How is China able to provide enough food to feed over 1B people? • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by pault » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:09 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #56

txcwpalpha wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my Seattle coworkers was one of the specific people who I was thinking of when writing the above comment, actually. I think it's less common now due to stuff like pictures of Marina Bay Sands going viral over the past several years, as well as movies like Crazy Rich Asians "educating" people that Singapore is a modern city. But around ~2010, not so much.

I’m still not seeing it. A lot of my generations introduction to Singapore was via articles like wired’s Disney Land with the Death Penalty (still banned in Singapore to this very day). The Singapore being apart of China is even weirder for someone who knew nothing about Singapore (why would they even know it was populated by mostly ethnic Chinese?).

I think you are making the classic nerd mistake of assuming the average person has done as much self educating as you have.

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

#72

Post by triceratops » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:10 PM UTC

FigBug wrote: post #2

The country I don't understand how they do it is Bangladesh. A country the size of New York State with 164 million people. (50% of the US population). As I understand it, they generate 90% of the food they require.

The subcontinent, and especially India and Bangladesh, have ridiculous amounts of arable land. India has more than any other country in the world.

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

#73

Post by minikites » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:11 PM UTC

einpoklum wrote: post #54

The question should really be "How are many national economies keeping innumerable people hungry, even though there's plenty of food to go around several times over?" In most places in the world it's easy and cheap enough to produce food and distribute it. Actually, it's so easy and cheap that many world states artificially subsidize agriculture/livestock farming/etc. to prevent them from collapsing due to low prices…

People need to be motivated by death in order to work, or so I'm told by many who argue against government programs to feed the needy.

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

#74

Post by Shivetya » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:15 PM UTC

einpoklum wrote: post #54

The question should really be "How are many national economies keeping innumerable people hungry, even though there's plenty of food to go around several times over?" In most places in the world it's easy and cheap enough to produce food and distribute it. Actually, it's so easy and cheap that many world states artificially subsidize agriculture/livestock farming/etc. to prevent them from collapsing due to low prices…

Well simple really, there are still many shitty governments out there and not much of anything that we can do about it. worse is when they get sufficient weaponry it pretty much puts them off limits for any intervention and in some cases lets them blackmail others.

look at Venezuela and even North Korea, then look who supports these regimes that allow the governments of each to keep themselves in power. We cannot do much more than harm the people of countries like these two but surely trade sanctions or limits can be applied to their supporters.

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

#75

Post by kartan » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:15 PM UTC

einpoklum wrote: post #54

The question should really be "How are many national economies keeping innumerable people hungry, even though there's plenty of food to go around several times over?" In most places in the world it's easy and cheap enough to produce food and distribute it. Actually, it's so easy and cheap that many world states artificially subsidize agriculture/livestock farming/etc. to prevent them from collapsing due to low prices…

> "How are many national economies keeping innumerable people hungry, even though there's plenty of food to go around several times over?"

I never see this question on TV. What I mainly see on Tv is talk about political strategies, result surveys and the like. Climate change is one of the few things that I see being discussed. And even that has a lot of this let's talk about politicians positions and poll results.

I want to see more about how to improve the world. Does anyone know any good on-line resources about this? Because mass media is doing a poor job. And we need them to do a better job.

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

#76

Post by tepidandroid » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:17 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #52

tepidandroid wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what does the Dalai Lama and Uighur oppression have to do with this The snark likely comes from the fact that Xinjiang is consistently portrayed in Western media as a nightmarish, dystopian, Orwellian hellhole suffering under the iron fisted oppression of the Communist Party. They ignore the very real benefits that have been afforded to millions of poverty-stricken people in Xinjiang via progressive government poli…

It has absolutely nothing to do with the answer, however. Xinjiang and Tibet are complicated, China has obviously improved their economies and has obviously trampled on human rights. Both of those things can easily coexist (the same could be said about western colonialism, one doesn’t excuse the other). The western media does report those things, it’s just that the Chinese media only focuses on those pieces from the…

I don’t disagree with you that the two can coexist. I’m saying the mainstream publications have skewed most people’s perception of Xinjiang so far out of the realm of reality that they would likely be absolutely shocked if they ever actually set foot there. World class airports, modern agricultural techniques, a high speed rail system that would put the ones in NY or London to shame [1]. Stray from the “dystopian Xinjiang” narrative and you’re automatically branded a 50c army propagandist.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw a sensational exposé about alleviating poverty through technology-driven, sustainable farming in Xinjiang, in a mainstream publication. On the other hand, I don’t have enough hairs on my head to count the number of condemnations and denouncements.

This is likely the cause of frustration that you see seeping through in answers such as the one posted.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHCs582uUx8

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

#77

Post by aussiegreenie » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:19 PM UTC

txcwpalpha wrote: post #55

bllguo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tone is honestly understandable. It pains me to bring up this cliched point, but is the US media not constantly telling us that China is hostile, China is plotting? As someone with a foot in both worlds, US coverage of China is _at least_ equally warped. It's funny; to my parents and relatives in China I'm perceived as having a US bias, but everywhere else I get characterized as being too Chinese. It's hard for m…

>It's funny; to my parents and relatives in China I'm perceived as having a US bias, but everywhere else I get characterized as being too Chinese. Haha, I can relate. I'm as white as they come but I spent some time living in Singapore and traveling the rest of Asia. In Asia I was obviously "the American", but when I got home to the US I can remember a few distinct times where I was called a "wannabe asian" or somethi…

I am as "egg" as they come (white on the outside and yellow in the middle) but I am consistently abused by Chinese trolls. I love China but loathe the Chinese trolls.

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

#78

Post by nfoz » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:22 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #22

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.

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?)

I am grateful for these "snide remarks", as to me there is nothing so important and interesting as trying to bring humans out of oppression and suffering (no matter who is the instigator).

Something I found amazing (horrific) when reading the article: what if this writing only sounds snide to us, but not to others? Consider your examples:

> Some of these Uyghurs, Kazakhs are sent to the reeducation camps and they are forced to learn Mandarin Chinese and the latest drip irrigation techniques to save water and reduce costs. Moreover, each village is assigned with one or more communist party members to guide them through to make sure that they don’t mess up the newly cultivated land.

> I mean, the Chinese government has also forced Tibetans to build a massive amount of greenhouses on the Tibetan plateau. Those Tibetans have no time to go to temples for worshipping any more, instead, they have to work in the greenhouses taking care of tomatoes. This is why Dalai Lama is not so happy to hear this.

This is horrific and dystopian to me. But imagine if you believed the Uyghurs/Kazakhs are inferior peoples, and that Tibetan temples/monks are evil. You could read these paragraphs and consider all of this to be positive. I wonder how popular that type of thinking is in China.

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

#79

Post by tus88 » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:27 PM UTC

klenwell wrote: post #8

I see 3 sushi restaurants on the same street, start to extrapolate in my head, and wonder how we hadn't extinguished most edible fish species decades ago. From what I've read and heard on the subject, my understanding is: (1) some we have (touched upon at end of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, for example), (2) we are in the process of doing so to most the rest, (3) fish farms are increasingly making up the difference.

Fish stocks are being depleted. We are running the earth down.

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

#80

Post by Aunche » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 10:30 PM UTC

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’…

Chinese propaganda is definitely part of reason Chinese people online are unusually defensive. However, it doesn't help that a lot of "facts" about China that circulate on the internet are completely false. "Facts" like this one:

> Plus there is a large group of astroturfers constantly scanning the web for mentions of China (aka “50 cent army”).

The 50 cent army is really a China-only thing. I highly doubt that China thinks that the most effective use of their limited number of fluent English speakers is argue with people on Reddit and HackerNews.