My girlfriend is Chinese and she's the best cook I've ever met, so there's one opinionated bit of anecdata for you.

This is interesting. Can you expand?

I was just joking :) Mostly to show, the MORE complex and dynamic the system is, anyone can pick random factors and use it in analysis to say whatever they feel like.

The thing is it almost made sense. I could see “quality of food declining” as a market for a civilization or empire beginning to fail.