Agriculture can plow a productive furrow

The US-China relationship is very challenging. While the United States and China are the world's two largest economies, they have differences in the areas of trade, market access, national security, protection of intellectual property, technology and privacy. These differences should neither be minimized nor dismissed.

Nevertheless, while the two countries are competitors on the world stage, there are many areas where cooperation can be beneficial to both countries and their peoples, and to the world at large.

These include global health and prevention of diseases and future pandemics, educational exchanges, climate change and related natural disasters, energy, and sports, entertainment and culture.

And certainly, even more significantly, cooperation and collaboration in the area of agriculture and food offer perhaps the greatest opportunity for such cooperation. Food security and agricultural production are critical domestic and global imperatives for both countries.

In 2025 the US trade in goods with China totaled an estimated $414.7 billion. US exports to China dropped nearly 26 percent to $106.3 billion, including major agricultural commodities, and imports fell nearly 30 percent to $308.4 billion.

US farmers and Chinese consumers are certainly impacted by these reductions in trade in soybeans, livestock and many other farm commodities.

Some of these changes in trade numbers were impacted by changes in US export policies and trade, although President Donald Trump's visit to China offered some hope that the trade relationships between the two countries can improve.

The US has one of the largest and most historically productive agricultural sectors in the world. China also has a very significant agriculture sector. The next breakthrough in US-China relations could begin on the farm. Food is not ideological. And while trade disputes have periodically disrupted flows of agricultural commodities, both countries and their consumers and farmers benefit when these markets are transparent, predictable and certain.

In the promising area of agriculture research, collaboration in scientific research can foster solutions to the impact of climate change and the effects of droughts, floods, animal and plant disease, soil health, water resource conservation, food safety and nutrition. Both countries have suffered from the impacts of these challenges, and China has developed a major agricultural research infrastructure, with government and academic institutions working on problems affecting both countries.

The recent epidemics of zoonotic diseases (those that naturally spread between animals and humans) and related viruses, pathogens and parasites highlight the need for cooperation that US and Chinese scientists and academic institutions can provide in this area. And there are so many other public health challenges in the areas of food safety, food and nutrition, and cooperation on agro-biotechnology through modern agronomic technologies to sustainably feed a hungry world. Take genomics, for example. There is enormous potential to make rapid advances in crop productivity, livestock breeding and health, and resource use efficiency. And by properly and legally utilizing artificial intelligence, US and Chinese researchers can work together to leverage digital data to better control diseases, predict weather patterns and events and identify market trends.

Expanding academic exchanges and students studying food and agriculture is also important in developing a talent pool for the future.

None of this is easy and there are no simple answers to the disputes between the two countries, and in recent years there has been a growing lack of trust on each side of the Pacific Ocean. But cooperation in the areas of food and agriculture can help to build bilateral trust and reduce the heated rhetoric in both countries.

President Trump's visit to Beijing in May was an important step in this process. I hope the US can resume congressional delegations to China which I participated in and also led while at the Aspen Institute. During the Bill Clinton administration, as secretary of agriculture I led a congressional delegation to China on trade issues. And as the Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association, I also made several visits to China to discuss intellectual property and market access issues. I have long felt that although China and the US are serious competitors on the global stage, they are not enemies. Agriculture offers a way to enhance and improve the bilateral relationship for the benefit of both peoples.

President Xi Jinping has said that China and the US should be partners and friends, stressing that is what history has taught us and what reality needs. Mutually beneficial progress on agriculture can help build trust between the two sides and help to achieve progress in a dangerous and rapidly changing world.

The author is the former US Secretary of Agriculture under President Bill Clinton (1995-2001), and currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.