Halpern, B. S. et al. The environmental footprint of global food production. Nat. Sustain. 5, 1027–1039 (2022).
Clark, M. A. et al. Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2 °C climate change targets. Science 370, 705–708 (2020).
Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 360, 987–992 (2018).
Xu, P. et al. Fertilizer management for global ammonia emission reduction. Nature 626, 792–798 (2024).
Ivanovich, C. C., Sun, T., Gordon, D. R. & Ocko, I. B. Future warming from global food consumption. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01605-8 (2023).
Li, Y. et al. Changes in global food consumption increase GHG emissions despite efficiency gains along global supply chains. Nat. Food 4, 483–495 (2023).
Tian, H. et al. A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks. Nature 586, 248–256 (2020).
Ren, C., Zhang, X., Reis, S. & Gu, B. Socioeconomic barriers of nitrogen management for agricultural and environmental sustainability. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 333, 107950 (2022).
Balmford, A. et al. The environmental costs and benefits of high-yield farming. Nat. Sustain. 1, 477–485 (2018).
Liu, J. et al. Framing sustainability in a telecoupled world. Ecol. Soc. 18, 26 (2013).
FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2020); https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
Xue, S. et al. Ensuring China’s food security in a geographical shift of its grain production: driving factors, threats, and solutions. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 210, 107845 (2024).
Xuan, X., Zhang, F., Deng, X. & Bai, Y. Measurement and spatio-temporal transfer of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural sources in China: a food trade perspective. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 197, 107100 (2023).
Zhang, W. et al. Revealing environmental inequality hidden in China’s inter-regional trade. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52, 7171–7181 (2018).
Dalin, C., Wada, Y., Kastner, T. & Puma, M. J. Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade. Nature 543, 700–704 (2017).
Chen, C., Wen, Z., Sheng, N. & Song, Q. Uneven agricultural contraction within fast-urbanizing urban agglomeration decreases the nitrogen use efficiency of crop production. Nat. Food 5, 390–401 (2024).
Springmann, M. et al. Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits. Nature 562, 519–525 (2018).
Hu, Y. et al. Food production in China requires intensified measures to be consistent with national and provincial environmental boundaries. Nat. Food 1, 572–582 (2020).
Xuan, X., Bai, Y., Sikka, G., Weng, C. & Deng, X. A land–water–energy–greenhouse gas nexus framework informs climate change mitigation in agriculture: a case study in the North China Plain. Geogr. Sustain. 6, 100354 (2025).
Liu, J. et al. Ammonia transfers through interprovincial agricultural trade and their health burden implications in China. Environ. Res. Lett. 20, 084077 (2025).
Yang, Y. et al. Climate change exacerbates the environmental impacts of agriculture. Science 385, eadn3747 (2024).
Guo, E. et al. Assessing spatiotemporal variation of drought and its impact on maize yield in Northeast China. J. Hydrol. 553, 231–247 (2017).
Tao, F., Xiao, D., Zhang, S., Zhang, Z. & Rötter, R. P. Wheat yield benefited from increases in minimum temperature in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of China in the past three decades. Agric. For. Meteorol. 239, 1–14 (2017).
Yang, X. et al. Potential benefits of climate change for crop productivity in China. Agric. For. Meteorol. 208, 76–84 (2015).
Vogel, E. et al. The effects of climate extremes on global agricultural yields. Environ. Res. Lett. 14, 054010 (2019).
Gu, B. et al. A credit system to solve agricultural nitrogen pollution. Innovation 2, 100079 (2021).
Gong, B. Agricultural reforms and production in China: changes in provincial production function and productivity in 1978–2015. J. Dev. Econ. 132, 18–31 (2018).
Duan, J. et al. Consolidation of agricultural land can contribute to agricultural sustainability in China. Nat. Food 2, 1014–1022 (2021).
Wu, Y. et al. Policy distortions, farm size, and the overuse of agricultural chemicals in China. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 7010–7015 (2018).
Lee, C.-C., Zeng, M. & Luo, K. The impact of urbanization on food security in China. Int. Rev. Econ. Finance 93, 1159–1175 (2024).
Wang, J. et al. North-to-south transfer of grain and meat products significantly reduces PM2.5 pollution and associated health risk in China. Resour. Environ. Sustain. 17, 100168 (2024).
Regulation (EU) 2023/956 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 Establishing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (Text with EEA Relevance). OJ L Vol. 130 (European Parliament, 2023).
Böhringer, C., Fischer, C., Rosendahl, K. E. & Rutherford, T. F. Potential impacts and challenges of border carbon adjustments. Nat. Clim. Change 12, 22–29 (2022).
Gu, B. et al. Cost-effective mitigation of nitrogen pollution from global croplands. Nature 613, 77–84 (2023).
Li, Y. et al. Reducing climate change impacts from the global food system through diet shifts. Nat. Clim. Change 14, 943–953 (2024).
Dangar, S., Asoka, A. & Mishra, V. Causes and implications of groundwater depletion in India: a review. J. Hydrol. 596, 126103 (2021).
Ren, C. et al. Ageing threatens sustainability of smallholder farming in China. Nature 616, 96–103 (2023).
Xia, L. et al. Integrated biochar solutions can achieve carbon-neutral staple crop production. Nat. Food 4, 236–246 (2023).
Zuo, C. et al. Cropland displacement contributed 60% of the increase in carbon emissions of grain transport in China over 1990–2015. Nat. Food 4, 223–235 (2023).
Yu, Y., Hu, Y., Gu, B., Reis, S. & Yang, L. Reforming smallholder farms to mitigate agricultural pollution. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16610-7 (2021).
Xue, L. et al. China’s food loss and waste embodies increasing environmental impacts. Nat. Food 2, 519–528 (2021).
Dalin, C., Qiu, H., Hanasaki, N., Mauzerall, D. L. & Rodriguez-Iturbe, I. Balancing water resource conservation and food security in China. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 4588–4593 (2015).
Hasegawa, T. et al. Risk of increased food insecurity under stringent global climate change mitigation policy. Nat. Clim. Change 8, 699–703 (2018).
Gu, B., Ju, X., Chang, J., Ge, Y. & Vitousek, P. M. Integrated reactive nitrogen budgets and future trends in China. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 8792–8797 (2015).
Xu, X. et al. Integrated carbon and nitrogen management for cost-effective environmental policies in China. Science 388, 1098–1103 (2025).
Luo, L. et al. A dataset of interprovincial food trade flows in China. Sci. Data 12, 943 (2025).
Xie, Y. et al. Optimization of multimodal transportation routes for north-to-south grain transportation in China considering carbon emissions. Appl. Sci. 16, 510 (2026).
Liu, D., Song, C., Xin, Z., Fang, C. & Liu, Z. China can enhance its carbon and nitrogen reduction potential by optimizing maize trade across provinces. Commun. Earth Environ. 5, 358 (2024).
Hoekstra, A. Y. & Mekonnen, M. M. The water footprint of humanity. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 3232–3237 (2012).
Xu, Z. et al. Impacts of irrigated agriculture on food–energy–water–CO2 nexus across metacoupled systems. Nat. Commun. 11, 5837 (2020).
Yin, Y. et al. Environmental impact of grain virtual water flows in China: from 1997 to 2014. Agric. Water Manage. 256, 107127 (2021).
Qiang, W., Liu, A., Cheng, S., Kastner, T. & Xie, G. Agricultural trade and virtual land use: the case of China’s crop trade. Land Use Policy 33, 141–150 (2013).
Lin, J. Y. Rural reforms and agricultural growth in China. Am. Econ. Rev. 82, 34–51 (1992).
Wang, X., Yamauchi, F. & Huang, J. Rising wages, mechanization, and the substitution between capital and labor: evidence from small scale farm system in China. Agric. Econ. 47, 309–317 (2016).
Wang, C. et al. Hierarchical driving factors of ammonia emissions from cropland in China. J. Clean. Prod. 451, 142127 (2024).
Chen, Y. et al. Provincial and gridded population projection for China under shared socioeconomic pathways from 2010 to 2100. Sci. Data 7, 83 (2020).
Ren, C. et al. Climate change unequally affects nitrogen use and losses in global croplands. Nat. Food 4, 294–304 (2023).