"Food is the most important thing for the people" should establish a scientific concept of grain

Editor's note: "Food is the most important thing for the people." Grain always has an irreplaceable basic position in the whole national economy. On the occasion of the 34th World Food Day on October 16, we have selected and compiled a group of articles, from the concept of food to the situation and strategies of food imports and food security measures, to commemorate this day with readers, in order to increase continuous attention to the topic of food security.

The concept of food is people's general position, views and views on grain. From the individual level, it is a person's overall understanding of food; from the national level, it is the theoretical basis of how to deal with food affairs. At present, with the new situation of global political and economic development and the new situation of international and domestic grain production and circulation, it is inseparable from a premise and foundation to comprehensively examine the food problem, correctly handle food affairs, and effectively ensure national food security. that is to establish a scientific concept of food. According to the author's opinion, the scientific concept of grain mainly covers the following four aspects.

First, it is necessary to establish a people-oriented concept of food. The right to life is the most basic and primary human right of human beings, and the right of access to food necessary to maintain life is the premise and basis for the realization of the right to life. Therefore, to look at the food issue, we must first link it to people's most basic human rights, that is, the right to existence. Only in this way can we find a correct stand and starting point for observing things. From this standpoint, it is not difficult for us to find the most basic cause of the common people's uprising and the collapse of the ruling class regime in Chinese and foreign history because of famine. After all, the first thing a man has to defend is his right to life. Therefore, some scholars have pointed out that food has both basic human rights needs and commercial needs, the former is its social attribute, the latter is its economic attribute. Its social attribute occupies a primary position, while its economic attribute occupies a secondary position (Ding Shengjun, Thirty years of watching Grain, pp. 155-157, China Agricultural Press, Beijing, 2011). The reason why the food issue is raised to the height of the national strategic level is that it is related to the most basic human right to survival. Therefore, governments of all countries have put the food issue in a very prominent position, and the food issue is also a hot topic of discussion among heads of state at some important international conferences in the world. Because of this, the seemingly simple food problem is sometimes closely related to political power and politics. So for the large population countries, we should pay enough attention to this.

When it comes to the human nature of food, we can also examine its specific influence and role from the global perspective. For example, in the hot food crisis and food war in recent years, in the view of some scholars and media, food has become a weapon and a tool for some western developed countries and multinational corporations to control backward areas, especially countries and regions where food supply is scarce. The most frequently quoted sentence is Kissinger's famous saying: if you control oil, you control all countries. If you control the food, you control everyone. Therefore, with the establishment of a people-oriented concept of food, we can also have a more comprehensive and profound understanding of some deep-seated problems in the development and evolution of food and international politics and economy.

The second is to establish an overall concept of food. It is necessary to comprehensively consider the grain problem from the perspective of overall relevance, find out the internal influence and operation law of each related party, build a panoramic view of the grain problem, prevent the one-sidedness of the problem, and think about and solve the problem from the interrelation of various elements. In terms of our current reality, we should focus on the following pairs of relationships. The first is production and circulation. For a long time, we have paid enough attention to grain production, including a series of policies to encourage and support the development of grain production in recent years, which have also achieved remarkable results. However, we do not pay enough attention to another important link of the grain problem, that is, the circulation link. After grain production comes out, we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that people's daily needs are met in the circulation link. Otherwise, if we attach importance to the production link and fail to keep up with the circulation link, we will not be able to solve the food problem. The second is output and capacity. The problem of output is self-evident. Without sufficient production as a prerequisite, food security is to make bricks without rice. Output is to solve the current problem, capacity planning is a long-term problem, to achieve both the present and the long-term. The central government has paid enough attention to the issue of capacity construction, and has responded to this from both theoretical and practical levels. it is clearly proposed in the latest national food security strategy to "ensure production capacity"; in practice, in recent years, the National production capacity Plan for 100 billion jin of Grain (2009-2020) and the National General Plan for the Construction of High-standard farmland have been issued and implemented successively. On the issue of production capacity, there is also a consideration of ecological security, that is, the path to achieve sustainable grain growth in terms of land, water, and environmental carrying capacity should be fully considered, and the necessary overall planning of fallow and land use should be taken into account. The third is quantity and quality. The problem of quantity is self-evident. It is conceivable that a large country with a population of more than 1.3 billion people does not have a certain amount of grain as a guarantee. While paying attention to quantity, we should also not ignore quality. At present, as far as citizens are concerned, quality is more concerned, because three meals a day have to deal with food. At this point, we can go back to the human nature of food. Satiety is the premise, and safe and nutritious food is indispensable. Therefore, the quality of food naturally rises to a very important position. The development of society, the progress of the times and the improvement of life are at least reflected in the quantity and quality of food consumed by the human body. The fourth is the relationship between the government and the market. This is the methodology for solving the grain problem as a whole. While giving full play to the role of the market in allocating grain resources, we should improve and give full play to the government's macro-control to ensure the realization of the basic goal of grain macro-control, that is, to ensure the basic balance between grain supply and demand and the basic stability of prices, that is, to prevent "cheap grain from harming farmers" and to ensure that the foundation of national food security will not be shaken. It is also necessary to prevent "rice is expensive and harm the people" and safeguard the overall situation of sustained and healthy economic and social development (Cheng Guoqiang, China Grain Regulation and Control: goals, mechanisms and policies, p. 112, China Development Press, Beijing, 2012). In addition, there are important relationships, such as central and local, international and domestic, rural and urban, that we need to consider as a whole when solving the food problem.

The third is to establish a food concept of development. With the continuous development of the times, we also need to keep up with the times in our understanding of food, that is, to establish a food concept of development. First of all, people's consumption demand for food is changing. Due to the continuous development of society and the gradual improvement of living standards, people's consumption demand for food is constantly improving, such as from quantity to quality, from being full in the past to eating more nutritious and safer. Higher and newer consumption requirements are put forward from the aspects of variety, structure, pattern, nutrition and so on. Secondly, the functional attributes of grain itself are constantly changing with the times. On the basis of the original single food attributes, functional attributes such as bioenergy, financial products and ecological regulation are added, and its connotation and functions are constantly expanded. The evolution of this functional attribute of grain is carried out around people, and from this point, returning to the humanistic attribute of grain is its most fundamental attribute. therefore, as the ultimate goal of grain diversification, it arises at the historic moment around the consumption needs to meet the diversity of people. Thirdly, the grain concept of development also requires us to highlight the scientific nature and the nature of the times in solving the food problem. Based on the above, the grain concept of development requires us to actively change and adjust from concept to system and measures when examining and solving the food problem. Generally speaking, from the point of view of concept, it is necessary to look at the grain problem from the point of view of overall relevance and dynamic evolution; from the system, it is necessary to gradually promote the modernization process of the food security governance system and governance capacity; from the measures, to speed up the modernization process of grain circulation industry, grain should be integrated into the modernization process from production to circulation and from field head to dining table. In particular, we should pay attention to the important role of science and technology, give full play to the leading role of informatization in industrial revitalization, and do a good job in the big article of "science and technology support."

Fourth, it is necessary to establish an open concept of food. It is necessary to treat and deal with the food problem with a global vision, a rational state of mind and an open mind.

First of all, we must establish a global perspective. First, a correct understanding of the trend of globalization and its connection with the food problem. The trend of globalization is irreversible. It is also necessary to have a global perspective on how to solve food security. Instead of participating passively, it is better to integrate actively. Moreover, from the history of the development of grain crops in China, exchanges between China and foreign countries are also normal, and many food crops are also introduced from abroad, so it is necessary to overcome autistic psychology. Second, it should be in line with the international community in terms of food-related concepts. It is necessary to distinguish food security from grain security and food rations security. the new national food security strategy clearly proposes to ensure basic grain self-sufficiency and absolute food rations security, which is helpful to clarify confusion and facilitate international integration. Third, treat the hype about the food issue rationally. Because of the sensitivity of the food issue, food security has often become the focus of the international community and the focus of media hype. Especially in the years when global food production was reduced by natural disasters such as extreme weather, food affected the hearts of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Secondly, we should have a rational state of mind. At this point, it is necessary to overcome two immature mentalities: one is to dominate the world and take care of oneself, and the other is to count on others and pin their fate on others. Especially for a country with a large population, these two mentalities have their disadvantages, and the former will bind themselves to the optimal choice of some means and methods to solve the food problem. For example, as far as China is concerned, it is an indisputable fact that China's imports of soybeans and oils have surged in recent years. According to preliminary statistics, the degree of external dependence of China's oils and fats has reached 70%. In 2012, China imported 62.4 million tons of oil and 9.05 million tons of oil. If calculated on the basis of domestic per unit yield and oil production rate, the country needs to increase the area of arable land by about 740 million mu in order to meet these imports. This is not realistic when the area of domestic arable land is tight (Tu Changming, "imported edible oil equals imported land and water", Global Times, May 28, 2013, page 15). As for the latter, it is even less desirable to rely on others on the issue of food, which is ultimately unreliable, and it is not only food that is controlled by others in the end. The correct state of mind should be: self-confidence and sobriety, responsibility and dedication. To be confident is to believe that we in China can mainly rely on our own strength to solve the grain problem; to be sober-minded is to fully understand the pressures, problems, and challenges that our country is facing in solving the grain problem, make rational analysis, and implement scientific policies. Based on domestic, we should give priority to ourselves, and make rational use of both international and domestic resources and two markets. Responsibility, that is, China should be based on solving the food problem mainly on its own. As a large country with a population of more than 1.3 billion, this is a responsibility and obligation of a government to its own citizens. Dedication means that China's own solution to the food problem is itself a contribution to the world. at the same time, when solving its own food security, China gives support and assistance to developing countries, especially countries and regions where food supply is in short supply. This is also a contribution to these countries and the world. For example, China's support in the field of food and agriculture in Africa is a good example.

Third, we should have an open mind. One is to be good at making good use of both international and domestic markets and resources. It is necessary to optimize the allocation of food resources from a global perspective and reasonably participate in and make use of the division of labor in the global market. It is a reasonable and scientific means for China to use the global market to allocate grain resources. The second is to deal with the relationship between "bringing in" and "going out". Large multinational grain groups can cooperate with them, especially on varieties with high demand all the year round, to ensure a stable import channel, and not to worry that foreign capital will control the autonomy of our grain sector as soon as it comes in. Of course, necessary protection measures are also essential. At the same time, we should also encourage and support qualified grain enterprises to "go out" and make use of global resources to carry out grain production, processing, circulation and trade, so as to improve the extroversion and risk resistance of China's grain industry. The third is to grasp the relationship between the main and the auxiliary. The main idea is to "gain a foothold at home and take the lead", supplemented by "moderate import". We mainly rely on ourselves to solve the food problem, and the international market can only be a supplementary means.