Chinese food security

beerguts

I only came about an article today regarding the current Chinese food supply situation. From the flooding in July August has destroyed a lot of there grain harvest and there pork industry was hit hard by disease. I wonder does anybody have any knowledge if there could be potential shortages over the winter going into spring there.
If the Chinese would start hovering up available stocks in the world we could see some starvation break out in country's with poor food security.

SmartinMartin

Are you Chinese? Your English hurts me.

Fr Tod Umptious

I'm sorry.
When I read this thread tittle I thought it was something to do with payment security when ordering online from a Chinese takeaway.

I'll move on.

biko

I hope their food security includes not eating bats.

Qiaonasen

There does appear to be issues with food supplies in China but I think starvation is not currently likely at present.

The latest swine flu epidemic has been causing pork prices in China to sky rocket. This has been happening all through 2019 and has continued. The huge flooding in summer could well have done a lot of damage.

It is worth mentioning that China is a net importer of food. It is a huge country and most of the population live along the east coast. Much of their land is not of good quality and cannot yield much food. This has always been the case.

I think the key thing that is worrying though is the government is now telling Chinese people to stop ordering and wasting so much food when they go to restaurants. We don't know why this is but it is definitely a cause for concern.

silverharp

Its good for US farmers anyway, presumably they will fill the gap as the Chinese will be forced to buy from abroad. I did come across something that there is a lot of corruption with their grain stores , and the warehouses tend to have fire problems when they come up for inspection, hilarious if true.

Donald Trump

Thread body disappoints.

I assumed from the title that the thread would be referring to the Kung-fu masters who work the door at the local takeaway

biko

Food security in China should include fake food.

Remember the fake milk scandal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal

For the last few years, China has been dealing with plentiful imports, with food being cheap, and overeating commonplace.

They'll do what they're used to doing.. they'll revert to the stable/basic diet, and cut out the excessive eating. Also, shortages tend to be localised to certain areas, with the remainder of the country doing fine. It's unlikely they will experience any serious problems, considering rice/noodles/etc are easily acquired as imports.

grassylawn

Qiaonasen wrote: »

There does appear to be issues with food supplies in China but I think starvation is not currently likely at present.

The latest swine flu epidemic has been causing pork prices in China to sky rocket. This has been happening all through 2019 and has continued. The huge flooding in summer could well have done a lot of damage.

It is worth mentioning that China is a net importer of food. It is a huge country and most of the population live along the east coast. Much of their land is not of good quality and cannot yield much food. This has always been the case.

I think the key thing that is worrying though is the government is now telling Chinese people to stop ordering and wasting so much food when they go to restaurants. We don't know why this is but it is definitely a cause for concern.

I don't read into that instruction regarding wate. They said it a good while ago, probably before the incidents that might affect their food supply. I was told that they are very wasteful when dining together. They provide mich more food than people will want to show generosity. When most of that food is imported it makes sense that the government wants to change the practice, whether or not they fear a shortage.

beerguts

SmartinMartin wrote: »

Are you Chinese? Your English hurts me.

Goodman you gave a funny quip and went to bed feeling quite pleased with yourself. Only problem is that you will have to do it again today. Tough ask

grassylawn

grassylawn wrote: »

I don't read into that instruction regarding wate. They said it a good while ago, probably before the incidents that might affect their food supply. I was told that they are very wasteful when dining together. They provide mich more food than people will want to show generosity. When most of that food is imported it makes sense that the government wants to change the practice, whether or not they fear a shortage.

They they they... 1.4 billion people.. yeah..

I live there, and while some people are wasteful, many others are not. There is still a famine tradition with many people in China, where they either are binging because they have plenty, or they're not living excessively in preparation for the next round of bad times.

Typically, Chinese portions are smaller than what most Irish people would consider a decent sized meal. Most of their set meals would have less meat than ours, and much greater proportions of rice/noodles. Most veg/meat is chopped up into small pieces when served, so it's hard to judge what's actually involved.

The shift in imports is due to the availability of meat, which tended to be the smallest part of a meal (with the exception of hot pot, or specialised cuisine, like Peiking Duck). Now that China is doing well, the government has encouraged the provision of greater amounts of meat to markets, because Chinese people love meat...again, because it was traditionally expensive, and scarce.

Here's a decent example. Before I left, I had dinner with a student and her parents in their home. A special occasion. The mother cooked about 12 individual dishes on smallish plates/bowls, mostly vegetables, some small variety of meat slices, and the traditional big bowl of Chicken feet (shudders). On the other hand, when I returned to Ireland, my parents cooked up a steak (three steaks), 4-5 potatoes each, mushrooms, onions, etc. Lush. And.. in terms of what everyone ate, I suspect that we ate more overall in Ireland.