Exploration of Management Systems for Characteristic and Endemic Regional Food Resources in China

China, with its vast territory, harbors abundant regional food resources with multiple values in nutrition, ecology, and anthropology. However, simply adopting the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Geographical Indication (GI) system for classifying and managing these agricultural products fails to fully reflect their authentic natural and anthropological attributes, which cannot support the development of local characteristic economies and food cultural ecosystems. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a hierarchical classification standard system for regional food resources tailored to China’s national conditions. This paper proposed a new definition for China’s endemic and characteristic food resources and summarizes interdisciplinary research methods for exploring their biological and cultural attributes. Additionally, the economic and sociological values of these resources were discussed. The proposed classification standards provide guidance for the industrialization of regional food resources in China and offer new ideas for transforming biodiversity into novel productive forces in characteristic industries.