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

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

#131

Post by crimsonalucard »

tepidandroid wrote: post #76
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Xin…

Meanwhile California can't even put together a high speed rail line between SF and LA because of Human rights.

Your right to have good public transit is being violated by someone else's right to not have a rail go through their lawn. Protect that man's right to a lawn at all costs.

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

#132

Post by lph »

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?

You don't see visible homelessness nearly as much as in US big cities. Chinese friends I've discussed this with attribute it to familial piety acting as a much stronger safety net; people will make big sacrifices to save their relatives from total failure. It's expected, and a stark contrast to the American notion of extreme individualism. There's also no opiod epidemic.

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

#133

Post by leereeves »

jaaron wrote: post #123
rajeshp1986 wrote: post #97

I was really impressed by the top answer until I read this statement. "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." What??

It's definitely an impressive response, but it also looks like the sort of state sponsored responses typical of Chinese propaganda. That's not to say it's inaccurate, just biased.

The comment basically says that China has forced the Tibetans into slavery. Is that typical of Chinese propaganda?

> the Chinese government has also forced Tibetans to build a massive amount of greenhouses...they have to work in the greenhouses taking care of tomatoes.

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

#134

Post by ianburrell »

rajeshp1986 wrote: post #97

I was really impressed by the top answer until I read this statement. "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." What??

There is also: "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."

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

#135

Post by txcwpalpha »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #125
aussiegreenie wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

These eggs are mostly 100% men, not women. I'm sorry to say but you eggs are probably fully aware of why only men are so crazy about Asia. Also (Hint) the Chinese trolls are also 100% men. No women trolls.

> I'm sorry to say but you eggs are probably fully aware of why only men are so crazy about Asia.

I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to, but I can only imagine that you're referring to Asia's sex industry?

I don't know where this stereotype comes from. Is it a holdover from older generations, perhaps? I've traveled nearly every East/Southeast Asian country, met hundreds of fellow male travelers along the way, and hundreds more otherwise, and only a handful (literally less than 5 that I can even think of) that openly partook at all in any kind of "red light district activities". Most looked negatively on it and it certainly isn't something that would cause men to be "so crazy about Asia".

(If that isn't what you're referring to, please explain your comment)

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

#136

Post by lph »

One thing that's not mentioned is that the freshness and variety of produce available in China is fantastic. There's much less refrigeration and transportation, so there's a good chance the produce you buy at the local street market came from nearby fields very recently. Seeing this as a visitor from the US is quite a revelation.

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

#137

Post by behringer »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #128
feral wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opinion: The tough truth is that improving the world at that scale is mostly about politics. Politics is how the nations allocate resources to problems. You maybe want them to talk about the technical fundamentals of the problem but the important bit is usually the politics. [A sibling comment says to look at TED talks. This is an excellent idea. Then, after a couple of years, ask why none of the solutions have been…

> Politics is how the nations allocate resources to problems. That's a hard pill to swallow, but I fear you're right. Shouldn't government's priorities be establishing rule of law, courts & justice, national defense, and regulating commerce? How did massive taxes, a huge budget, and political fights over resource allocation ever get thrown into the mix? A historian once said that democracy fails when people begin vot…

Because rich people don't get rich by spending money. With unfettered capitalism taxation is the best system available to keep the wealth from pooling at the top, so the government is needed to decide what to spend the money on.

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

#138

Post by [deleted] »

tepidandroid wrote: post #82
baybal2 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chinese domestic media threatens to nuke US just any godly day, but saying that, you should also know that quite a number of Chinese media personas were sacked for wrong gestures towards the West in their English language medias, and their military bamboozlers were few times sent to jail over unauthorised threats to USA made in small, nobody known military newspapers. I heard once that 50 centers were at some point p…

Chinese domestic media is for the most part trash and it's well understood that it conveys the views of the ruling political class. It has never even pretended to be an unbiased source of information. As far as the Chinese domestic media threatening to nuke US just any godly day, I highly doubt it and I've never seen this. Their domestic media is much more focused on internal development and accomplishments. It serve…

[deleted]

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

#139

Post by seanalltogether »

ianburrell wrote: post #134
rajeshp1986 wrote: post #97

I was really impressed by the top answer until I read this statement. "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." What??

There is also: "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."

As well as "Local fishermen and farmers are actually forced to learn the latest solar technology and sustainable techniques provided by professionals from the local Chinese government." I'm not sure if the author is using the term forced the same way a normal english speaker would use it.

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

#140

Post by selimthegrim »

wrong_variable wrote: post #5
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.

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.

>Most people in those countries do not consume large amount of meat

You clearly haven’t been to Pakistan anytime recently

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