The importance of food to the country


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2019-05-21

Food security, energy security, and financial security are also known as the three major economic security in the world today. For a country like ours, which has a 1.3 billion population and is accelerating industrialization and urbanization, ensuring food security is not only the realization of a sound national economy. basic conditions for rapid development, but also an important guarantee for promoting social stability and harmony, and a strategic basis for ensuring national security.

Food security, energy security, and financial security are also known as the three major economic security in the world today. For a country like ours, which has a 1.3 billion population and is accelerating industrialization and urbanization, ensuring food security is not only the realization of a sound national economy. basic conditions for rapid development, but also an important guarantee for promoting social stability and harmony, and a strategic basis for ensuring national security.
The food issue is a security issue, not an economic issue. Unlike other commodities, less food will only increase the price, and less food will starve people to death. It is a hard demand. And security is to ensure the stability of grain transportation and sales. The fluctuation should not be too large, so that everyone can eat grain. If food prices rise too fast, low-income people will quickly fall into a state of starvation. When food prices rose in 2008, many grain exporting countries immediately announced a ban on exports, and people must first ensure their own stability. If China wants to rely on food imports, it must build a strong navy and air force to ensure food security. The so-called assurance is that when the grain exporting country reduces production, we can also ship the grain back to the country and leave the local people in a state of starvation. Of course, there is another way, and that is to accept the protection of a certain power. But there is also a premise, that is, your food demand will not seriously impact international supply. But unfortunately, based on China's large population, this premise does not exist. You cannot put your rice bowl in the hands of others. China is a large grain producer and a large grain consumer. China's grain production and supply and demand situation are not only related to the food of China's 1.3 billion population, but also affect the international grain supply, demand and price situation. If we import a large amount of grain from the world, it will cause tension in international grain sources and drive up grain prices. From the perspective of national security strategy, my country has a large population and agriculture is greatly affected by natural risks and market risks. In the overall development of the national economy, grain has always been regarded as a special commodity and strategic material. If domestic grain production is relaxed and over-reliance on the international market is tantamount to putting one's own rice bowl in the hands of others. It is strategically easily controlled by others and is related to the survival and development of the country. Be passive in international competition.

Achieving food security is a long-term and arduous task. From the perspective of the global grain supply and demand pattern, my country's annual grain production and consumption account for about a quarter of the world's grain production and consumption. At present, the total global annual grain trade is nearly 500 million tons, which is only equivalent to more than 40% of my country's annual grain consumption. Due to the tight grain supply and demand in the international market, a large amount of imported grain will not only trigger a sharp rise in grain prices in the international market, but also the international market cannot meet my country's huge food demand. With the changes in the structure of food demand caused by population growth, accelerated urbanization, and the improvement of people's living standards, my country's total food demand will maintain a rigid growth trend, and the pressure on food supply will increase in the future. Achieving food security is a long-term and arduous task. Tightening the string of food security and unremitting efforts for a long time is one of our basic national policies.


Food security is the lifeblood of political security. If you control oil, you control all countries; if you control food, you control all people. This is what Kissinger said in an interview with the media in the 1970s.
Grain, as a necessities of life, has been infiltrated into political factors very early. In Chinese history, there has been "soldiers and horses do not move, food and grass go first. Emperor ChengZu of Ming Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial way of" digging deep holes, accumulating grain, and slowly becoming king ", and Mao Zedong's political philosophy of" digging deep holes, accumulating grain, and not seeking hegemony "all show that the food issue has always been a very important political issue. Food has always influenced ancient Chinese politics in a subtle and invisible way. The food issue is the trigger for almost all peasant uprisings, and the" Tian Dynasty Tian Mu System "during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a typical representative. Food tells the real history with a unique metaphor, and it is difficult for any politician to escape the politics of food.

Grain storage companies shoulder huge national responsibilities.