Chapter 20 4. Who knows that every piece of Chinese food is hard work

In the mid-to-late 1980s, we gradually got rid of poverty and hunger.But we must not forget about poverty, about hunger. It is precisely that many people, after eating a full stomach, forget to be hungry, forget that the Chinese people have a lot of land and little land, the grain production is extremely limited, and the contradiction between grain supply and demand has not been fundamentally resolved. Some people start to ignore food, some people start not to cherish food, some people start to waste food.Whether in university cafeterias, luxurious restaurants, farm pig farms, or garbage dumps on the streets, we can all see eye-catching food waste.

When many people didn't think so, and many people were indifferent, several young pioneers in Shanxi Linfen Railway No. 2 Primary School felt deeply worried.They have heard the story of "Looking at the sage country and family in the past, success from diligence and thrift to destruction from extravagance", and recited the ancient poem "At noon on the day of hoeing, sweat drips down the soil, who knows that every grain of Chinese food is hard work". Unaccustomed to the unhealthy phenomenon of not cherishing and saving food in the society, they should appeal to the society and advise the adults.

In 1990, they wrote a letter and sent it to Li Peng, then Premier of the State Council.In the letter, they enumerated various phenomena of wasting food in the society, and asked the Prime Minister to "educate" the adults to cherish and save food.They also suggested establishing a Food Savings Day across the country. It is really rare for a child who is still childish to have such a patriotic heart.Li Peng quickly replied to them: "The phenomenon of wasting food in society is indeed very serious. my country is a country with a population of 1.1 billion and limited land resources. Although food production has increased to a certain extent in recent years, it is far from enough. Grain production is still a weak link in my country's economic life because it cannot meet the needs of people's living standards and social development for food. Therefore, it is very important to vigorously advocate cherishing food, saving food, publicizing, mobilizing, and educating everyone to save food He adopted their suggestion, set up a national food conservation day, and called for a nationwide food conservation campaign to fight against all food waste.

This is by no means a big deal, but a lot to do.China's arable land area is severely insufficient, and the potential for increasing per unit yield is also limited. Conserving grain is tantamount to increasing grain production when there is already a certain gap between total grain production and total consumption.According to calculations by the commercial sector, if waste is minimized in the links of grain production, storage, transportation, processing, and consumption in my country, 20 million tons of grain can be saved nationwide, which can feed 54 million people for a year.If 20 million tons of grain is to be produced, 30 million mu of arable land is required, and a lot of manpower, material and financial resources are required.This is difficult to achieve in the context of insufficient land reserve resources, limited agricultural investment, and tight supply of chemical fertilizers. In this sense, saving 20 million tons of grain is actually an increase in grain production of 20 million tons.In addition, my country now imports about 15 million tons of grain every year, consuming US$1.5 billion in foreign exchange.If we can save 20 million tons of grain, not only can we save 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in foreign exchange, but also have a surplus of 5 million tons as reserves.

Another expert estimates that my country's annual food loss and waste is far more than the figure provided by the government department. It has actually reached 84.6 million tons, accounting for 1/5 of the country's total grain output. This cannot but surprise us.This shows how important it is to carry out food saving activities. According to Li Peng's instructions, the State Council made a decision in 1991 to use the week of "World Food Day" (October 16) as a publicity week for "cherishing and saving food" every year to educate people all over the country to cherish and save food.The Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Light Industry jointly issued a document, believing that this is a "major event with historical and practical significance", requiring the whole people to mobilize, carry out extensive and in-depth food conservation activities, and form a "food conservation campaign" in the whole society. Honorable, shameful waste of food" new fashion.

In the movie "Zhou Enlai", there is such a scene that many people were moved to tears after watching our prime minister Zhou Enlai. The bowl... The fine tradition of hard work and the excellent virtues of diligence and thrift have been sublimated in this silent action of Premier Zhou. Compared with Premier Zhou, we have to blush. Premier Zhou devoted his whole life to solving our food problem, and he set an example for us in cherishing and saving food.However, we had just had enough food for a few years before we started to spend a lot.We don't care about throwing away the white steamed buns one by one, and we don't feel sad when bowls of white rice are thrown away.

"Xinjiang Daily" reported that Urumqi City once investigated the "three leftovers" phenomenon of leftovers, leftovers, and leftover soup on the dining table, and found that there were a lot of them.Zhang Shilin, who was employed by a pig farm in the Xinjiang Military Region, went to the urban area every other day to pull the "three leftovers" two years ago. not finished.The second is high quality. Everything that is on the table, such as rice, scones, chicken, duck, fish, sea cucumber, etc., are all in the "three leftovers" bucket. "Economic Information Daily" discloses: A certain university cafeteria only has more than 300 people eating, but raises 100 pigs.Some people saw from the pig house that these "noble" pigs were not only full all day long, but also had "more than enough food": there were 12 baskets of steamed buns, hundreds of catties of tofu powder, and river noodles.

Someone wrote such a joke: Three pigs who were sent to the slaughterhouse knew nothing about the imminent disaster, and they were still chatting together.The pigs from the countryside smacked their lips like aftertaste, and said honestly: "The life is good now! After the big contract, the owner eats fine grains, and I eat coarse grains." The pigs from the public canteen dismissed it: "What is coarse grains? I eat them every day." Eat big fish and big meat, eat a hardening of the arteries." A rather gentlemanly pig in a big hotel in a certain city sneered: "What do you eat? I eat delicacies from mountains and seas and also drink Moutai and Remy Martin."

If you know the national conditions of China, where there are many people and little land, and if you understand the "grain situation" in China where there is still a large gap between grain production and demand, you will not be able to laugh at this joke, but will become angry. The steamed buns and rice that the "Pride of Heaven" of a prestigious university could not finish eating were thrown into the slop bucket without any hassle, which seemed logical.After a certain girl finished eating, she was afraid that the oil in the lunch box would get on her hands when washing the dishes, so she went to buy another couple of rice to clean her lunch box.She was very proud of this "invention" and promoted it everywhere.

In a large company in a southern city with thousands of people eating, several large slop buckets were placed next to the sink in the canteen, and the snow-white rice and steamed buns in the buckets weighed more than 100 kilograms every day.But this is only part of the waste of people eating in the cafeteria. The vast majority of people carry their lunch boxes to eat while walking or take them back to the dormitory building. inside.Over the course of a year, this cafeteria wastes at least 70,000 to 80,000 kilograms of food. The anti-waste exhibition sponsored by the Youth League Committee of Beijing Iron and Steel Institute revealed that the students of the school throw nearly 200 kilograms of steamed buns and rice into the trash cans and slop buckets every day. When accumulated, more than 70,000 kilograms of food is wasted a year, which can feed 400 people for a year. .

This is a set of shots broadcast by a TV station: On a road leading to the factory area, tens of thousands of employees flock to the factory to go to work.In the middle of the road lay a few white steamed buns that had been thrown away. I saw the bicycles running over them one after another, and the pairs of thighs stepped on them again and again, but no one turned a blind eye to them. On the family's small dining table, how many leftovers are discarded?There is an official figure: 3 billion kilograms per year. The author made a conversion for this. Based on the calculation of a population of 1.2 billion, 2.5 kilograms of food is wasted on the dining table of each person in the country every year, 0.2 kilograms per month, and 6.9 grams per day. Probably no one will believe that the food we waste per person per day is only 6.9 grams that can only be weighed with a balance scale, and it is only as much salt as we eat every day.Obviously this is impossible, and even in impoverished areas where the problem of food and clothing has not yet been solved, the number is by no means more than this.Most families know how much and how much leftovers we throw away every day.We think that there is no need for the author to speculate on a value.It just needs to be emphasized that for 1.2 billion people, if each person wastes a little bit, it is a huge number. The waste on the family's small dining table has made us dare not count an exact value, and the food waste in restaurants and hotels is even more astronomical. Walking into large and small restaurants, restaurants, restaurants, hotels... Here, waste is a kind of dignity, a kind of politeness, and a kind of pride. "Never tire of fine food, never tire of fine meat, never tire of alcohol, and never tire of large servings" is the principle of eating.So everything from ordinary rice and steamed buns to bird's nest, shark's fin, and bear's paw will be swept from the dining table into the swill bucket in an instant.Some people estimate that the value of delicacies and leftovers thrown away in Beijing in a year is as high as 3 billion yuan, so how much are the 447 cities and 1919 counties in the country? A "Growing King" was appraised as a regional model worker and went to the region to participate in the commendation meeting.On the day of registration, a grand reception will be held.The secretary delivered a speech, and the mayor toasted, but this "grain grower" was faced with a table full of vegetables and didn't know where to start.I picked a few dishes that were closer to me and ate them. As soon as I tasted a little taste, many people began to leave the table to go to the dance.He was half a beat behind, just about to get up and go when the waiter started to "clean" the table.Plates and plates of leftovers, some of which were less than half eaten, were poured into a slop bucket like a storm; bowls of rice and steamed buns, even the chopsticks were not moved, and they were all in a hurry. Swept into the slop bucket.The "grain king" felt a twinge of pain in his heart: this is the grain he and his fellow villagers dug out of the soil with their faces facing the loess and their backs facing the sky, but it turned out to be so worthless!Relying on the strength of his alcohol, he got up and overturned the dining table, roaring: "I'll grow some food for you", and walked back to the village overnight to find the village cadres to return the fields. Later, many people thought that this was a redneck fuss and had never seen the world: "What is this?" Yes, it's nothing.Walk into any restaurant, which table is not full of leftover steamed buns, rice, chicken, duck, fish, meat, eggs?Where in the slop tank of the cafeteria is there not white rice and white steamed buns?Didn’t the newspaper say that there is a Xiaojiahe garbage dump in Haidian District, Beijing, where the “professional households” who pick up steamed buns can pick up up to 400 kilograms of steamed buns a day? But our "grain king" is heartbroken, and our fathers and villagers are angry: this is the food they made out of sun and night dew, blood and sweat, how can they tolerate such waste?What was poured out was their hard work and sweat! How much blood and sweat was poured out of the peasants in the restaurant? China currently has more than 1.5 million restaurants, including 1,496 large foreign-related hotels and restaurants.Some people use the most conservative attitude to estimate that each family throws away an average of 25 kilograms of food every day. 13.6 billion kilograms of food. Don't we talk about increasing food production every day? 13.6 billion kilograms of grain is the annual output of 20 million mu of arable land. Don't we always worry about our food problem? 13.6 billion kilograms of grain can feed 900 million people for a month.Don't we often wish to increase our food consumption levels? 13.6 billion kilograms of grain can increase the per capita grain consumption of Chinese people by 11 kilograms. The food we eat embodies the hard work of hundreds of millions of farmers and the hard work of millions of food workers across the country, but now it is so easy to pour more than 10 billion kilograms into the slop bucket and throw it into the garbage dump. Not just heartbroken, but extremely angry.The Chinese nation is famous for its hard work, hard work, thrift and simplicity.In the years of natural disasters, man-made disasters, foreign aggression and internal strife, the people of our country endured hunger and starvation, and eating bran and swallowing vegetables did not eliminate their fighting spirit, which made our suffering nation stand like a giant in the world for thousands of years. East.But why is our life just getting better, and we don’t have to worry about being hungry every day, so we consciously or unconsciously talk about being extravagant and ostentatious?Why don't we cherish our lifeblood like food? Food in the United States has reached a state of surplus, but they also pay attention to saving, especially advocating taking as much as you eat.For this reason, some Americans suggested that China also implement a meal-sharing system, and even they are not used to having a large table with ten bowls and eight dishes. Japan is very rich, but Japanese businessmen eat in China, but after eating, they are "stingy" to pack the leftovers on the table in plastic bags and take them back to the room for "enjoyment". China has more than 1.2 billion people and more than 1.2 billion mouths.It is often said that "one person saves a little, and the catastrophe is over." However, the antithesis of this sentence is "one person wastes a little, and the catastrophe is also brought." "Corruption and waste are great crimes", this is Mao Zedong's famous statement.But when it comes to corruption, almost everyone gnashes their teeth; when it comes to waste, not everyone can clearly understand that it is also a crime, and it is a more common and more terrible crime. A porridge and a meal are hard-won.Cherishing food and saving food should become our living principles. China is the hometown of wine. According to legend, as early as the period of "Three Emperors" and "Five Emperors", our ancestors began to make wine.It is recorded in historical records: "Yidi makes wine mash, and Dukang makes rice wine." Wine has evolved from its initial medicinal use to becoming one of the main beverages in the world today, which embodies many ingenuity and wisdom of the Chinese people. Chinese people have an indissoluble bond with wine.Throughout the ages, from emperors and generals to ordinary people, all of them got off their horses after smelling the fragrance, and never tired of drinking.Friends come to visit, relatives and friends meet, festivals, weddings and funerals...everything is inseparable from wine. Chinese people have a soft spot for alcohol.Especially along with economic development, the consumption of wine increases year by year.This brings us a new problem: the increase in food consumption. According to the current level of brewing technology in our country, it takes an average of more than 3 kilograms of grain to produce 1 kilogram of liquor.This means that when we drink a glass of wine, it is equivalent to drinking half a catty of food. In the past, people's living standards in our country were relatively low, and the consumption of wine was quite limited, and the corresponding problem of wine consumption and food consumption was not very prominent.With the implementation of the reform and opening policy, my country's economy has developed rapidly, people's living standards have been greatly improved, and the consumption of alcohol has increased significantly. Correspondingly, we have increased a huge food expenditure. According to the statistics of relevant departments, there are more than 50,000 wineries of various types in my country, of which there are more than 40,000 liquor factories alone.There are more than 2,000 counties across the country, and almost all counties have liquor factories. In some areas, even townships have wineries, and every village has a wine shop, and every household brews grain wine.According to the most conservative estimate, my country's liquor production is about 5 million tons per year. In the past, Chinese people didn't like to drink beer very much, but in recent years they have gradually adapted to the bitter taste of imported products.Now, there are more than 800 beer manufacturers in the country, with an annual output of more than 10 million tons of beer, ranking third in the world in both annual output and consumption, after the United States and West Germany. Liquor and beer are alcoholic beverages brewed from grain.According to a Southern newspaper, the grain used for brewing in my country has reached 24.14 billion kilograms.This is another huge food expenditure in our country.Calculated on the basis of each person's monthly consumption of 15 kilograms of raw grain, it is enough to feed the country's 1.2 billion people for one month and ten days. The sharp increase in the consumption of beverages and wine has made the already tense food supply and demand situation in our country even more serious. In 1980, my country's total beverage and wine grain consumption was only 3.4 billion kilograms, or 3.4 kilograms per capita. In 1986, it increased to 10.7 billion kilograms, or 10.2 kilograms per capita. By 1997, it had reached 24.1 billion kilograms, or 19.5 kilograms per capita.From 1980 to the present, it has increased by nearly 5.5 times. In 1987, the national beer sales volume was only 5.2 million tons, and it doubled to more than 10 million tons in just seven years. At this rate of development, my country's food consumption will be overwhelmed. This point does not seem to have attracted much attention.Turn on the TV, and you will be bombarded with wine advertisements from the beginning to the end. When you walk into the restaurant, you will be filled with the voices of persuasion and toasting: "Emotions are light, licking, feelings are deep, and a mouthful is boring." "It is better to hurt the body than hurt." Feelings." Even without wine, there is no banquet, and without wine, there is no ceremony. According to statistics, there are currently at least 180 million alcoholics in the country, who drink one and a half West Lake wines every day: 36,000 tons. Not to mention that the stimulation of wine has made Chinese eating and drinking popular for a long time, and the corruption of wine has led many people to the abyss. At least, in terms of the large consumption of food, we believe that such binge drinking should never be done. Food is wasted and the body is harmed. On the morning of March 14, 1996, Li Peng came to the Shandong Hall of the Great Hall of the People to participate in the discussion of more than 100 Shandong representatives attending the Fourth Session of the Eighth National People's Congress.When Jining Mayor Wang Renyuan talked about the local "Eighth Five-Year Plan" achievements, he said: "Jining's winemaking industry has made remarkable progress. The sales of Confucian House Wine and Confucian Banquet Wine are now among the best in the country..." "Let me add a word." Li Peng said to Wang Renyuan: "You mentioned the issue of wine making. I have been thinking about this issue. It is not that there is too much food in our country, but not enough. Now our liquor production is quite high. More than 50 billion catties of grain were used, which is not a small amount. Now wine is being made everywhere, and some places even buy grain from other places to make wine." "Let me make some suggestions, okay?" Li Peng continued: "Can we advocate drinking less liquor in the whole society? During the holidays, drinking some fruit wine at friends' gatherings, isn't the atmosphere good?" Li Peng said: "Our country is rich in mountain and forest resources, and the raw materials for producing fruit wine are not a problem. This will not only benefit people's health, reduce food consumption, but also improve the social atmosphere." Li Peng's interjection should have poured cold water on those who are proud of running a large winery, but in fact, many people only see the immediate benefits and partial benefits, so that the wind of wine making is getting stronger. It is getting worse and worse, artificially intensifying China's food consumption. For this reason, the central government repeatedly issued orders and banned the random establishment of wineries in various places, but it seems that the purpose of control has not been achieved.The low cost and high profit of the brewing industry has stimulated wineries all over the country to spring up like bamboo shoots after a rain, and they are constantly venturing out, continuously transporting liquor and beer of various brands and degrees to every corner of society. While the government is strengthening control measures to control the disorderly development of the wine industry, some experts suggest that changing the drinking habits of Chinese people may be a better way. In the past, Chinese people's drinking habits were mainly concentrated on liquor with high and high alcohol content. In recent years, beer consumption has increased.In the current structure of drinking alcohol, it is basically liquor and beer.And these two types are food-consuming wine. Internationally, most countries focus on wine and fruit wine that do not consume grain.At present, the world's wine and fruit wine production is about 50 million tons, accounting for nearly 20% of the world's total beverage alcohol, and its production is second only to beer.The annual per capita possession of wine in the world is 7 kilograms, of which 130 kilograms are in France and Italy.In my country, by 1997, the total amount of various wines was only 300,000 tons, accounting for only 1.25% of the total amount of drinking wine, and the annual per capita possession was only 0.25 kg.Less than 1/20 of the world's per capita consumption. Compared with white wine, wine is obviously beneficial to health.It is not only less irritating, but also has certain nutritional effects.Especially like the popular dry wine, it is fermented with 100% fresh grape juice without alcohol blending.According to research in the medical field, dry wine has the functions of invigorating blood circulation, clearing the veins, helping digestion, cleaning and softening blood vessels, reducing blood fat, and preventing cholesterol from harming the heart.Some people think that if you are hungry, you drink liquor, if you are well-off, you drink beer, and if you are well-off, you drink wine. The current level of economic development in China is enough to support Chinese people to take wine as their main alcohol consumption. Experts believe that if we rationally adjust the structure of wine products, change the drinking habits of Chinese people, and gradually transform from grain wine to wine and fruit wine, and from high-alcohol wine to low-alcohol wine, it will not only save a lot of food, but also save a lot of food. It can reduce many alcohol accidents and save many "stomach". In order to save precious food, we might as well give it a try! For a long time, we have attached great importance to the development of grain production, but neglected the conservation of grain.In fact, reducing food loss and waste is essentially increasing food production. Therefore, many insightful people believe that my country still has a large "invisible grain field" that deserves attention. The annual seed consumption of grain crops in my country is about 20 billion kilograms, accounting for about 5% of the total output, which is much higher than that of some agricultural developed countries.If the precision sowing technology is popularized, it will not only increase grain production, but also save 6.5 to 10 billion kilograms of grain for seeds. According to the determination of relevant experts, the total loss rate of my country's grain post-harvest processing (including harvesting, threshing, grain cleaning, drying, storage, etc.) is about 15%, which greatly exceeds the average post-harvest loss standard of 5% according to the statistics of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.If the post-harvest loss rate of my country's grain can be reduced to 10% (still more than double the United Nations standard), more than 20 billion kilograms of grain can be saved a year.Among the postpartum losses, the most serious one is the loss of rodents.According to estimates, there are nearly 50 million rats in the country, and the annual food eaten is equivalent to 5-10% of the total output, that is, 20-40 billion kilograms.The second is storage loss.At present, the food sector stores more than 30 billion kilograms of grain in the open air, and the loss of open-air grain storage is much higher than that of warehouse storage. Hundreds of millions of kilograms of grain rot every year.In particular, 70% of my country's grain production remains in the hands of farmers. Because farmers' grain storage facilities and technologies are very simple, insects, rodents, and mildew and rot cause serious losses.If new types of grain storage facilities are popularized and grain storage techniques are improved, the country can reduce grain losses by more than 10 billion kilograms a year.Even if the national grain department stores grain, its storage loss rate is still quite high. The storage loss rate of the country (including open-air warehouses and farmers' grain storage) is as high as 2-7%, which is much higher than the national grain storage rate of 0.2-0.5%. The loss standard is equivalent to an annual loss of 16 to 56 billion kilograms of grain. If the grain is harvested carefully and the grains are returned to the warehouse, the country can reduce the loss of grain by 1 to 1.5 billion kilograms a year. The national average annual grain transportation volume is 150 billion kilograms.During the transportation process, 10 million kilograms were lost due to rain, wetness, leakage, mildew, etc.If loading and unloading, packaging technology is improved, and civilized loading and unloading and transportation are implemented, a large amount of grain can also be saved in one year. my country's current grain processing level is quite low.Since 70% of the grain is stored in farmers' homes, a considerable part of the flour and rice that farmers eat for themselves depends on small noodle mills and rice mills, and a large part of feed processing also depends on small equipment. The output rate of its products is comparable to that of state-owned grain processing. Compared with the department's advanced combination machine, the average per hundred kilograms is 2-3 kilograms less.Based on this calculation, the country will lose more than 5 billion kilograms of raw grain.In addition, if the national grain and oil processing system generally adopts advanced technology and processing equipment, the average grain yield can be increased by 0.3%, and the production of rice and flour can be increased by 200 million kilograms a year; the average annual grain consumption of the national light industry system food industry is 2 billion kilograms, If relying on scientific and technological progress, backward enterprises can reach the upper-middle level in the industry, and 5-10% of grain can be saved every year. China is the world's largest pig-raising country, with 40% of the world's pigs.However, the way of raising pigs is still very primitive and backward. Most of the rural areas still adopt the feeding method of "a bucket of swill and a handful of chaff", and feed livestock and poultry directly with grain.Not only consume a large amount of food, but also the benefit is low.If all pigs are fed with compound feed, 1 kg of weight gain can save 1 kg of grain, and feeding broilers can save 1.3 kg of grain.There are 410 million rotten pigs in my country, and 60 billion kilograms of raw grains are directly used to feed pigs.If 50% of them can be fed with compound feed, this alone can save 9.5 billion kilograms of grain a year.In addition to pigs, the country has 150 million large livestock, 240 million sheep, and 20.98 million tons of aquatic products.More than 100 billion kilograms of grain are consumed every year.If the use of compound feed can be widely promoted, nearly 1/3 of the grain can be saved.This is another impressive figure. Above we cite a lot of boring figures, no doubt just to illustrate a problem: the great potential of savings.Some people estimate that my country's current sowing loss, harvest loss, transportation loss, storage loss, processing loss, plus the waste on the table and the consumption of wine making, the annual loss and waste of food in my country exceeds 116.2 billion kilograms (relevant departments estimate that it is 132 billion kilograms) ), almost accounted for 1/4 of the total national grain output of 492.5 billion kilograms in 1997.It is equivalent to the grain produced by 480 million mu of grain fields in a year, which can feed 270 million people for a year. We do everything possible to increase food production, but more than 1/5 or even 1/4 of the food is lost or wasted. What a pity.If we can figure out how to minimize food loss and waste, that's a huge asset.Just imagine, if we can save more than 100 billion kilograms of grain, it will be equivalent to increasing the grain sowing area by 400 million mu according to the current grain yield level in our country. Our country's arable land resources are very limited and are still decreasing year by year, which will seriously restrict our country's grain production.In our daily life, in our work, as long as we pay a little attention, we can save hundreds of millions of acres of grain.Isn't this an "invisible grain field" with more development value? From the perspective of my country's grain production potential and my country's grain consumption trend, this "invisible grain field" will be more helpful to solve the contradiction between my country's grain supply and demand. The key is that we understand it and pay attention to it. The responsibility of working hard in the "visible grain fields" falls on the shoulders of hundreds of millions of farmers, while the mission of developing and utilizing the "invisible grain fields" falls on the shoulders of every Chinese.For our own food problems, we must do our part and make an effort.