Food Production and Consumption in China, Essay Example

Introduction

Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food. Upon eating a meal, one satisfied, but it only takes just a few hours before there is another demand for food. This means consumption is not the problem, the problem is production and the preference of food during consumption. The essay of the economies of kale, Tom Philpot gives the facts about food production in the US today. There is the teamwork model (a local CSA) that he follows like other North Carolina farmers like him. He wonders if at all, the veggie co-operatives and the ice cream collaborative could bring down the jobless rate (Philpott, Tom 68). Small farmers like him have problems of reaching their farm products to the markets, having the daily processing facility and the slaughterhouse miles away. He suggests that farmers need to corporate and find creative ways to work together to overcome these problems. The mobile slaughterhouse video describes a solution to solve the issue of poor infrastructure and the struggle for farmers in to slaughter, process and pack the meat from their animals and birds for retail. They built the mobile slaughterhouses, which solves the problem. The various aspects of “Big Ag” food production procedures clearly presented in the video, Food Machine: an introduction to Food. Local food production long dropped as people rush for the “readymade” and easy way out to obtain food (Food Machine chapter 2). This paper discusses the most dominant food production and consumption model in China. It describes in details the reasons behind the adoption of the production and consumption models.

Food production in China

China has a population of about 1.3 billion people. This means it has an increased spending power. Despite the effort by farmers and agricultural food-related businesses to provide for the rapidly increasing population, China need for food still wanting. Farmers offer city residents with fruits, fresh vegetables, eggs, and meat. This is what every other city dweller would prefer, however, these traditional food outlets changed with time where only fewer  market vendors sell their own locally grown produce. Due to the increased demand, vendors go for produce bought from large wholesale markets. These products reportedly produced using the Big Ag method, or grown in greenhouses. Fruits like tomatoes grown in green houses are attractive to the eye; thus consumers tend to consider buying them more compared to low quality locally produced tomatoes. The Big Ag production method is a scientist way to speed up the production process, where energy intensive industrialized farm practiced adapted. Farming in such cases relies heavily on chemicals and genetic engineering, a culture that China has adopted (Food Machine chapter 4). These practices not only have a threat on the human life, but they also employ stress to the environment. However, environmental and safety concerns influence production. Many brands of rice from northeastern japonica now display the “green food” seal that is government-designated. The seal certifies low chemical usage, and a pollution-free production environment. The Ministry of Agriculture in China promoted the green food program and addressed the concerns of excessive chemical content and use in China’s food supply. This has made the consumers aware of biotechnology issues about food production, and about the new labeling regulations to identify foods containing genetically modified organisms. Issues of the increased incidences of deaths and illnesses because of food-borne pathogens raised concern on food safety standards and called for their enforcement.

Food consumption in China

There has been a reported change in eating habits of the Chinese people, which has in turn transformed the country’s domestic and foreign trade of the food sector. China imports more meat, seafoods, soybeans, vegetables, and consumer-oriented products. In fact, foreign firms reported to play a major role in developing the fast food industry in China. Foreign products found Chinese supermarkets shelves. Fast food restaurants, shopping malls, and food courts all have proliferated, with foreign brand names. There are also various brands of rice packaged in beautiful and attractive bags and cooking oil in plastic bottles calling for the attention of shoppers. This is where the Chinese of high class lured to purchase the imported stuff thinking they are the best for them. Consumption of fast foods, for example, is out of lack of knowledge of the consequences to follow, or rather ignorance. One opts to take fast foods for lunch especially due to convenience and their reduced prices. Consumers do not sit back and thoughtfully think nor consider what food they consume. Majority of the younger generation especially see unto it as fashion in the consumption of fast foods. They have it that that is where they belong, and thus consume fast foods due to influence from peers. Just as, Nabhan describes the moments in life that he recalls not as visual snapshots but as tastes and fragrances(Nabham 17), that is how youths take it when it comes to consuming fast foods. They do not consider the negative effect the fast foods have to their bodies, but the taste and aroma the food has. Nabhan describes the whole party: the foods, drinks and the enjoyment. If it was a daily activity, then one could easily develop obesity or any other lifestyle disease, fortunately it is onetime occasion.

There are increased lifestyle diseases as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancers among other diseases. The efforts by health officials offering education of eating and staying healthy have made the Chinese consumers more health conscious. The health professionals offer education on foods and their health properties, for the young and the old, aiming at helping them resist disease development. This also improves their mental and physical strength, endurance, intelligence, memory, and physical appearance. It helps the overweight persons reduces weight and the sex drive. These efforts have medially bared fruits, more especially to those who keenly listen and take action.

Conclusion

The paper discusses China’s food production and consumption trend, but in the real sense, this is what is happening in most countries of the world. We ought to be in charge of ourselves. If one is a producer, then consider the consumer. Do not slowly kill the consumers, whom you cannot do without their services. The consumers advised to eat what is healthy, and be cautious of what we consume. Nabhan concludes and says that we ought to be conscious of the composition of the food, the number of days the packed food has stayed on shelve from the packaging date. In the case of the daily bread, we ought to consider the density of insect parts and fecal coliform found in the grains ground to make the bread (Nabham 27). In general, we all ought to be responsible of ourselves, and of others.

Works Cited

Food Machine:  An introduction to food, (America Revealed) pbs.org. http://video.pbs.org/video/2214315175

Nabham, Gary Paul. Coming home to Eat: the pleasure and politics of local foods, Norton publishers, New York 2002.

Philpott, Tom. Mother Jones, Vol. 37 (3), 2012, p68-68, 1p.