Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

quora.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 356 posts

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

#31

Post by txcwpalpha »

dmix wrote: post #16
cybersnowflake wrote: post #13

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’…

It seems there's a lot of blame put on "the media" because there is a common mindset that someone else ("the media") is responsible for informing everyone, rather than anyone taking on any kind of personal responsibility of informing themselves. This manifests a lot in regards to Asian countries where many westerners (specifically Americans, possibly others idk) get the impression that China/Asia is nothing but a bunch of uncivilized villages, and they never learn otherwise (because they never educate themselves and/or "the media" never educates them).

And I don't think it is just astroturfers, either. Given the above paragraph, I think it's understandable that many Chinese become quite defensive about the fact that they/their countrymen aren't, in fact, savages. I spent some time living in Asia, and even just from that (without any stronger roots like growing up there or having a culture based there), even I personally became quite frustrated and 'defensive' when having to constantly inform my American friends that yes, they do have electricity and running water in Singapore. I can imagine that someone actually from those places would be even more defensive.

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

#32

Post by mikeash »

tyingq wrote: post #26
mikeash wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

No, people search for jobs just like they would anywhere else, and if they don’t find one then they get to be unemployed and broke.

Homelessness is definitely a thing. If you can’t afford a place to live then you’ll just have to make do.

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

#33

Post by klausjensen »

bilbo0s wrote: post #23
moksly wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

One-off. Most stuff on Quora is a thinly veiled advertisement for something - at least when I search for something and end up on Quora.

But there are exceptions - and boy is this article a great example of that.

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

#34

Post by seanmcdirmid »

txcwpalpha wrote: post #31
dmix wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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’…

It seems there's a lot of blame put on "the media" because there is a common mindset that someone else ("the media") is responsible for informing everyone, rather than anyone taking on any kind of personal responsibility of informing themselves. This manifests a lot in regards to Asian countries where many westerners (specifically Americans, possibly others idk) get the impression that China/Asia is nothing but a bun…

> having to constantly inform my American friends that yes, they do have electricity and running water in Singapore

I’m afraid to ask where in America is that common sentiment about Singapore. The only misconception I’ve ever heard about Singapore is being executed for possessing chewing gum.

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

#35

Post by firethief »

pavanky wrote: post #18
wrong_variable wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has a lot to do with the Asian diet, this includes India and Pakistan too. Most people in those countries do not consume large amount of meat, massively reducing their need for large amount of agricultural land. Soil fertility is just part of the equation, does not explain Egypt, Pakistan and a multitude of other countries.

FYI India has more arable land than USA at the moment: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.ARBL.HA?end=2016...

That says 6x less per person

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

#37

Post by txcwpalpha »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #34
txcwpalpha wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems there's a lot of blame put on "the media" because there is a common mindset that someone else ("the media") is responsible for informing everyone, rather than anyone taking on any kind of personal responsibility of informing themselves. This manifests a lot in regards to Asian countries where many westerners (specifically Americans, possibly others idk) get the impression that China/Asia is nothing but a bun…

> having to constantly inform my American friends that yes, they do have electricity and running water in Singapore I’m afraid to ask where in America is that common sentiment about Singapore. The only misconception I’ve ever heard about Singapore is being executed for possessing chewing gum.

I used to work at a very large (and reasonably well-educated) company that had coworkers from everywhere (LA, SF, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, NYC, etc) and it was quite a common misconception amongst almost all of them (and to be fair, I also met a handful of Europeans who thought the same). Also very common was the belief that Singapore is a city in China.

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

#38

Post by tyingq »

mikeash wrote: post #32
tyingq wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does everyone have a job, no homelessness, etc?

No, people search for jobs just like they would anywhere else, and if they don’t find one then they get to be unemployed and broke. Homelessness is definitely a thing. If you can’t afford a place to live then you’ll just have to make do.

Ah, yeah. Not sure "Communist" means much then.

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

#39

Post by MiroF »

pavanky wrote: post #18
wrong_variable wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has a lot to do with the Asian diet, this includes India and Pakistan too. Most people in those countries do not consume large amount of meat, massively reducing their need for large amount of agricultural land. Soil fertility is just part of the equation, does not explain Egypt, Pakistan and a multitude of other countries.

FYI India has more arable land than USA at the moment: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.ARBL.HA?end=2016...

yes.. and also three times the people

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

#40

Post by seanmcdirmid »

txcwpalpha wrote: post #37
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> having to constantly inform my American friends that yes, they do have electricity and running water in Singapore I’m afraid to ask where in America is that common sentiment about Singapore. The only misconception I’ve ever heard about Singapore is being executed for possessing chewing gum.

I used to work at a very large (and reasonably well-educated) company that had coworkers from everywhere (LA, SF, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, NYC, etc) and it was quite a common misconception amongst almost all of them (and to be fair, I also met a handful of Europeans who thought the same). Also very common was the belief that Singapore is a city in China.

I don’t think you would ever hear something like that in Seattle. I’m guessing deep south somewhere?
Post reply on HN