High health and environmental costs of cheap food

• Source: Global Times
• [00:06 October 15 2009]
• Comments

Illustration: Liu Rui

By Zheng Fengtian

Time magazine published a cover story on August 31, The Real Cost of Cheap Food, which reflected on food in the US, the most powerful country in the world when it comes to agricultural production and the export of agricultural products.

The article suggested a distinctive idea. Though the US has the most developed agriculture in the world and produces an astounding output, the consequent cheap food also has a real cost for Americans – the obesity rate in the US has risen quickly and stayed high in recent years, adding $147 billion a year in medical expenses.

Cheap food also extracts a high cost from the soil and natural environment. Doug Gurian-Sherman, an American senior scientist with the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, has said, "The way we farm now is destructive of the soil, the environment and us."

Compared to the situation in the US, food in China is actually cheaper, due to excessive grain supply and a long-term national policy of low grain prices.

For instance, at the beginning of 2008, the international grain price was more than three times higher than that in China. Take the price of rice. One kilogram of rice costs about 12 yuan ($1.76) abroad, but was only sold for 3 yuan ($0.44) in China.

In China's neighboring countries like Japan and South Korea, the price of rice was even about 40 to 60 yuan ($5.86-8.79) per kilogram. Such disparities in price even led to smuggling.

In recent years, everything in China seems to have gone up in price, except grain.

China's obesity problem is escalating at a worrying speed – people get fat before getting rich, and beer bellies become a common sight.