Food Security and Energy Security is edited by Professor Gong Binlei, a Qingshan Young Scholar at Zhejiang University, and published by Higher Education Press. From the perspective of balancing development and security, the textbook systematically explains the core concepts, global landscape, industry characteristics, national strategies, and international issues surrounding food and energy security. Innovatively, it places both issues within a unified framework, examining their similarities, differences, interconnections, and pathways for coordinated governance.

The textbook features a clear systemic approach to the two strategic sectors of food and energy. It balances theory with practice through numerous case studies, special columns, and policy analyses. It also keeps pace with contemporary developments by incorporating topics such as new quality productive forces, China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

It is suitable as a general-education textbook for higher education institutions and can also serve as a reference for researchers and policymakers in related fields.

Textbook Features

Content Innovation | Integrating Food and Energy Security

Focusing on food and energy security, the textbook adopts a systematic and interconnected perspective to examine these two strategic sectors and builds a knowledge framework that moves from individual areas of security to overall systemic security. Its 16 chapters cover the basic concepts, global conditions, industrial systems, national strategies, and international issues related to food and energy security separately, while also dedicating sections to their similarities, differences, competition, and complementarities. It further explores coordinated governance pathways, helping students understand the underlying logic of how food and energy depend on and affect one another.

Broadening Perspectives | A Chinese Perspective Connected to Global Issues

Grounded in China while taking a global view, the textbook examines food and energy security through China’s national strategies and development practices, while also placing China within the global landscape of production, trade, governance, and industrial transformation. It introduces national strategies such as rural revitalization and carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, as well as international commitments such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals of “Zero Hunger” and “Affordable and Clean Energy.” It guides students to understand China’s choices, recognize global challenges, and develop both a Chinese perspective and a global outlook.

Upgrading Thinking | Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries

The textbook transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries by placing food and energy security within broader systems involving economic development, ecological conservation, technological innovation, and public well-being. It analyzes the interactions and synergies between food, energy, and other sectors. By bringing different fields, factors, and policies into a unified analytical framework, it encourages students to move from examining isolated issues to understanding systems as a whole, strengthening their ability to analyze complex real-world problems.

Teaching Innovation | Linking Knowledge and Practice

The textbook emphasizes transforming abstract theory into real-world issues that students can perceive, discuss, and reflect upon, forming a teaching logic of “theory–practice–strategy.” Each chapter opens with an introduction to the topic, incorporates case studies, special columns, and policy analysis throughout the text, and concludes with discussion questions and further reading. By connecting cases with theory and reality with knowledge, it guides students from asking “what” to considering “why” and “what should be done,” while enhancing national security awareness and practical problem-solving abilities.