This lecture will consist of two unrelated presentations. The first of these will be a forensic analysis of China’s cropland data in which crop acres reported to provincial governments will be compared to crop acres reported by the provincial government to the central government. Changes in China’s multi-cropping index will be evaluated. Both measures show a rapid depletion of China’s cropland availability. This is in contrast to the official data. Tentative policy conclusions will be drawn.

The second presentation will focus on the recently announced EU Green Deal. Existing research on the possible impact of these new regulations will be summarized. The possible impact of the new regulations on the world pork market using the CARD partial equilibrium, international commodity model will be considered.