China's massive but dwindling aquifers would be on track to run virtually dry if over-pumping continued, said Lester Brown, prominent US environmental policy advocate. At that point, its grain production would dive, severely exacerbating any food price increases that had already accumulated. Without rationally priced water, Brown predicted this scenario and a severe global food shortages as inevitable.

At once an ecologist, author, farmer, and activist, Brown was one of the earliest pioneers of the modern environmental movement. He had worked in various capacities for the US Department of Agriculture, ultimately becoming the director of the International Agriculture Development Service in 1966. In 1974 he founded World Watch, a non-profit devoted to global environmental issues, and in 2001, the Earth Policy Institute.


In 1995, Brown wrote a book entitled "Who Will Feed China?", prompting worldwide attention and fierce debates in China on its role in affecting global food security.

As part of the EO focus series on China's rising food prises, Brown discussed with us the greater ecological significance in agricultural production.The key, he said, would be water.