Chapter 40 5. Grain industry - the granary of the world in the future

The millennium-long agricultural war is far from over, and a food war aimed at competing for profits and seizing strategic heights will become more intense in the next ten years. When we realize all this, it means that we will change direction in the future. Fortunately, this transition is not too late, and it is not difficult for a country with a long agricultural tradition like China. Introduction to the theme: Coming from History - The Shameful Years - The Unscheduled Food War Historically, China has a long agricultural tradition. As we all know, China is a continental country, and its mild ecological environment determines that agriculture is destined to develop rapidly on this land. In fact, since historical records, the Chinese nation has relied on agriculture to survive.

In such a standard agricultural country, the only source of wealth is food. Therefore, in Chinese history, all social and economic ideas, and even government policies and measures are centered around the production and distribution of food. In peacetime, food can feed the people, which is of extraordinary significance to social stability. In wartime, food, as a precious strategic resource, highlights its importance. One of the most obvious examples occurred during the Warring States Period more than 2,400 years ago. During that period of more than 250 years, China ruled by the Zhou Dynasty split into many independent and independent states. Obedient feudal petty kingdom.

No matter how different these kingdoms are, when it comes to food, almost every kingdom puts food production at the same level as military construction. The origin of the art of farming and warfare".Among these countries, Qin State, in particular, implemented this policy most vigorously. In order to make the people feel at ease in food production and ensure that the country has sufficient food reserves, the Qin State, governed by Shang Yang, even formulated a special law to limit every person to the land on the basis of ensuring that the tiller has his own land. Concentrate on agricultural production.

It is such a measure that realizes the direct connection of land resources and labor resources, and has the effect of promoting agricultural development.And Qin State also relied on the most thorough farming and warfare techniques to defeat all the vassal states, thus enabling China to achieve political unity for the first time in history. In fact, like natural resources, grain also has the attribute of wealth, and compared with real money, the practical value of grain is irreplaceable. Because of this, in Chinese history, grain was used as a means of war. It is not uncommon to use food as an opportunity for war.

A famous example occurred in the Spring and Autumn Period. Under the governance of Guan Zhong, Qi State was fertile and rich in products. However, to everyone’s surprise, Qi State did not choose to export because of its huge grain output. On the contrary, Qi State In many foreign trades, they have chosen to exchange luxury consumer goods in the Bohai Sea for grain from neighboring countries, and at the same time, it is strictly forbidden for a grain of grain to flow out of the country. While Qi State was frantically storing grain, another small country was selling a large amount of domestic grain in exchange for luxury goods such as silk, famous horses, and jewelry.

No one could figure out Qi's strategic intentions. However, until a few years later when there was a general famine and many countries were in trouble, Qi made a big attack with its abundant grain reserves. Not only did it gain a lot in trade, They even directly used force as a means to directly include some small countries that were depleted of food into their territory. This is the most typical food war in Chinese history! Due to the long history, we rarely see such an alternative history in modern economic textbooks. However, in fact, for modern international economic competition, there is no difference in the situation of competing with each other around food.

In fact, for some countries in the modern international community that frequently use food weapons, China's experience and history of using this weapon are enough to be a teacher for the world. However, in the past years, we have repeatedly failed in this invisible war. One of the most typical examples is our naivety and abnormality in resisting the impact of cheap American agricultural products. Taking soybeans as an example, before 1995, China had always been a net exporter of soybeans.After that, the United States began its steps to enter the Chinese market. In 2000, China's annual soybean imports exceeded 10 million tons for the first time. This figure made China the largest soybean importer in the world from a net exporter in the past.

In the next few years, more and more U.S. soybeans entered the Chinese market. These soybeans enjoying special financial subsidies from the U.S. government have the same quality as Chinese soybeans and much lower prices, while the production of Chinese soybeans , but there is no subsidy at all. It is under such unfair competition that many Chinese grain companies have shifted their purchasing direction to foreign countries. As a result, Chinese farmers cannot sell the soybeans they produce, and every acre of soybeans grown , It is necessary to lose more capital, so China's domestic soybean production began to shrink.

In the land reclamation area of ​​Heilongjiang, the largest producer of soybeans in China, in 2006 alone, its planting area shrunk by 25% compared with the previous year, and in 2007, this figure expanded to 40% for the first time! When our soybean production changed from No. 1 in the world to No. 4 in the world, the disastrous consequences were that a large number of farmers who made a living from growing soybeans lost their jobs and had to give up farming and join the urban In the ranks of part-time workers, the United States can recover its financial subsidies for the production of corn, wheat, potatoes and other food crops only by relying on this export income.

Such a situation makes us ashamed, not only shameless to face the vast number of Chinese farmers, but also shames our historical ancestors who are proficient in "agricultural warfare" to the ground. In November 2007, the overall level of China's consumer prices rose by 6.9% over the same period.Among them, the urban increase rate reached 6.6%, and the rural increase rate reached 7.6%; food prices increased by 18.2%, and the price increase exceeded 6% for the fourth consecutive month. Relationship. Faced with this reality, the only conclusion is that the millennium-long agricultural war is far from over, and a food war aimed at competing for profits and seizing strategic heights will become more intense in the next ten years.

When we realize all this, it means that we will change direction in the future. Fortunately, this transition is not too late, and it is not difficult for a country with a long agricultural tradition like China. As of this year, China's grain production has achieved six consecutive years of growth.Against the background of the current fluctuating global grain prices, China has had bumper harvests year after year, and this growth is even more significant, as China has become the "voltage stabilizer" for world food security in the next ten years. After occupying this advantageous position, what we need to do is to protect this advantage in the fiercer competition in the future, dig out the positive factors that are conducive to modern competition from ancient wisdom, and build this industry into a similar Electronics, German automobiles, British finance, and Middle East oil are the same trump cards.