Effects of food consumption patterns on paddy field use in Taiwan

Societal metabolism and land use are significant and interrelated issues, and play a role in sustainable development. How a society's metabolism relates to local land use is typically affected by the particular context of the society under study, which is usually shaped by many factors, including economic, ecological, cultural, technological, and political factors. This study examines the effects of changes in food consumption patterns – decreasing per capita consumption of rice and increasing per capita consumption of wheat flour and meat – on the use of paddy fields in Taiwan. Although rice is grown domestically, wheat, which is a substitute for rice, is mainly imported. Moreover, the domestic livestock industry depends heavily on imported crops for low-cost feed. Accordingly, dietary changes have significantly decreased the demand for local paddy fields to grow crops. Additionally, the diversion of paddy fields to grow forage crops, which has been promoted by the Taiwanese government by guaranteeing prices for feed maize for 14 years, was discouraged when Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization in 2002, as Taiwan was required at that time to reduce by 20% its aggregate measure of support. The presented Taiwan case provides an empirical example of how a change in input characteristics (supply sources in a spatial dimension) of societal metabolism can, together with other factors, significantly affect local paddy fields, and discusses the underlying implications for sustainable development.