Xinhua Insight: How Can We Tailor Our Approach to the “Big Food” Vision to Local Conditions?

Xinhua News Agency, Jinan, January 29 — Question: How can we implement the “Grand Food View” in a way that is tailored to local conditions?

　　Xinhua News Agency’s “Xinhua Viewpoint” reporter Shao Luwen

　　The Central Rural Work Conference held last month emphasized the need to adopt a holistic approach to food security, build a diversified food supply system, and explore multiple avenues for expanding food sources.

　　Adopting a holistic approach to food security stems from the goal of better meeting the people’s aspirations for a better life, responding to shifts in dietary patterns, and, while ensuring an adequate grain supply, also guaranteeing the effective provision of diverse foods such as meat, vegetables, fruits, and aquatic products. This is both a key component and an objective necessity for advancing agricultural modernization.

　　How can we better understand the “grand food view,” and how can it be put into practice in ways that are tailored to local conditions? A reporter from “Xinhua Insight” conducted interviews on these questions.

　　Changes in the structure of food consumption: staple foods are becoming less “staple,” while side dishes are becoming less “side.”

　　The “Grand Food View” was put forward several years ago. At the 2015 Central Rural Work Conference, the call was made to “establish a grand agricultural and grand food perspective,” and in the 2016 No. 1 Central Document, this concept was again emphasized as a key component of advancing supply-side structural reform in agriculture. The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China underscored the need to uphold the Grand Food View, develop facility-based agriculture, and build a diversified food supply system.

　　Experts emphasize that, to implement the “Grand Food View,” the key lies in advancing China’s agricultural development model through “three expansions”: expanding from arable land resources to the entire national land base; broadening from traditional crops and livestock and poultry resources to a richer array of biological resources; and shifting food‑security policy from a supply‑side‑centric approach to one that also addresses demand‑side factors.

　　According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China’s population of over 1.4 billion consumes 700,000 tons of grain, 98,000 tons of edible oil, 1.92 million tons of vegetables, and 230,000 tons of meat every day.

　　 2022 On March 30, at the provincial-level modern agricultural demonstration zone’s wheat-breeding base in Baihu Town, Lujiang County, Hefei City, Anhui Province, farmers were weeding the wheat breeding fields. Photo by Zuo Xuechang, Xinhua News Agency.

　　“While safeguarding and managing arable land effectively, it is especially important at present to adopt a holistic approach to food security, align production and supply with market demand, and build a diversified supply system,” said Cheng Guoqiang, a professor at the College of Agricultural and Rural Development of Renmin University of China. He added that this “big food” perspective calls for not only ensuring adequate grain supplies but also securing stable access to vegetables and oil—keeping both the “vegetable basket” and the “oil can” firmly in hand.

　　According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, per capita grain consumption among urban residents declined from 152 kilograms in 1978 to 124.8 kilograms in 2021, while per capita grain consumption among rural residents fell from 248 kilograms in 1978 to 170.8 kilograms in 2021.

　　Yang Zhongqi, a chief expert at the Chinese Academy of Forestry, stated that for a long time, 80 percent of Chinese households’ food supply came from staple grains. However, this pattern is now undergoing a fundamental shift. Today, staples are becoming less “staple,” while non‑staple foods are growing in importance, as people move from simply “having enough to eat” to seeking “healthy eating.” Aligning with the evolving trends in the population’s dietary structure is precisely the starting point and ultimate goal of adopting a holistic approach to food security.

　　Professor Han Qing of the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University stated that shifting from the traditional concept of food security to the new-era “big food” vision—and building high-quality, efficient ecological agriculture—has become an imperative for accelerating the green transformation of agriculture. Adopting a “big food” perspective will help establish a new‑type food security assurance system.

　　Explore diversified food supply and draw on forests, rivers, grasslands, and other natural resources to meet our food needs.

　　During interviews, reporters found that many regions are aligning with their resource and environmental conditions, tailoring their approaches to the local context in implementing the “Grand Food View” and expanding avenues for food supply.

　　China boasts abundant large-water-body resources, and by developing ecological fisheries in these waters as well as deep-sea fish farming, it can secure substantial supplies of high-quality protein. Seeking food from rivers, lakes, and the sea, several coastal provinces are actively exploring new avenues.

　　Shandong boasts a coastline of over 3,500 kilometers, accounting for roughly one-sixth of the national total, and is rich in marine resources. As a comprehensive pilot province for the development of marine ranches, Shandong has leveraged these “blue granaries” to achieve automated, intelligent, and near‑wild‑type aquaculture. At present, the province has 105 marine ranch demonstration zones (projects) at or above the provincial level, including 44 at the national level—representing 40 percent of the national total.

　　 At the Ailun Bay National-level Marine Ranch in Rongcheng, Shandong, tourists take a sightseeing boat to the offshore observation platform for a visit (photo taken by drone on April 11, 2021). Photo by Li Xinjun, Xinhua News Agency.

　　China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of edible mushrooms. In line with the “grand food view,” some regions are turning to plants, animals, and microorganisms to meet their needs for calories and protein. Across the vast black soils of Northeast China, resources such as nuts, wild berries, and high‑quality edible mushrooms abound. Today, edible mushrooms—including wood ear—are a major industry, with numerous local enterprises specializing in mushroom cultivation and strain development, effectively satisfying the market’s diverse demand for these products.

　　Located in the “golden dairy belt,” Inner Mongolia has leveraged its resource advantages to develop a distinctive livestock sector. In 2021, the region’s dairy cow herd numbered 1.434 million, with milk production reaching 6.73 million tons, and the total output value of the dairy industry’s entire value chain exceeded RMB 200 billion. In 2022, Inner Mongolia introduced nine policy measures to revitalize the dairy industry, with annual government special funds and regional fiscal allocations earmarked for dairy‑industry revitalization expected to total RMB 2.25 billion.

　　Facility agriculture is an agricultural production approach that leverages industrial‑production principles and engineering technologies to create optimal growing conditions for crops, thereby achieving high yields, superior quality, and enhanced efficiency. It also represents one of the key pathways for implementing the “grand food view.” According to Zhang Youjun, a researcher at the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the development and integration of biotechnology, information technology, and agricultural facility technologies can effectively reduce agriculture’s reliance on natural resources.

　　In Shandong Province, which ranks first nationwide in total vegetable production, production bases—led by Shouguang, known as the “Home of Chinese Vegetables”—have been leveraging IoT and digital technologies in recent years to continuously enhance the quality and efficiency of facility agriculture. Shandong has also set forth plans to prioritize mechanization in solar greenhouses, standardization of plastic tunnels, large-scale development of multi-span greenhouses, and intelligent management of mushroom houses and cultivation rooms. By 2025, the province aims to renovate and expand mechanized solar greenhouses to cover 500,000 mu and mechanized plastic tunnels to reach 1 million mu. Mechanization rates are targeted at 90% for land preparation, 80% for irrigation and fertilization, and 60% for environmental control, with an overall mechanization level in facility-based cropping reaching 55%.

　　Promote a shift in agricultural products from “quantity” to “quality,” and optimize and upgrade residents’ dietary patterns.

　　A review by reporters reveals that, to shift food supply from a single‑source model to a diversified one, many regions are actively refining relevant policies. The Heilongjiang Province Industrial Revitalization Action Plan (2022–2026) calls for advancing the deep processing of agricultural and sideline products and establishing the province as a pioneering region in implementing the “big food” concept. Meanwhile, Fujian Province’s Implementation Plan for Promoting Agricultural and Rural Modernization during the 14th Five-Year Plan period advocates adopting the “big food” approach, leveraging the diversity of agricultural resources and favorable climatic conditions to vigorously develop distinctive, competitive industries.

　　 At the Yinfeng Edible Mushroom Cooperative in Huimin County, Shandong Province, farmers harvest white fungus (photo taken on November 18, 2021). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Xulei.

　　The experts interviewed believe that, to better implement the “grand food view,” it will be necessary in the future to continuously raise the level of agricultural modernization. This will require strengthening planning guidance, policy support, and financial investment to channel resources, technologies, and talent more effectively into facility agriculture, thereby enhancing its overall production capacity.

　　Professor Luo Mingzhong of the Institute for Rural Revitalization at South China Agricultural University stated that, in implementing the “Grand Food View,” it is essential to cultivate high‑quality farmers and develop a cohort of new agricultural business and service entities—such as economically robust family farms, farmer cooperatives, and leading agricultural industrialization enterprises—to drive a shift in agricultural products from an emphasis on quantity to one on quality.

　　The widespread adoption of the “Grand Food View” concept also requires fostering a new mindset about food consumption across society, thereby driving the optimization and upgrading of residents’ dietary patterns. In particular, it calls for the comprehensive dissemination of knowledge on nutrition and health, encouraging reduced‑quantity, nutritious, healthy, and environmentally friendly consumption while opposing food waste. “By popularizing nutritional knowledge and providing education, we can help the general public develop a new approach to food consumption that is rational, balanced, and moderate,” said Han Lei, a director of the Shandong Provincial Nutrition Society and head of the Department of Nutrition at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University.