmental Studies at Amherst Colleage
Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Sound mixing by Martin Palmqvist. Music by Blue dot sessions.

Today China produces roughly half the world's pork. Getting there required swine genetics from multiple continents, feed from Brazil, and a disease outbreak that wiped out hundreds of millions of animals. This episode asks how they did it, and what that cost - to the household pig, to the smallholder farmer, and to ecosystems thousands of kilometers away.
For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode100
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Guests
Ron Lane, Agricultural consultant in Beijing
Li Zhang, Prof in Sociology and Environmental Studies at Amherst College
Gustavo Oliveira, Prof in Geography at Clark University
Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Sound mixing by Martin Palmqvist. Music by Blue dot sessions.

In sixty years China moved from catastrophic famine to feeding 1.4 billion people. This episode asks how that transformation happened - and what it set in motion.
For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
episode99
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Guests
Michelle King, Prof in Chinese History at UNC
Zhang Hongzhou, Prof in International Political Economy at RSIS
Fengwei Ina Liu, Director of FOLU China
Episode written, hosted, produced and edited by Matthew Kessler. Sound mixing by Martin Palmqvist. Music by Blue dot sessions.