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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?

#351

Post by origin »

chopinsky wrote: post #325

The author has made no efforts to hide the fact that he's a China apologetic and CCP propagation puppet. The fact is that the majority of the country's rice and corns are imported (from SE Asia or N/S America), which are Chinese main calory source. Another often overlooked fact is that China has built a vast crops storage network across the nation, for the fact that a small interruption in food supply chain could cau…

> Most Chinese even have no idea of this, that their daily rice supplies are usually 5+ yrs old

Even during the Maoist period 'new rice' was given out/sold once a year for celebration. Everyone was aware they were eating rotated granary rice.

Storing crops against famine (and eating the old, stored grain) is an ancient tradition [1] dating back to at least 6000 BC, and in China, guarding against famine was one of the earliest tasks of the Chinese proto-state.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granary

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

#352

Post by nickik »

ModernMech wrote: post #186
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really that much of an evil scheme? Isn't it just dating back to sugar tariffs? Wasn't sugar the first tariff in the history of the US? It seems more like it's just an entrenched industry. Corn especially now that it's tied up in gassoline and Trump's trade war.

> Is it really that much of an evil scheme ... seems more like it's just an entrenched industry Same thing, really. Entrenched industries usually find themselves a nice feedback loop and dig in. The nature of capitalism allows them to ignore any negative externalities of their product. They ship out corn-sugar and dollars roll in. They don't deal with the realities of diabetes and heart disease caused by their produc…

Thats not an example of an economic externality. Externalities are about effects on third parties not involved in the trade.

The problem here quite simply is that people kove sugar. Arguble some historical regulatory mistakes made suger consumtion too high but the primary reason is people demand.

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

#353

Post by nickik »

feral wrote: post #85
kartan wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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…

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 the wrong word. Not everything is about the state. Its about property rights distribution and the ability to trade.

Politics of course often leads to bad propert rights distribution and limitations to trade.

But I prefer this definition because in many places de-facto property tights are privatly enforced and defended and its produce is not effected by state level politics.

You overall point is certainly true, bad governance leads to a lack of food.

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

#354

Post by ModernMech »

nickik wrote: post #352
ModernMech wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it really that much of an evil scheme ... seems more like it's just an entrenched industry Same thing, really. Entrenched industries usually find themselves a nice feedback loop and dig in. The nature of capitalism allows them to ignore any negative externalities of their product. They ship out corn-sugar and dollars roll in. They don't deal with the realities of diabetes and heart disease caused by their produc…

Thats not an example of an economic externality. Externalities are about effects on third parties not involved in the trade. The problem here quite simply is that people kove sugar. Arguble some historical regulatory mistakes made suger consumtion too high but the primary reason is people demand.

An externality is a cost someone incurs that they didn't consciously choose. They can absolutely be involved in the trade. For one thing, excessive sugar intake is a blight on children. Childhood obesity is an epidemic on this country fueled by the corn industry. Excessive HFCS is in everything from applesauce to bread to juice boxes. It's hard to argue children are actively involved in the trade.

But it applies to adults too who purchase the goods. Most people if you ask them don't realize how much sugar is in the food they consume, and they don't understand the connection between sugar consumption and heart disease. No one chooses heart disease.

People can read a percentage or a gram count on the packaging, sure, but the nature of sugar is that of addiction. It's not just that people like sugar, it's that we are wired to want to consume it, and Big Sugar takes advantage of that by loading a surprising amount of our food with too much of it. Many people are surprised to learn their bread has sugar in it. Even with soda they are surprised just how much is in a can if you measure it out physically on the table in front of them. People aren't well-informed about what they are consuming and the long term health related effects, and even if they are they are too addicted to stop. Big Sugar knows this and takes full advantage, because millions of people dying every year does not affect their bottom line (and they can easily replace their old, dead customers with new, young ones)

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

#356

Post by nazgulnarsil »

triceratops wrote: post #326
nazgulnarsil wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

besides the US

According to Wikipedia[1] the title goes back and forth. In 2012, the latest year for which the article has numbers, India had more. Despite being 1/4th the size of the US. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arable_land

didn't know that! Thanks.
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