Meeting spotlights agricultural cooperation

More agricultural cooperation between the United States and China is on the horizon, with more imports and investment in the sector from China, according to participants in a virtual agriculture roundtable meeting.

Agricultural leaders and industrial executives from the two countries discussed how to work with each other at the opening session of the roundtable on Tuesday.

Hosted by the United States Heartland China Association and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, in cooperation with other Chinese and US partners, the month-long roundtable includes three dialogues on trade and business, agriculture education and between think tanks in the US and China.

Themed "Shared Challenges for a Shared Future: Finding the Way Forward", the series of programs is dedicated to three pioneers who helped transform agriculture: George Washington Carver, Norman Borlaug and Yuan Longping.

Carver was a US agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion.

Yuan is a globally renowned Chinese agricultural scientist known as the "father of hybrid rice". Borlaug was a US agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to extensive increases in agricultural production known as the "Green Revolution".

Bob Holden, chairman and CEO of the United States Heartland China Association and former governor of Missouri, said the association "strongly believes that agriculture can help accelerate a climate-wise recovery for America as well as act as a stabilizing bedrock for the important US-China bilateral relationship".

"Through this global sharing of ideas, we hope to shed a light on a way forward that would benefit China, the US and the planet."