Reference News — Excerpts from 'Daily Grain and Oil' (2): People are not as good as pigs!

Political commentary
1

Image 1
Image 15313×3049 1.05 MB

  According to the latest news collected daily on grains and oils, there has been a widespread and continuous increase in purchase prices in the main corn producing areas of China in recent times. From the latest monitoring data, the current purchase price of new corn at Guotou Tieling is 2050 yuan, China National Grain and Oil Corporation Yushu is 1920 yuan, China National Grain and Oil Corporation Gongzhuling is 1980 yuan, Jilin Fuel Ethanol is 1940 yuan, and Cargill Biochemical is 1980 yuan.

  Among them, industrial consumption of corn continues to maintain rapid growth, with an estimated annual industrial consumption of about 84.5 million tons, accounting for 28.2% of the total domestic corn consumption.

  Main products of corn industrial consumption include corn starch, corn protein powder, modified starch, corn syrup, corn oil, edible alcohol, fuel ethanol, glutamic acid, lysine, polylactic acid, xylitol, chemical alcohol, protein feed, fiber feed, and thousands of other varieties. Deep-processed corn products are widely used in textiles, automotive, food, pharmaceuticals, materials, and other industries.

  From an industrial structure perspective, the largest demand in China’s corn deep-processing industry comes from corn starch and starch sugar production, accounting for about 55%; alcohol accounts for 26%, MSG for 7%, lysine for 7%, citric acid for 3%, and others for 2%.

  As of now, China’s corn starch accounts for 52% of the world’s total production, lysine 60%, MSG 68%, and maltitol 85%.

  Of course, the main consumption of the corn market still concentrates in the feed and livestock industry, with an estimated annual feed consumption of 194 million tons, accounting for 65% of total corn consumption.

  From this, it is evident that, under the increasingly decayed capitalist society in China, the consumption of corn by the industrial and commercial sectors, represented by the tea beverage industry, is growing larger, which has led to a continuous rise in corn prices in recent years. Meanwhile, the huge demand for corn feed also reflects the current vicious inflation of the livestock industry, with the pig industry being the most prominent. Additionally, according to “Pig Many Network,” in 2024, the top 11 provinces by pig feed production are 15.48 million tons, 14.87 million tons, 10.53 million tons, 10.07 million tons, 9.66 million tons, 9.41 million tons, 7.49 million tons, 7.04 million tons, 5.54 million tons, 5.33 million tons, and 5.30 million tons respectively. Given that corn has long been one of the two main sources of pig feed alongside soybean meal, its proportion in pig feed is quite significant.

  In terms of food consumption, this year’s corn consumption for food has slightly increased to 10 million tons, but at the same time, corn losses will reach 9.68 million tons.

  Compared to the consumption of corn used for processing and livestock feed, the actual amount of corn available for human consumption is quite small, with most of it being fed to pigs as feed. Such a peculiar scene of pigs eating humans will continue to unfold in China before the fall of its capitalist society. It profoundly illustrates the tragic situation of Chinese workers, now worse than pigs and dogs!
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/pw9465CpRkobieTeic2rfg

2

If you only read this comment, it may not directly reflect the relationship between the fact that the proportion of feed in corn consumption far exceeds the proportion of direct human food consumption and the statement “humans are worse than pigs.” To discuss the impact on people’s quality of life, it is necessary to consider the proportion of corn consumption in daily life across different regions, the amount of corn consumed by households, and their economic situation (whether the poor consume more corn than the wealthy, whether rural areas consume more than urban areas, and how these characteristics lead to the rise in corn prices and their effects). (For example, in North Korea, the proportion of corn in food consumption might be very high, but this does not mean that the living standards of North Koreans are higher than those of Chinese people).
Should we also include the increase in purchase prices, and note that the rise in purchase prices does not directly reflect how much food prices have actually increased?
It seems the article is more like a simple reprint of a daily grain and oil news report, with an inserted analysis. Additionally, discussing how spontaneous or policy-subsidized “malignant expansion of the breeding industry” affects farmers and leads to resource waste might better illustrate the issue.

5 Likes
3

This article was published by me in a personal capacity, and there was indeed a rush to write it, with incomplete material collection. The issues you pointed out do exist. These suggestions are very helpful, and shortly thereafter I will try to expand the material, add more analysis, and then publish a detailed version.

2 Likes
4

I feel that this article was written too hastily. Corn was introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty and has a history of promotion and cultivation spanning three or four hundred years, but it clearly does not occupy a primary position as a staple food for the masses in the north and south, unlike wheat and rice. It might be made into porridge or steamed cornbread, but people wouldn’t eat corn for all three meals. Or rather, there isn’t much demand for this kind of food on the dining table to begin with.

5

And this method of simply concluding based on quantity is not very reliable.