Recently, a section of "a man carrying food made a big fuss at Qingdao Jiaodong Airport" attracted the attention of netizens. **, a passenger who was flying from Qingdao, Shandong Province to South Korea had an argument with the staff because he was carrying a large amount of food and was overweight, causing the flight to be delayed for more than an hour. ** Widely disseminated, "food customers" are hotly discussed.
* Not unusually, we have also seen a lot of "backpackers" who travel between different countries and regions over the years, cosmetics, health care products, daily necessities, and even small household appliances, etc., are in their list, most of these goods are higher and have larger profit margins. In contrast, the weight of food is large and low, and in our habitual cognition, food is really a thankless thing, so "food customers" are particularly special.
Why are there "food passengers" on flights to South Korea?This starts with South Korea's grain market. Everyone has long heard that South Korea has a low grain self-sufficiency rate and that local agricultural products are expensive. According to data from the South Korean Ministry of Agriculture, South Korea's food self-sufficiency rate was 44 in 20214%, which means that more than 50% of food needs to be imported. Compared with China, South Korea's grain is generally higher, and the ex-factory price of some varieties is three to four times that of China. With a large amount of market demand and considerable profits, it is not difficult to understand the emergence of "food customers".
In fact, "food customers" are not a new profession that has only recently emerged. A person familiar with the matter said that since there was just a cross-border **, there have been "food customers", who frequently travel back and forth between China and South Korea, carrying grain from China to South Korea, and carrying cosmetics from South Korea to China. The reason why it has recently become the focus of attention is mainly because some netizens are worried that this will endanger China's food security. Of course, it is possible to maintain such vigilance, but first, the number of "food customers" carried on their shoulders is limited, and second, most of their backpacks are mainly dried peppers, peanuts, various beans, etc., and there are few rations such as rice, so there is no need to worry too much.
The attention aroused by the "food guest" this time not only makes us concerned about the food affairs of our neighbors, but also once again makes us see the extreme importance of food security. From the bankruptcy of Sri Lanka to Lula's tears, and then to the "food guest", in recent years, the international hot topics caused by food have repeatedly verified the correctness of our rice bowl firmly in our own hands. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's grain output this year hit a record high, reaching 13,908200 million catties, which is China's grain output has been stable at 1 for 9 consecutive yearsMore than 3 trillion catties fully prove that we have the ability to stabilize China's rice bowl. However, even so, we must not slacken in the slightest in ensuring food security, and we must still muster up the spirit of 120,000 and make 120,000 efforts.
First of all, ensuring that there is land to grow grain is the foundation for ensuring food security and stabilizing grain. Since statistics are available, the trend of decreasing arable land in South Korea has not been effectively curbed, and the already limited arable land has been reduced again and again, which has directly led to a continuous decline in grain production. Due to the large gap between domestic grain production and demand, South Korea has to rely heavily on imports, and agricultural products remain high. On the other hand, with the continuous improvement of China's urbanization level, the protection of cultivated land is also facing great pressure. China's population is huge, and the problem of cultivated land has a direct bearing on whether or not the jobs of more than 1.4 billion people can be secured. This requires us to come up with more hard and practical measures to firmly guard the lifeblood of cultivated land, not only to ensure quantity but also quality, and to ensure that "good land can be planted" at the same time, but also to ensure that "good land is used for grain", "all seeds should be planted", and "enough seeds are planted".
Second, to ensure the security of food rations, it is necessary to make a good overall calculation of political and economic accounts. Rice is the main food ration for South Koreans, accounting for nearly ninety percent of South Korean households' annual food consumption. However, due to factors such as the persistence of rice in 2022, South Korea has begun to encourage farmers to plant other crops, and this year's rice planting area has hit a record low, and rice production has generally declined. Coupled with the global rice price**, Korean rice** has rebounded this year. Grain prices are the basis of 100 prices, different from South Korea, the impact of China's grain changes is huge, once there is a wind and grass, the chain reaction will be more intense. We must insist on giving full play to the decisive role of market regulation and giving better play to the leading role, not only to ensure grain supply and stabilize prices, and to prevent "expensive rice from hurting the people", but also to constantly improve the income guarantee mechanism for grain farmers, to prevent "cheap rice from hurting farmers", to make overall plans for political and economic accounts, and to effectively carry the "rice bag".
Finally, in the context of the upgrading and diversification of residents' food consumption structure, it is necessary to pay more attention to food safety on the basis of ensuring the absolute safety of food rations. With the change of eating habits, the demand for food other than rice in South Korea is gradually increasing, which is one of the reasons why "food customers" have more peanuts and beans in their backpacks. In recent years, with the adjustment of residents' dietary structure, China's demand for food other than rations is also increasing, and the dietary preferences in various places have their own characteristics, which requires us to build a diversified food supply system based on the concept of big food, and develop food in multiple ways.
No matter in which country, ensuring food security is an important foundation for achieving economic development and social stability.
Farmer** Author: Zhao Yuheng.