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How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people?

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21–30 of 356 posts

Re: How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people?

#21
This and watching HBO's Chernobyl have prompted me to ask: how do communist countries work? Is there something I can read or watch to best understand things like who owns these farms, who profits from them, how do they pay workers, how do you buy a house, etc

It's all as foreign to me as medieval peasants and nobles so I don't know how it works from day to day. The fact that China now has billionaires, and billionaires spoiled kids doing donuts in supercars also confused me.

Re: How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people?

#22
post #15

A lot of superdefensive people over at quora everytime you ask a question about china.

The most upvoted answer is probably the most awesome pierce of information I’ve seen in 2019 though, holy socks that’s a great Quora answer. And it’s the top answer, clearly distinguishable from the answers you’re referring to, which I think is better than most social media, HN included.

There are a lot of snide remarks in that answer, however, detracting from otherwise great information. (Eg what does the Dalai Lama and Uighur oppression have to do with this?)

Re: How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people?

#23
post #15

A lot of superdefensive people over at quora everytime you ask a question about china.

The most upvoted answer is probably the most awesome pierce of information I’ve seen in 2019 though, holy socks that’s a great Quora answer. And it’s the top answer, clearly distinguishable from the answers you’re referring to, which I think is better than most social media, HN included.

Woah.

I thought you were being hyperbolic.

Man!

That was a well fleshed out answer. Is Quora always like that? Or is that a one off kind of thing?

Re: How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people?

#24

This and watching HBO's Chernobyl have prompted me to ask: how do communist countries work? Is there something I can read or watch to best understand things like who owns these farms, who profits from them, how do they pay workers, how do you buy a house, etc It's all as foreign to me as medieval peasants and nobles so I don't know how it works from day to day. The fact that China now has billionaires, and billionair…

China is communist in name only at this point. The government is authoritarian but the economy works in a pretty familiar way as far as business ownership and financial transactions.

Re: How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people?

#25
post #16

A lot of superdefensive people over at quora everytime you ask a question about china.

Even the first answer has “Western media won’t tell you this”. Like there’s some western conspiracy to downplay Chinese agriculture industry. The Chinese media is constantly telling their people that the US is plotting against China and is hostile to them, so the citizens don’t get any crazy ideas like democracy and human rights. While simultaneously amplifying the bad news coming out of America to show the ‘dangers’…

I found that comment a bit bizarre, too, as an American.

Many (most?) people in America simply don’t care about this or have any general curiosity about the world outside of them. America is the land of fast food and unsustainable cheap beef; we have a president that denies climate change, so it’s no wonder that there is simply no interest in understanding sustainable fishing by a large portion of the population, regardless of which country is succeeding at it.

That is much different than some kind of conspiracy like that post implied. I think it’s actually worse than a conspiracy because it shows widespread ignorance and no desire to seek out the information or analyze the food we eat and it’s impact on the environment. America doesn’t need a conspiracy to hide this, they won’t seek it out anyway.

Re: How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people?

#26
post #24

This and watching HBO's Chernobyl have prompted me to ask: how do communist countries work? Is there something I can read or watch to best understand things like who owns these farms, who profits from them, how do they pay workers, how do you buy a house, etc It's all as foreign to me as medieval peasants and nobles so I don't know how it works from day to day. The fact that China now has billionaires, and billionair…

China is communist in name only at this point. The government is authoritarian but the economy works in a pretty familiar way as far as business ownership and financial transactions.

Does everyone have a job, no homelessness, etc?

Re: How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people?

#28
post #19
post #14

Wow, Japan consumes more seafood then all of the US states combined and the EU countries combined? That’s amazing.

Japan has 50% more coastline than the United States. Where I sit, 1000km from an ocean, seafood is pretty remote. Sure, it gets flown in and flash frozen isn't horrible, but it isn't fresh.

A lot seafood is flash frozen these days, even next to the coast and even in japan. It’s just the best way to deal with parasites. I don’t think you can eat sashimi in the USA that hasn’t been flash frozen.

Re: How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people?

#29

A lot of superdefensive people over at quora everytime you ask a question about china.

Usually either:

1. Paid Chinese State-sponsored propaganda/troll [1]

OR

2. Super nationalist Chinese person (most are) either from China or abroad who take major offense when "their" views are challenged.

[1] https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/17/how-to-spot-a-state-fun...

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