World Food Day: Which technologies can ensure food security?

What makes this case interesting is that it simultaneously challenges both proponents and opponents of GMOs. Proponents of GMOs blame the government for poor regulation and the infringement of patent rights, but because the source of this hybrid variety cannot be found, no one can be punished. For those who oppose GMOs, it presents a significant challenge: what kind of seeds do farmers actually need, and who should be fulfilling their genuine needs? For instance, can our public breeding programmes play this role?

II. Will the general public still benefit from future technological progress?

For example, in the 1960s, the Indian government agreed to implement the Green Revolution, introducing high-yield crop varieties in the hope of using technology to increase production. At the time, many had high hopes for the Green Revolution, including the narrowing of the wealth gap. However, the opposite proved true. These high-yield varieties were more expensive than traditional local varieties and required significant amounts of water and irrigation. Yet, infrastructure in rural India was generally poor. In fact, these high-yield varieties did not help the poorest farmers; instead, they exacerbated poverty in some regions.

Therefore, I believe we should not support or oppose science and technology in a general, abstract manner, but rather analyse specifically what a technology brings to us under specific contemporary social conditions.

Taking Monsanto as an example, we find many technical issues in the book that did not even occur at a scientific level. Whether it was herbicides or pesticides, their researchers simply discovered in some experiment that a product was effective at weeding or killing pests. This discovery then became a technical secret, a patent, or a profitable recipe. They were not actually concerned with *why* it worked or the underlying principles, nor did they encourage scientific discussion. Consequently, their contribution to science has been limited.

III. How can breeding technologies better help farmers?

Guan Qi: There should be a mechanism to support farmers in acquiring appropriate seed selection and breeding knowledge through collaboration with research institutions. For farmers, their needs are not necessarily complex, but they are diverse. People often mistakenly believe that farmers lack the knowledge or ability to save or even breed seeds. However, looking back at history, the industrialisation of hybrid breeding techniques is only about a century old. Before that, farmers relied on their own accumulated techniques and knowledge to carry out seed selection and breeding.

So, could we now have a support mechanism that enables them to regain these techniques and knowledge? The Philippine case shows that farmers not only have the potential to master these skills but, once they do, they can select and breed varieties that meet their own specific needs.

Establishing such a social support mechanism cannot rely solely on the participation of non-governmental organisations, as their funding and manpower are limited; they can only provide local demonstrations. Ultimately, it may have to return to the public breeding system. Our country once had a powerful agricultural research and extension system, but we need to reflect on how these systems can function now and how to effectively understand farmers’ needs.

For example, during the early stages of the Green Revolution in Mexico, there were disagreements even within the Rockefeller Foundation regarding the strategy for seed promotion. Among the project officers at the time, there were two main disciplinary backgrounds: those from a scientific research background, who wanted to directly transplant high-yield American varieties and promote them in Mexico; and those from a social science background, who emphasised promoting the varieties that local farmers needed most, and thus advocated for improving local landraces to suit the Mexican environment.

These were two different development paths. Looking back at this history, we find that the social-science-based approach eventually lost out. The trend shifted towards avoiding the time-consuming process of improving local varieties, leading many Mexican maize landraces to be replaced. In the end, the beneficiaries were the large Mexican farms, not the numerous smallholders.

Beyond the vertical process of transferring technology to the general public or farmers, the breeding industry also involves a horizontal process. For breeders to improve and develop varieties, a fundamental prerequisite is that the diversity of seed resources must be guaranteed. To reduce the uncertainty and complexity of the breeding process, the most efficient measure is to conduct pre-breeding and screening using large-scale germplasm resources.

Currently, competitive pressure among seed and agricultural companies is immense, and market concentration is increasing. Due to this competition, information is not shared between laboratories and companies because breeding materials are treated as trade secrets. Consequently, mutual collaboration is often hindered.

For instance, the Argentine GDM Seeds group is a massive global soybean bio-breeding company with 700 experimental stations across 15 countries. It has stored an incredibly rich array of germplasm resources and conducted extensive selection and breeding, accumulating a huge advantage. Companies with such vast seed resources put immense pressure on late-coming countries and firms. In fact, many bio-breeding companies buy germplasm resources directly from them before conducting their own GM research.

But who preserved these germplasm resources? In reality, it was the farmers. In our work, we have a principle called ‘preserving seeds through the people’. Why should we continuously support farmers in saving and protecting the seed resources they still possess? Because only by preserving them first can we later explore these local varieties, laying the groundwork for pre-breeding and meeting diverse social needs.

Therefore, it is crucial for farmers to be involved, as well as us consumers. As consumers, we can communicate our preferences—for example, wanting fruit that isn’t so sweet—to breeders. This gives breeders the opportunity and the channels to understand this information and adjust their breeding goals to meet social needs.

IV. Do consumers really know what they want to eat?

Tianle: Teacher Guan just mentioned involving consumers, but most of us are actually very passive when it comes to food. Or rather, as consumers, our preferences are often shaped by the market. Because I also work at the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market, I can see a small number of consumers actively seeking out their own alternative food networks, rather than passively waiting for the market or corporations to shape their preferences and shopping habits. This trend is quite interesting. Teacher Zhou conducted research on this a few years ago; do you think consumers have an opportunity to reshape their own food consumption networks?Zhou Mujun (Researcher in food and agricultural systems, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Zhejiang University): From an optimistic perspective, they certainly do. While researching alternative food networks, I met a farmer on the outskirts of Chengdu. He cultivated only twenty to thirty mu of land, yet he found around 100 customers within the city of Chengdu who were willing to buy produce from him and support him in managing his farm using more ecological methods. He loves his work and enjoys studying agricultural cultivation techniques; he doesn’t need to migrate for work or be separated from his family. Compared to average farmers, his income is higher, and those customers can buy better, more reliable produce. It is a mechanism that benefits both parties. So, on a small scale, this approach is feasible.

Zhou Mujun: However, when we look at scaling this up, it becomes quite difficult. We keep talking about consumer preferences, as if consumers spontaneously like or dislike certain things or flavours. But in reality, our tastes and preferences are largely shaped by external forces. We find that different generations experience different environments and eat different things from childhood, so their tastes vary significantly. The cherries I ate as a child were slightly sour and a bit watery, but I can hardly find them now. The cherries in supermarkets are all of a variety that is exceptionally large, dark, and sweet. Sometimes I wonder if being particular about food tastes, or having a preference for healthy food, is linked to one’s socioeconomic status. If your quality of life is poor, you might not be able to afford to care about these things. Abroad, we do see a very clear class distinction; organic supermarkets are always located in wealthier neighbourhoods and their prices are higher. Therefore, my attitude is actually quite ambivalent and uncertain. On one hand, I admire consumers who take the initiative to build their own food networks; on the other, I am sceptical about how much impact these alternative food networks can truly have on the overall market structure.

Tianle: True, many Western studies link taste to class and race. But I feel there might be a slight exception in China. From my own observation, it is actually those from the countryside, with rural backgrounds, who may be more sensitive to the quality of food. Those from the 80s and 90s generations who grew up in big cities are, conversely, more easily disciplined by industrialised food, to the point where they can no longer enjoy a richer variety of foods and flavours. This is why there is a joke that “the specialty cuisine of old Beijing is KFC and McDonald’s”. How can consumers participate? I believe the right to know is the first step. Health awareness among the urban middle class is increasing. For example, in April this year, Shanghai took the lead in introducing “nutritional grading” for drinks, requiring labels with ABCD grades. I think this is a great start.

Will consumers have more opportunities in the future to choose agricultural products and food that are friendlier to the environment and the producers? This is a question we all need to find the answer to together.

 *Originally published on Tencent News: “Let’s Talk Science“

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Editor: Tianle