Reducing grain loss and increasing efficiency requires keeping the big picture in mind while starting with small steps

October 16 this year is the 36th World Food Day, and the week it falls in is China's 26th National Grain Love and Food Saving Publicity Week. The theme of 2016 World Food Day is: "Climate is changing, food and agriculture must too," and the theme of the 2016 National Grain Love and Food Saving Publicity Week is: "Actively respond to climate change and promote grain loss reduction and efficiency gains." In China, famine is a lingering memory for several generations, and globally, humanity is still engaged in an arduous struggle against famine. According to data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 70 years ago, when World War II had just ended, half of the world's 2.5 billion people were malnourished; today the global population has grown to 7.2 billion, but the number of malnourished people has dropped to 800 million. This shows that in the course of continuous economic and social development, although humanity has won a great victory in the fight against hunger, it has not won the final victory, so in the face of the specter of a food crisis, we still cannot let down our guard.

China is the world's largest grain producer and consumer. Since reform and opening up, through sustained efforts, malnutrition has basically been eliminated nationwide, and the country is now moving from "having enough to eat" toward "eating well," while social attention has shifted from "food security" to "food safety." Against this background, many issues have gradually faded, such as the waste of grain and food. Facing the theme of the 36th World Food Day, it is necessary for us to remind ourselves: the alarm bell for food security must ring loud and clear, and we must never let down our guard.

Judging from the current state of grain production, with improvements in technical and management levels, losses in the grain planting, harvesting, and storage stages have continued to decline, and the situation of "leakage and seepage" has greatly improved. Overall, the grain loss rate has been reduced to a relatively low level. In terms of grain consumption, with the implementation of the "Central Eight-Point Regulation" and the improvement of social civility, the situation of lavish eating and drinking with public funds has been curbed, business banquets and household consumption have become increasingly rational, and extravagance and waste are gradually becoming an outdated social habit. Whether in grain production or consumption, both reflect continuous economic and social progress.

At the same time, regarding grain waste, there are still many issues that cannot be ignored, especially under the current new circumstances, discussing grain waste and conservation should involve new thinking and new measures. Rationally speaking, current grain waste can be divided into two types: one is the natural phenomenon of loss, and the other is the economic behavior of waste. As for the natural phenomenon of loss, such as "every grain returns to the granary" in the traditional sense, with the continuous rise in labor costs, the social resources consumed far exceed the actual benefits. If we simply emphasize its symbolic value, it will not only fail to be worth the cost but also lead to even greater waste. On this point, society needs rational thinking and an inclusive mindset.

The key current problem lies in the economic behavior of grain waste. At the macro level, for example, with the previous temporary purchase and storage of corn in Northeast China, large amounts of temporarily stored corn were kept in the open air under very poor storage conditions, while at the same time large amounts of warehouse capacity remained idle in other parts of the country. Information and economic activities throughout the storage link could not be well matched. On one hand, poor storage conditions led to quality decline; on the other hand, idle warehouse capacity led to declining corporate profits. The result was that some regions and individual enterprises continued to reach out to the central government for funds to build storage facilities, while some enterprises in some regions reached out for delegated storage quotas, creating a peculiar social phenomenon. Such losses are enormous. For this reason, in 2016 the central government adopted measures for corn support based on "market pricing, separation of price and subsidy" in order to change this pattern.

At the micro level, it can be observed that on many private banquet occasions, driven by "saving face and showing off," banquets are held more and more frequently and on an ever larger scale, and the grain waste involved is very clear to anyone who has attended. Especially in rural areas of central and western China, excessive social gift-giving has become an unbearable burden for farmers. According to the author's research, spending on social gift-giving sometimes accounts for more than half of income, and the poorer and more backward the region, the higher the proportion. Some local governments have specifically issued management regulations stipulating the few circumstances under which ordinary rural residents may "hold banquets." In principle, such regulations are illegal, but in terms of social reality, these management regulations are to a large extent a helpless move.

Standing on the edge of the 36th World Food Day, we see both that the "clean plate" campaign in today's society has become a consensus and that people around the world are still suffering from hunger; we see both publicity for "every grain returns to the granary" and much grain that is "homeless." At present, in the face of the global issue of food security governance, from China's perspective, we should have a broader vision. Only by keeping the big picture in mind can we start with small steps and let practice take root and sprout. Only in this way can people remember: in responding to the food crisis, we are always on the road!