Study On The Legal Institutions Of Food Security In The Background Of Urbanization

At present, urbanization is considered one of the key issues during the course of China’smodernization and steady economic development. In its essence, urbanization is the processof developing China’s industries and service sectors, of peasants’ migrating to cities, and ofthe shifting of land uses. On all accounts, urbanization is such a complicated system thatChina has to face it with greatest difficulties that are far more challenging than those occurredin any developed countries. To be specific, food security is the issue mostly concerned when acountry or a nation is undergoing rapid development. Food security and urbanization aredependent on each other. Food security is the foundation and prerequisite of urbanizationwhile the process of urbanization is significant for food security. As urbanization is carriedforward, the amount of arable land is bound to be reduced. The advantages enjoyed by thecities to plan the land resources will contribute to a better exploitation of the land;urbanization will inevitably lead better educated and skilled labor forces to move from ruralareas to the cites. In the meantime, the decreasing of rural population is be beneficial for thescale business of food; the promotion of urbanization will surely discourage the farmers fromgrowing crops. The economic development in the cities can provide enough support for foodsecurity. In view of these, when contemplating the laws of food security in the background ofurbanization, it is essential to raise such questions as “what is urbanization in the very truesense? what does food security mean? what are the detailed provisions of the food securitylaws? what are the relationships among these laws and how could these law guarantee thesecurity of food?”The dissertation, grounded on the position that urbanization is an indispensable period ofChina’s economic development, explores into the above-mentioned questions with theperspectives of law, economies, politics and management studies and attempts to construct alegal system concerning China’s food security based on these explorations. Six chaptersconstitute the dissertation:Chapter one—literature review on food security related theories in the background ofurbanization. Since urbanization is originally an exotic word and controversies about theproperties of food security still exist in the academic circles, the dissertation refers to the mostprevailing and recognized theories to give a sound definition of “urbanization”,“food”, and “food security”, then expatiates on the relationship between urbanization and food security.This chapter is focused on two purposes:1. briefly explain the significances of guaranteeingfood security in the background of urbanization by going over mainstream theories abouturbanization and food security, thus laying a necessary conceptual foundation for furtherstudies.2. find out inadequacies of past studies by displaying research achievements abouturbanization and food security both home and abroad, thus illustrating the contemporarysignificances of ensuring food security and the factors affecting grain production such as“land”,“people” and “money”.Chapter two—ensuring food security in the background of urbanization. From theperspective of economic law, this chapter deals with the issue of “why is economic lawapplicable to food security in the background of urbanization”. After reviewing the theory of“in need of state interference”, this chapter suggests placing the matter of ensuring foodsecurity into the framework of correctly handling the relationship between the state andmarket. Through the fact that the changes of food security policy identify governmentfunctions and that the state intervenes into food security from the angle of supplymanagement, it then points out the economic law nature of ensuring food security. Last butnot the least, chapter two further elaborates on the compatibility between ensuring foodsecurity and economic law ideas from the principles of economic law.Chapter three—legal system of food security and arable land protection in thebackground of urbanization. This chapter attempts to solve the problem of “shortage of landresources and ensuring food security in the background of urbanization”. Instead of coveringall relevant issues about the legal system to protect arable land, it is exclusively devoted to thepreservation of arable land just for the sake of food security. The author argues that to ensurefood security successfully, the preservation of arable land has to be legalized in the form oflaw.Chapter four—human resources and social security legal system of grain production inthe background of urbanization. This chapter probes into two closely related issues:“how tobring the enthusiasm for grain production into full play” and “what legal system is needed toarouse home-going peasants’ enthusiasm”. The chapter proposes a supportive legal systemof motivating peasant workers to return to their hometown and engage in grain production,which promotes a more reasonable labor flow between rural areas and the cities. Of theproposed laws and regulations, the supply of infrastructural facilities and fundamental industrial productions must be highly concerned and therefore should lead a series ofincentive legal system of grain production in the background of urbanization.Chapter five—legal system of agricultural subsidies for food security in the backgroundof urbanization. It researches into “how to implement the use and sources of funds forensuring food security”. This chapter also investigates the general practices of financialsubsidies for agriculture in some developed countries and relevant WTO rules, aiming topoint out that agricultural subsidies has become an international trend. Unfortunately,agricultural subsidies in China are far from enough and our country needs more use andoperation of agricultural subsidies to ensure food security. By learning agricultural subsidylaws and regulations in developed countries, we could benefit from their experiences.Chapter six—legal system of financial assistance for food security in the background ofurbanization. It is indeed an extension of the logical thinking in chapter five, thus takingfinancial assistance as an important supporting measure for fiscal subsidies. Moreover, it aimsto tackle the low income of farmers, lack of money to promote mechanization of farm workand inefficiency of loans for grain production, all contributing to a better legal support forfood security. Under the framework of financial assistance, the author gives priority tofinancial organization, financial market and financial supervision, looking forward to thefuture of laws and regulations in terms of financial assistance for food security in our country.