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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?

#191

Post by mhh__ »

tombh wrote: post #141
_bxg1 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoyed having my perspective on China as a country expanded; I don't hear many positive things about it, and the environmental focus is genuinely refreshing, in stark contrast to my own country's idiocy in that department. With that said, nothing outweighs their government's human rights violations. Nothing. I know the U.S. has some of its own, but not to an extremity nor scale nor public acceptance that comes any…

The very existence of America is a human rights violation, vis-a-vis the original inhabitants and African slavery. Not to mention the multitude of similar abuses those same Europeans caused over the rest of the world. China's violations are certainly serious, but it's just not comparable to the sheer extent of the West's.

> China's violations are certainly serious, but it's just not comparable to the sheer extent of the West's.

Within recent history this just isn't true.

In fact I'm not even sure it's true over history going back to the creation of the colonies: Decades spent under communism - millions dead, freedom totally unknown and nothing to show for it. I don't know to assign magnitude to anything like that, but to say they aren't comparable is wrong.

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

#192

Post by dang »

staplor wrote: post #182
BurningFrog wrote: post #180

Without reading the link... This kind of question is dumb. It imagines there is an entity called "China" that's tasked with feeding 1.3B people. In reality, it's just 1,300,000,000 individuals tasked with feeding themselves, just like anywhere else in the world. We do it by division of labor. Some grow food, others build goods, others provide services. We all trade with each other so everyone can specialize at what w…

Read the link and then delete your comment.

This comment breaks the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Please don't be a jerk on HN.

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

#193

Post by markbnj »

lph wrote: post #136

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.

It's mentioned in the section where the author discusses the wide use of greenhouses to grow produce.

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

#194

Post by tepidandroid »

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…

Re-reading my comment, I should have actually written “I don’t disagree with you that the two can coexist, but only in certain contexts”.

I’m of the opinion that it’s impossible to achieve economic progress with social upheaval, threats of separatism and terrorist attacks. Economic progress is incompatible with the others.

It's the extreme poverty and lack of economic opportunities which drive destabilizing forces such as these.

Prosperity by means of terrorism then separatism is the path offered by the WUC and ETIM.

Prosperity by means of forced “re-education” in vocational skills and poverty alleviation plans [1] is the one offered by the CCP.

I think it’s the CCP’s gambit that when there is economic prosperity in the region, there will be room for expanding human rights. There won’t be a need or desire to separate from a system which you are actively benefiting from and when that threat goes away, so do the armoured patrols and surveillance mechanisms.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/china-poverty-xinjiang/china...

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

#195

Post by dang »

mandeepj wrote: post #94
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…

ha ha. What a logic to tackle a question - let's change the question itself. I guess you have never witnessed or heard about green revolution. Welcome to the real world. > In most places in the world it's easy and cheap enough to produce food and distribute it. source?

Please don't be a jerk on HN. If you know more than another comment, share some of what you know so we all can learn. Alternatively, it's fine not to post. Either way, please don't break the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

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

#196

Post by DubiousPusher »

sevilo wrote: post #189
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…

If I could I'd upvote this 100 times, it's funny to see people thinking their side is the "one true side of the story", be it the US or China. If you haven't lived in both worlds and understand values and cultures of both, don't be so quick on your feet to think your existing beliefs are the entire truth.

Didn't you here? American capitalism/democracy won history and now it's over.

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

#197

Post by qarlow »

entelarust wrote: post #92

Those sat shots totally remind me of the intro to the blade runner where they show the densely packed structures https://i2.wp.com/rosettedelacroix.com/wp-content/uploads/20...

Western movies about the future is almost less futuristic than China at this point.

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

#198

Post by HillaryBriss »

changchuming wrote: post #171
nine_k wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did Chinese government ever mention liberty as a value? Their story is peace, satiety, social harmony, collective achievement and glory — as long as subjects conform.

I think to many Chinese people, being forced to do something that is perceived as for their own good is seen as a good thing. It's kind of in the Asian culture that the end justifies the means, as opposed to Western culture where you are free to do as you choose but you bear the consequences. Not saying it's wrong, just a different perspective.

> being forced to do something that is perceived as for their own good is seen as a good thing

I sometimes wonder if Los Angeles commuters would actually be better off and happier if the government (somehow) had the legal right to force us all to use buses and rail instead of individual cars.

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

#200

Post by HillaryBriss »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #131
tepidandroid wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

human rights, property rights, labor costs, and a lot of slow and costly government procurement processes
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