agri food and environmental economics group head prof dr bernard lehmann institut für agrarwirtschaft iaw the transformation process of chinese meat production based on concentrated feed submitted by georg von mérey supervisors isabelle schluep campo robert jörin referees peter rieder zurich august 10 th 2006 zhong guo ji yu nong suo fu he si liao yang de rou lei chan pin bian hua cheng www agrl ethz ch eth zürich sol 8092 tel 41 44 632 53 92 fax 86 omplexity is perhaps most essential characteristic our present society as technological economic advances make transport communication ever more efficient we interact with people organisations systems objects this network interactions grows spreads around globe different social ecological that are part become interdependent result an complex system where a change in any component may affect virtually other