Chen Mengshan (third left) inspects winter wheat crops with local government officials and agricultural technicians in Yongcheng County, central China's Henan Province in March 2019.

Can World Reach Food Security and Address Climate Change Challenges Without Collaboration Between Two Largest Agricultural Nations?

Growing up in rural Iowa, before I knew the word "agriculture," I knew that producing food for people was part of Iowans' identity. Before I learned the concepts of borders and nations, I knew people needed to be fed. It is a deep-rooted belief, and Iowans take great pride in producing abundant, high-quality food for the world. It was no surprise that I chose agriculture for my college education and have continued down this path for my career. Today, working in agriculture, I still hold the conviction that producing adequate nutrition for the world population in a sustainable and responsible way is a noble cause for agriculturalists across the world. My work has led me to meet many colleagues sharing my conviction.

Addressing the global challenges in agriculture, one cannot avoid the two largest economies in which agriculture is important. Agriculture is a major industry in the U.S., contributing around 5% to the gross domestic product (GDP). In China, agriculture generated 7.3% of the nation's GDP in 2021. Each year, the Chinese central government's No. 1 Document sets forth the blueprint of the nation's agricultural agenda, echoing one timeless Chinese idiom I repeatedly hear from Chinese friends: "Food is the first and foremost sustenance in people's lives."

Most of my career was devoted to Iowa agriculture. Known for its agricultural productivity, Iowa leads the U.S. in corn, pork and egg production, while soybean production ranks first or second depending on the year. Therefore, it is one of the states most visited by international agriculturalists, giving me opportunities to meet many from China.

When President Nixon (1913–1994) visited China in 1972, I was too young to understand the implications of the trip on the world's geopolitical stage. It was not their graduate studies, and Chinese students were no exception. Gengchen was one of the lucky students selected by Dr. Hallauer. After his superb academic performance at the ISU, Gengchen continued his research at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, a CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) research center headquartered in Mexico that aimed to improve developing countries' resources in corn and wheat breeding and access to elite germplasm. Then, Gengchen joined the most successful hybrid seed corn company at the time, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., where he supported marketing through the provision of technical data. The rich experience accumulated through these international endeavors gave Gengchen an opportunity to see the application of research in the best business practices. In 1997, he founded the private seed company Origin Agritech in China. In 2020, until the 1980s, after I entered college and China initiated economic reforms starting in 1978, that I realized the impact. I saw Chinese students working in the laboratories and going to classes. During my undergraduate program at the Iowa State University (ISU), my first close contact with Chinese graduate students was in Drs. Green and Shibles' research project where I worked as a soybean research intern. This early experience formed two very fundamental impressions: The first was that Chinese students worked hard, staying long hours in the lab, field and graduate student offices, and the second was that the ISU had a high standing in the world agricultural community. When developing countries sent their brightest to study agriculture in the U.S., the ISU was one of the top picks. As my studies advanced and I met more visitors and scholars from China, my reference point shifted from distant observation to personal contact, which reinforced both of these impressions.