I almost never start a column, story or blog post (or speech) with a direct quote. I got pummeled for doing so back in the 1970s by a veteran editor. He said it’s a journalist’s job to tell the story in his or her own words, not in someone else’s. And he was right.
But to me, this quote bears our attention:
“The world cannot afford a failure as big as China.”
That’s the alarming warning from Chinese agricultural journalist Zhou Siyu, in his fine 2012 outlook story about his country’s projected agricultural fortunes – or misfortunes — published in the China Daily.
Zhou, who visited Guelph and other parts of southwestern Ontario in September as a participant in the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists congress master class, says China’s farmers are fighting a battle on two fronts.
First, he says, they’re experiencing less available arable land, water and other natural resources than ever. China outfits the world with consumer goods, not agricultural products. Land is more likely to be developed for manufacturing than preserved for farming.
Equally as problematic is China’s need to contend with the continuing surge in demand for food, stemming from the ever-increasing population.
To meet the demand, says Zhou, production is increasing. China has harvested more grain every year for eight years in a row. And last year it realized a record grain output, 4.5 per cent more than the year before.
Still, China is not a highly industrialized country when it comes to farming. In some cases, it does indeed sport row crops cultivated on large farms such as those you might see here, except the farms are owned by the government. But much of rural China still relies on peasant farmers who have not benefited from new technology.
So despite gains in production, China still needs to bring in more food and feed. For example, prior to 1996, China did not import soybeans. But by 2010, it was buying almost 55 million tons a year. That made it the largest soybean importer in the world — a huge turn of events in a relatively short time.
All this points to one very hungry country.
China has traditionally counted on the U.S. to buy its consumer goods. Now, it’s counting on the Americans to help keep it fed. In fact, in 2011, China, a world away, surpassed Canada to become the largest importer of agricultural goods from the U.S., our next door neighbour.
But that’s a mere sidebar to this story. The real point is that China is spending a lot of money on food. And in doing so, from its perspective, it’s helping keep economies such as the U.S. afloat when other sectors have crashed and burned.
That, says Zhou, is why the world can’t afford to have China fail. Globally, he wonders, who else is spending money besides China? Who else has something to sell that everyone needs?
Once, highly industrialized countries had that market cornered. Now, the future may belong to countries which can grow food most effectively. Food equals bargaining power. No one anywhere is going to buy a refrigerator, stove or microwave built in China if they don’t have anything to store in it or cook on it.
Food is more precious than factories. But food, as a raw commodity, can certainly be processed in factories — in many cases processing is a must, to make it edible — and give people jobs. That makes agriculture and food the perfect sector to invest in, for a province or country trying to pull itself out of the economic doldrums.
People are waking up to the need for efficient, research-based food production. Research is how the Chinese are increasing their yields. We do the same, and have for decades, through such initiatives as the research agreement between the University of Guelph and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
And we need to keep it up. The world is hungry…and getting hungrier every day.
Source: Guelph Mecury
China is becoming one very hungry country
I almost never start a column, story or blog post (or speech) with a direct quote. I got pummeled for doing so back in the 1970s by a veteran editor. He said it’s a journalist’s job to tell the story in his or her own words, not in someone else’s. And he was right.
But to me, this quote bears our attention:
“The world cannot afford a failure as big as China.”
That’s the alarming warning from Chinese agricultural journalist Zhou Siyu, in his fine 2012 outlook story about his country’s projected agricultural fortunes – or misfortunes — published in the China Daily.
Zhou, who visited Guelph and other parts of southwestern Ontario in September as a participant in the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists congress master class, says China’s farmers are fighting a battle on two fronts.
First, he says, they’re experiencing less available arable land, water and other natural resources than ever. China outfits the world with consumer goods, not agricultural products. Land is more likely to be developed for manufacturing than preserved for farming.
Equally as problematic is China’s need to contend with the continuing surge in demand for food, stemming from the ever-increasing population.
To meet the demand, says Zhou, production is increasing. China has harvested more grain every year for eight years in a row. And last year it realized a record grain output, 4.5 per cent more than the year before.
Still, China is not a highly industrialized country when it comes to farming. In some cases, it does indeed sport row crops cultivated on large farms such as those you might see here, except the farms are owned by the government. But much of rural China still relies on peasant farmers who have not benefited from new technology.
So despite gains in production, China still needs to bring in more food and feed. For example, prior to 1996, China did not import soybeans. But by 2010, it was buying almost 55 million tons a year. That made it the largest soybean importer in the world — a huge turn of events in a relatively short time.
All this points to one very hungry country.
China has traditionally counted on the U.S. to buy its consumer goods. Now, it’s counting on the Americans to help keep it fed. In fact, in 2011, China, a world away, surpassed Canada to become the largest importer of agricultural goods from the U.S., our next door neighbour.
But that’s a mere sidebar to this story. The real point is that China is spending a lot of money on food. And in doing so, from its perspective, it’s helping keep economies such as the U.S. afloat when other sectors have crashed and burned.
That, says Zhou, is why the world can’t afford to have China fail. Globally, he wonders, who else is spending money besides China? Who else has something to sell that everyone needs?
Once, highly industrialized countries had that market cornered. Now, the future may belong to countries which can grow food most effectively. Food equals bargaining power. No one anywhere is going to buy a refrigerator, stove or microwave built in China if they don’t have anything to store in it or cook on it.
Food is more precious than factories. But food, as a raw commodity, can certainly be processed in factories — in many cases processing is a must, to make it edible — and give people jobs. That makes agriculture and food the perfect sector to invest in, for a province or country trying to pull itself out of the economic doldrums.
People are waking up to the need for efficient, research-based food production. Research is how the Chinese are increasing their yields. We do the same, and have for decades, through such initiatives as the research agreement between the University of Guelph and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
And we need to keep it up. The world is hungry…and getting hungrier every day.
Source: Guelph Mecury
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Posted in Food & Health, Opinions