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Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics pp 1–8Cite as

Chinese Agriculture

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Synonyms

Agricultural history; Agriculture and environment; Chinese agronomy; Crop systems; Cultivation; Farming

Introduction

Chinese agriculture is one of the oldest agricultural systems and one of the most influential, having contributed cultivars, techniques, and land management systems to neighboring peoples. Chinese agriculturalists have proven incredibly resilient. Adopting foreign cultivars and technology, such as wheat, the plow, and tea, they modified and expanded existing methodologies to transform an extensive, dryland agriculture into a multifaceted agricultural system including wet- and dryland crops, tree plantations, floating fields, and inland aquaculture. In doing so, Chinese farmers, historical and contemporary, have also had to grapple with significant ethical, social, and environment challenges. Long-term erosion, siltation, and flooding have been compounded, since the beginning of the twentieth century, by the social, economic, and environmental aspects of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, USA

    Adam Witten M.A.

Authors
  1. Adam Witten M.A.
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Correspondence to Adam Witten M.A. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Michigan State University Dept. Philosophy, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Paul B. Thompson

  2. University of North Texas Dept. Philosophy & Religion Studies, Denton, Texas, USA

    David M. Kaplan

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Witten, A. (2014). Chinese Agriculture. In: Thompson, P., Kaplan, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_69-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_69-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6167-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

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