Tele-connecting urban food consumption to land use at multiple spatial scales: A case study of beef in Taiwan

摘要

This study takes the first step to tele-connect urban food consumption to land use at multiple spatial scales by taking beef consumption of Taiwan during 1990-2016 as a test case. The novelty of this study is to make a quantitative effort in advancing the methodological approach in urban studies and facilitates future research in the subject area. Our numerical results support the hypothesis of ULT associated with beef consumption, and suggest that the phenomena of beef-related land teleconnection are more significant in urban areas. From the time dynamic perspective, moreover, trade liberalization extends the spatial spectrum of implied land use associated with beef consumption. It allows imports towards relative land-saving origins and alleviates beef-related ULT. Finally, income growth plays a key role in driving up the implied land use of beef consumption at earlier stage of urban development. In contrast, at the later stage the increase in expenditure intensity of beef accounts for surging beef consumption in cities.