The Moynihan Institute’s East Asia Pro gram presents a talk by Kristen Looney of Georgetown University. \;
This project investigates the politics of Chinese agr ibusinesses “scaling up” production domestically and “going out” to make i nvestments globally. It addresses the following questions: What are the ke y drivers behind the transition from smallholder farming to industrial-sca le agriculture in China? What are the domestic and global implications of this transition?
Looney finds that the devel opment of dragon head enterprises\, or large-scale\, agro-industrial firms \, lies at the heart of China’s recent agricultural modernization efforts\ , that the factors driving their development are irreversible\, and that U .S. firms will face tough competition with them both within China and glob ally. \; In addition\, she shows that Chinese agribusiness development has been framed as a national security issue by both China and the U.S.\, the effects of which are to broaden the scope of agricultural products co ntrolled by large companies and to accelerate the pace of scaling up and g oing out. \;
Kristen Looney is an associa te professor of Asian studies and government at Georgetown University\, wh ere she teaches courses on Chinese and comparative politics. Her research is on East Asian development and governance. She holds a B.A. in Chinese s tudies from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in government from Harvard Unive rsity. \;