[mschuster91]

> while China and US are doing nothing about it

China doesn't really care about the environment. Their top priority is growth in order to avoid social unrest, and for feeding all the people they need all the food they can get - and if antibiotics makes farming more productive, they'll do it.

The US, on the other hand, has the problem that Big Ag is a powerful lobby. And Trump, given his total lack of understanding on climate and environmental issues, won't do anything to change that.

[BurningFrog]

China is in a phase of its development where the environment is not the most important thing. Once they're rich enough they'll put resources on fixing that.

This is how every rich country went through industrialization. Not because they were all immoral, but because they were poor.

The good news is that China is somehow doing this in fast forward. Each Chinese year seems to be 3 years in a regular economy, and their enormous push for solar power is (I hope) just one sign of what's to come.

[BinaryWaves]

China uses the most renewable resources of any nation and just committed to 2+ billion expansion of their development. Never wise to be dismissive and generalize an entire country when it is a complex landscape of ideals and practices

[kayoone]

Could be because they need to, not because they want to. The air pollution in some of their cities is downright hazardous so they have to do something and it also makes economic sense by now with the falling prices of solar. I don't buy that they are suddenly really interested in sustainability.

[dpc59]

Every one that's trying to save the environnement is doing it because we need to.

[kayoone]

Some people actually believe in the concepts of sustainability for reasons beyond their own interests.

[JabavuAdams]

> China uses the most renewable resources of any nation

Percentage-wise?

[frozenport]

I don't think it is Big Ag, because Big Ag would be more than happy to sell a premium product at a higher cost. It's more of a consumer demand thing.

[Retric]

No, you sell more product when the price decreases making the industry more profitable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons's_paradox is the same basic idea.

[frozenport]

I think the amount of food they can sell is limited by appetite. The only question is at what price point.

[Retric]

US corn production may have started by feeding people, then animals, then substituting for other food (corn syrup>sugar), then being burned in cars. Which just shows people tend to find ever wider demand for products as they get cheaper.

Meat demand as price drops may end up in pet food or 'corn' flakes, but the usage does not really matter. In competitive markets producers tend to make a fixed percentage of sales as profits. Thus, increasing total sales tends to also increase industry profits.