How can China sustainably ensure its own food and food security?

Note: on November 2, chaired by Professor Wen Tiejun, John Cobb, Jr., president of the Sino-American Institute of Postmodern Development and academician of the National Academy of Humanities, conducted a seminar at Renmin University of China on the theme "how can China sustainably ensure its own food and food security?" This article is extracted from the content of the report.

Dr. Cobb is a world-famous postmodern thinker, ecological economist, process philosopher, and a leader of constructive postmodernism and organic Marxism. He has been engaged in the study of process philosophy, post-modern culture and ecological civilization for many years. He has published more than 10 books and is a postmodern thinker with world influence. He is the world's first monograph on ecological philosophy ("is it too late?" He is also one of the earliest thinkers in the western world to put forward the "green GDP".

How can China move towards food safety in a globally unsafe world? I suggest that four necessary measures be taken: (1) shortening supply lines; (2) using organic and sustainable farming methods; (3) implementing flexible and intensive production; and (4) limiting demand.

When I briefly discuss these topics, I think it is very clear that China's food safety will depend on the preservation and development of its countryside. Finally, I will comment on the requirements of this kind of activity.

There is no doubt that I can only give an overview or outline of a major and critical topic, and I am sure that many of you may know much more about each of the topics I am about to raise than I do. If I can contribute, it is to talk about the interrelationship between them and to point out the need for a comprehensive policy and planning.

1. Shortening the supply line

I hope that the link between security and not relying on remote resources is obvious. If China's agriculture depends on the United States for seeds, China cannot become a fully independent country.

If China relies on African food to make up for the lack of domestic supply, other countries may also need it, thus cutting off China's supply lines. It is almost self-evident that the United States is trying to put itself in a position to block China's maritime trade, and making China dependent on African food production runs counter to food safety.

Continued pressure from global capitalism to make all countries dependent on global markets will concentrate power in the hands of those who manipulate the global financial system. In this respect, I think China has avoided the worst, but I am afraid it will compromise. I hope that it can increasingly strengthen its domestic trade, especially in agriculture. Even in its own country, it is best to avoid extreme specialization in different regions. If it trades with other countries, it is better to trade with neighboring countries, especially Russia. I will be pleased with the continuous improvement of cooperative relations between China and Russia.

II. Sustainable practice

Organic agriculture is more labour-intensive, so agricultural schools ruled by neoliberal economies will not boost it. But policies supported by the neoliberal economy are making the whole planet uninhabitable. We have to stop using them.

Organic agriculture is not only sustainable, but also produces healthier food. Its production process also makes people physically and mentally healthy, and it can help restore healthy communities damaged by agricultural industrialization.

I am glad that more and more people have reached a consensus on this today. I would like to call attention to several points that have not yet been universally recognized for sustainability. Different from "soil" and "soil", it is a limited resource. It is being used much faster than it is produced. Some once-productive regions of the world have lost their topsoil and can no longer support much vegetation. if there is any vegetation, some ancient cities have been abandoned after the soil on which they live. Obviously, there is almost no real sustainable agriculture in the world.

Even typical organic agriculture loses some topsoil every year. In fact, in the long run, any agricultural method that relies on ploughing is not sustainable. In essence, ploughing exposes the soil to wind and rain. I know that the USDA has set a target for farmers to allow only 1% of their topsoil to be lost each year. The U. S. government seems to have only a hundred years left for agriculture in its hometown.

Fortunately, some farmers have found an alternative to ploughing, that is, "no-tillage" agriculture. I'm not qualified to discuss it, but it sounds like a major breakthrough.

I've heard more about the possibility of developing perennial cereals, and perennials like fruit trees obviously don't need ploughing. Wild cereals used to be perennial, and farmers converted them into annual crops to improve their edible yields, and the process of ploughing topsoil began. Wes Jackson has been working on developing perennial and high-yielding crops for 40 years in a row. headquartered as the American Land Research Institute in Salina, Kansas, he recently achieved his first real success, which inspired people all over the world to carry out experiments.

I believe that China is also experimenting with the development of perennial upland rice, and perhaps there are other experiments under way. Jackson asked farmers to replace the current unsustainable annual monoculture with sustainable and even renewable perennial mixed cultivation, that is, two mutually beneficial plants are planted next to each other. Chinese farmers have long known the advantages of mixed cultivation, if China uses its main resources to develop perennial crops. They could lead the world to truly sustainable agriculture.

Obviously, as the climate gets worse and more unpredictable, it will become more difficult to accomplish any kind of agricultural task, and farmers will no longer be able to follow the same schedule every year. They will often have to find ways to grow crops in an environment with less water. The government can provide support for continuous experiments. The challenge is huge.

III. Increase production

This challenge will now be discussed further. Under deteriorating conditions, it will be very difficult to just maintain the current level of production, and productive land will be reduced and requirements will increase. Some of the increase may come from strong incentives for urban food production. But more will come from rural farmers.

If farmers are replaced by industrial production, it will be impossible to achieve this. Industrial production inevitably needs to adapt to the stable production of resources under given conditions. Labor is highly specialized, making it impossible for individual workers to produce any products. The ever-changing and deteriorating environment requires people to pay attention to the adjustment and rotation of crops. They require people to have a close and extensive understanding of the land and be able to complete the whole process of crop planting.

I remember what I learned about Cuba a long time ago. It had agreed with the Soviet Union to trade sugar for food and oil. But the agreement was abruptly terminated. Cuba was forced to support itself in a hurry.

At that time, almost half of Cuba's land was used for industrial agriculture, machines could not operate without oil, and workers knew nothing about farming. They have produced little food for many years, but nearly half of the land is still owned by farmers. They can quickly adapt to this change in demand and shift from sugar production to food production to feed themselves and those in neighboring cities. At the same time, people in the city also produce a lot of self-sufficient food. Cubans didn't starve to death.

Many experiments on intensive agriculture have been successful. They have all shifted from industrial agriculture to the opposite end, and if the Chinese government wants to help farmers increase production substantially in a sustainable way, it can study the successful experiences of experimenters around the world and find ways for farmers to conduct their own experiments in China. China can lead the world.

IV. Limit demand

One of the problems with the world to feed its entire population is that those who enjoy cheap food waste a lot. I have heard that the food prepared in the United States actually eats only half of it, and of course I have witnessed a lot of waste. I grew up during the Great Depression, so I was taught to avoid waste, and it was sad to see so much food left on the plate.

In some parts of the world, people make a living by looking for food in urban garbage dumps. They eat some food that is thrown away, which is obviously harmful to their health. There should be much better ways to share food and avoid hunger.

I believe that China's per capita waste is not as extreme as that of the United States. But I worry that this advantage will diminish as more and more Chinese become "middle class". There is no doubt that many restaurants are costly. In the United States, we usually pack leftover food from restaurants to take home. I'm afraid this practice is not widespread in China.