China faces severe food crisis amid massive floods

Even as China is dealing with many challenges due to massive floods after the pandemic, the country is confronted with another problem of severe food crisis.

According to a report in The New York Times last month, heavy rains are normal in Southern China during the summer month, but this year's fell harder and longer than usual, inundating the crops.

A national campaign has been launched to stop wastage of food triggered speculations that the country is facing a severe food crisis.

Beijing has so far been able to secure food supplies by importing vast amounts of produce from other countries, and by releasing tens of millions of tons from strategic reserves, reported CNN last month.

"Analysts at the Chinese brokerage firm Shenwan Hongyuan, meanwhile, recently estimated that China could lose 11.2 million tons worth of food compared to last year, given how much cropland was damaged by mid-July. That would be equivalent to 5 per cent of the rice that China produces," the CNN report said.

The importance of China's nationwide campaign to stop food wastage can be gauged by the fact that this has been promoted by President Xi Jinping.

A few years after the "Clean Your Plate Campaign" launched in 2013, its 2.0 version is arriving, according to a Global Times report.

As per the report, the 2.0 version calls for the public to stop wasting food.

According to the report, President Xi Jinping, said that food wastage is shocking and distressing and that it is necessary to further enhance public awareness of the issue, cultivate thrifty habits, and foster a social environment where waste is shameful and thriftiness is good.

China has resorted to censorship to promote this campaign. Another report by Global Times, said Chinese domestic short-video platforms vowed to "regulate live streaming shows that feature competitive eating."

The report said China's top legislature announced that it is discussing related legislation after Xi urged the establishment of a long-term mechsm to stop wastage of food.

The New York Times report of last month said this year's "flooding has unfolded not as a single natural disaster, with an enormous loss of life and property, but rather as a slow, merciless series of smaller ones, whose combined toll has steadily mounted even as official reports have focused on the government's relief efforts."

( With inputs from ANI )