Decline of the Farm
by Wang Huning
Wang Huning is a member of the Chinese pulitburo. He is widely considered on of the most powerful theoreticians in China, and works as head of the Chinese Policy Research Office and chairman of the Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization.
In 1991 Wang Huning toured the US as a visiting scholar. He wrote a book about his experiences, called America Against America. Despite being subject to a lot of media attention some years ago, this book has never been fully translated.
In this chapter of America Against America, Huning describes his impressions in New York’s Chinatown, a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. Some of the footnotes were taken from a partial translation of America Against America by the Something Awful user Kangxi.
Decline of the Farm
Farms have always interested me, and there is a simple reason for this: many countries have an urban population that is considerably smaller than the rural population, yet they are incapable of self-sufficiency. Solving this problem is the key to a country's modernization. The United States has only about three or four percent of their population employed in the agricultural sector, but in addition to sustaining a population of over 200 million people, they produce a large surplus for export. Remember that the Soviet Union used to import a lot of grain from the United States. China has a population of almost 1.1 billion people, more than 80% of whom are in rural areas, but the supply of grain and various non-staple foods is not so generous.
The problem of food production has plagued humanity since the beginning of history. So far humans have not solved this problem. The food shortages in Africa have reached alarming proportions, and now many people are menaced with death from starvation. I remember how “The Winds of War”1 once described Berlin after the end of the Second World War; because there was no food, young girls would sell their bodies just to feed themselves. It is difficult to talk about dignity and human rights when the basic necessities for survival are in question.
The farm I visited was one of many such farms and very typical. There were only two people operating it, a husband and wife. After their son went away to college, he found work in another state. In a large expanse of wilderness they have a very beautiful house, which is not unlike the houses seen in the city. Their town has the same modern amenities as a large city, such as telephones, electricity, running water, and so on.
This is a phenomenon worth discussing. Generally speaking, no matter where you go, these basic luxuries are always available. You might have to travel a long distance to meet a family, but this family will lack for nothing. Various companies are willing to provide services for this family, which is actually somewhat profitable. In terms of living conditions, farmers are not inferior to others. A “farmer” is, in fact, a farm owner. The farm is private and the land is private. When I talk about farms, you should not use the Chinese concept. We may have thousands of people on a farm; in the United States there are usually only two or three people.2
Let us look at a specific example to understand the differences in American agriculture. The farmer's name is Oberman. He has a total of 800 acres of land, which is equivalent to 4,857 mu. He is responsible for farming himself, and he also employs a long-time worker, plus his elderly father sometimes helps out. Labor productivity is high. In addition to farming his 800 acres, he also raises pigs, and the numbers given are startling: he raises 1,200 pigs by himself. This is the number in pens, with a yield of 2,400 pigs each year. In addition to all this, he is a director of an agricultural bank, and manages the bank's affairs during the off-season. In addition, he must deal with social activities and develop plans to promote social development. It is very obvious how much energy he exerts.
The question is, how can a farmer have that kind of energy?
To answer this question, we asked to take a tour of his farm. He first took us around his 800 acres of farmland in his car and we got a general idea. Then we were shown around his farm machinery. He has three tractors, two very large ones, and a combine, as big as the one on the Heilongjiang farms. There are also all kinds of agricultural machinery, so his farming is all mechanized. A combine can plow 80 acres a day, so 800 acres is not a problem for him. He grows mostly corn and soybeans, and when he harvests them, he has a manual air-drying facility that is highly automated. Plus the American farms are in vast plains, which is a unique feature of the United States. Large machinery can drive around without obstruction. Under these conditions, mechanization is easy to implement. In the rural areas of Zhejiang there are too many ditches, rivers, and hills, so large machinery is difficult to use.
His pig farm is also highly automated, with modern technology, four densely stocked pig pens in total. The food formula has a fixed ratio to promote the rapid growth of pigs. After six months of raising, they are ready for market. The pork which he provides alone could feed hundreds of people.
Of course, there are difficulties for farmers, and this is a challenge for agriculture. The first is the economic problem; the farmer’s financial income is not very high, and farming takes a lot of labor. Oberman’s farm earns $20,000 to $30,000 a year, but his combine bought on a loan is worth $120,000, and that does not include other equipment. Of course, some farms are larger, better, and have a considerable income. This year, with the drought in the United States, many farmers incomes have dropped by half. During the tour I saw for myself: corn grows only half the standard height, and the fruit is small. The low income of farm owners compared to other occupations is affecting agricultural development.
The second is the high intensity of labor. Farms are labor-intensive, and cannot be compared with sitting in an office in the city or in an air-conditioned workshop in a factory. Farming is mainly a field operation. In any case, there is no way to avoid the vagaries of nature. Pig farming can be described as dirty and smelly. This farm is highly automated, but the dirt and smell cannot be ignored. Pigs do not know about cleanliness, there is no other way about it. When we visited the pig shed, the stench was revolting. But the farm owner had to do it. He said that after work every day, it takes several showers for him to wash the smell away. In the United States, I'm afraid this is not something that many people want to do.
The third is the boredom of the younger generation, who aspire to an urban life due to the above-mentioned problems and the attraction of big cities. City life has cultural and recreational facilities that are not available in the countryside. Oberman told me that he was devastated when his son graduated from college and told him he didn’t want to come back for a while. It was a huge blow. But he believed he would come back eventually. If he doesn't come back, the farm will face problems because he has only one son and no one will succeed him.
Despite these problems, many people have been squeezed into the field of agricultural production due to the role of market mechanisms. The important point is that the high yields of agricultural production guarantees the stability of political and social life. What would happen to Americans if they did not have enough food one day? In most developed countries, the common theme is to address the basic necessities of life so that there is an adequate supply of these products. Most underdeveloped countries, on the other hand, cannot solve this problem very well. Agricultural development is the stabilizer of society and the foundation of the economy. The Soviet Union has long been confounded by agricultural issues: this has resulted in economic and political stagnation. The situation in other societies is broadly similar.
In a world with a growing population, agriculture is a lifeline.
1 Herman Wouk's “The Winds of War” was a best-selling novel of the period. A popular TV adaptation was produced in the late 1980s; both of which were translated into Chinese.
2 Until the adoption of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms in 1982, rural areas within China were administrated by the rénmín gōngshè, or People’s Commune. Communes, which would range in size from 50,000 to 90,000, were divided in turn into production brigades and production teams. The scale of the commune and its ability to extract income from the rural population enabled commune administrations to invest in large-scale mechanization, infrastructure, and industrial projects. The communes did not, however, meet many of their long-term goals and agricultural growth was slow. After the 1982 adoption of the household responsibility system significant agricultural growth was witnessed. During the 20 years of collective agricultural production, the annual agricultural output was 30-50 billion kilograms, yet by the time of 1984, this number increased to 400 billion kilograms. At the same time, the overall agricultural GDP increased by 68%, and the average income of farmers increased by 166%.
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