Ding Shengjun: The Man Who Wrote a World Food Legend

Not long ago, the Third APEC Agriculture and Food Ministerial Meeting was held in Beijing, where participants engaged in in-depth exchanges and discussions on agricultural development and food security experience in the Asia-Pacific region, and many people's attention focused on the “ten consecutive years of growth” in China's total grain output since 2004.

The topic of China “feeding itself” is very hot internationally, with much praise from relevant international organizations, but some scholars who “sit and talk” stubbornly cling to prejudice. In the 1990s, American scholar Lester · Brown wrote the book “Who Will Feed China”, which once made the “China food threat theory” rampant. This year, Brown once again revived the “China food threat theory”, recklessly asserting the “China grain-grabbing theory”, which is truly unconvincing.

Facts speak louder than words. Through independent development, peaceful development, and cooperative development, China has enabled its citizens to have ample food and clothing, with a continuously improving food structure, and the nutritional level of its citizens' food ranks among the top in developing countries. China feeds 1/5 of the world's population with about 1/10 of the world's arable land, making a major contribution to world food security. In 2013, China's grain imports were more than 14 million tons, accounting for less than 3% of total domestic grain output, less than 5% of global grain trade volume, and equivalent to only 60% of Japan's grain imports.

For many years, China's grain self-sufficiency rate has remained at the high level of 97%, and residents' staple food supply is absolutely secure. Although China's grain imports have grown considerably in recent years, the overall import scale remains within a reasonable range. It should be further pointed out that international grain prices have been relatively low in recent years, and it is beneficial to both trading parties for Chinese grain enterprises to import more grain. China's limited import volume has an extremely weak impact on international market grain prices; China does not rely on the international market to survive, let alone pose a “threat” to world food security.

China has the ability to safeguard national food security. Since entering the new century, China has adopted a number of important measures: adhering to the strategic position of agriculture and grain as the “top priority”, and strengthening a series of highly effective policies benefiting farmers; formulating and implementing a new food security strategy of “taking self-reliance as the mainstay, basing ourselves on domestic production, ensuring production capacity, moderate imports, and technological support” to ensure absolute security of staple food; taking strong measures to designate permanent basic farmland for protection and firmly uphold the red line for farmland protection; implementing the “Grain Security Project”, continuing to improve the grain reserve system and enrich the quantity, improve the structure of grain reserves, and perfect grain emergency response plans; vigorously implementing the “revitalizing agriculture through science and technology” strategy, giving play to the power of scientific and technological innovation, and raising land output and quality rates; extensively developing food resources, vigorously developing modern animal husbandry, modern aquaculture, and the “blue economy”, and opening up woody grain and oil resources with strong potential; carrying out “food saving and loss reduction” activities nationwide, and so on. These measures fully prove that Chinese people's self-sufficiency is fully guaranteed by conditions.

It is universally recognized that China is an important stabilizing force and active safeguarding force for world food security. Many international agricultural experts believe that China's consecutive grain output increases are a “world food legend”. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization believes that China has made a decisive contribution to completing the “Millennium Development Goals” ahead of schedule. The World Food Programme highly affirms China's role transformation——from a food recipient country many years ago to one of the most important countries now providing food aid to the world.

Right and wrong have their own public judgment; the groundless “China food threat theory” is nothing but prejudice that cannot justify itself.

(The author is Executive Director of the China Grain Economy Association)