The new goal of food security must be achieved by "law" to ensure that food bags are needed

Dialogue motivation

October 16, 2015 is the 35th World Food Day, and the week is the 25th national food-loving and grain-saving week.

Food security has always been a major strategic issue related to China's national economic development, social harmony and stability, and national security and self-reliance. China is a large country with a population of more than 1.3 billion. The reduction of cultivated land, the shortage of water resources and the restriction of climate change on food production are increasing day by day, while with the development of urbanization and industrialization, population growth and the improvement of people's living standards, the demand for grain is increasing rigidly, and the food supply is in a tight balance for a long time. Therefore, the issue of food security in China is not only based on the needs of our national conditions, but also the focus of attention of all countries in the world.

What is the current situation of food security in China? What support can the rule of law provide in the face of worldwide and domestic food security challenges? With these questions in mind, a reporter from legal Daily held a dialogue with Hong Tao, director of the Institute of Business and Economics of Beijing Industrial and Commercial University, who is the lead author of the China Food Security (Assessment) Development report 2014-2015.

Interlocutor

Hong Tao, Director of the Institute of Business Economics, Beijing Industrial and Commercial University

Zhao Li, a reporter from the legal Daily

Gu Peng, an intern of legal Daily

The situation of food security in China is very good.

Reporter: since the concept of food security was put forward, food security has been paid more and more attention, and the connotation of food security has become more and more abundant. In the new period, a new concept of food security has emerged, including "adequate supply, delivery, affordability, and good food", "the food security of one country does not affect the food security of other countries" and so on. With the continuous development of the concept of food security, what is the current situation of food security in China?

Hong Tao: from 2004 to 2015, China's grain production achieved "twelve consecutive increases", creating a miracle in the history of grain in China and even the world. In 2014, grain output reached 607.1 million tons, an increase of 0.9 percent. It is expected that grain production will reach 620 million tons in 2015, an increase of 1.76 percent. In terms of absolute quantity, China's grain has increased by a large margin.

It is worth paying attention to that China's grain production is constrained by cultivated land, fresh water and other resources and environment, so it is more and more difficult to continuously increase production, and the space for further growth of grain production is limited. In 2014, the growth rate of China's grain output declined for three consecutive years.

Reporter: in the report on the Development of China's Food Security (Assessment) from 2014 to 2015, it is also mentioned that China's total grain imports reached the highest in 2014. For this problem, the "report" analysis is that the main reason is that the price of grain varieties in the international market is generally lower than domestic and other factors. Nevertheless, the situation still raises concerns about the current food security situation.

Hong Tao: to be sure, the food security situation in China is very good, but we also need to make it clear that China's food security is facing four major problems: first, the "ceiling" of grain prices. In other words, the current domestic grain price is higher than the international market price, close to the "ceiling"; second, the cost of grain production has increased significantly, and the grain "floor" is constantly rising. The third is the "yellow line" of China's grain subsidies. When China joined the WTO, China promised that the "yellow box subsidies" that greatly distort trade, such as price support and direct subsidies linked to the current output of agricultural products, should not exceed 8.5% of the output value. According to statistics, China's financial subsidies for agriculture, rural areas and farmers are close to this "yellow line." the fourth problem is that the "red light" in the grain ecological environment is on, that is to say, when we are producing grain, some cultivated land has deteriorated and the quality has deteriorated, resulting in a decline in the quality of grain production. Excessive use of cultivated land to develop grain production has brought about damage to food ecology, such as overuse of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, resource overload and environmental overdraft.

Reporter: reviewing the changes in China's food security situation, it is not difficult to find that it is very easy to relax whenever there is a relatively large food supply in our country. In the mid-1980s and late 1990s, difficulties in selling grain appeared all over the country, and farmers had to reduce grain production. As a result, grain production hovered and decreased one after another, and the supply of grain market was tight. People call this situation the food cycle. Every time the food situation is good, the factors of food shortage are also brewing in the past.

Hong Tao: so we put forward the idea of "stabilizing quantity, improving quality and increasing efficiency".

"steady quantity" means that we should no longer engage in "thirteen consecutive increases"; "quality improvement" means to improve quality, and the decline in the quality of some of our grain products has affected market demand, so we should attach great importance to the issue of brands; "efficiency" mainly refers to the need to enable farmers to get good income. If there is a bumper grain harvest, but farmers' income cannot be increased year after year, then the development of grain is not sustainable.