Great Power Technology

The sudden food crisis in Yindu has also caused a considerable reaction in China. News reports coupled with the hype of marketing accounts, an inexplicable worry began to surface:

Is a food crisis really coming?

Will we face the same crisis?

Will we... go hungry?

This nation, which has existed for thousands of years, actually has no shortage of memories of famine in its history.

"When you are hungry, people eat each other."

"Change the child and eat it, dissect the body and cook it."

This short sentence in the history books actually describes the pain experienced by the people at the bottom during a great famine.

Therefore, under the inheritance of such memories from generation to generation, even young people living in the most affluent new century actually have an almost instinctive fear of hunger.

On the Internet, farming is ridiculed as an innate skill of the Chinese nation, but if you think about it carefully, it may not be a so-called "talent", but a lesson.

We must learn to farm in order to survive even the most difficult circumstances.

What about when there is no land to plant?

Only grain harvesting!

Ever since, there have been a lot of push articles and short videos about stockpiling food to cope with the disaster in domestic public opinion. Each blogger uses a rational and objective way to educate everyone on the need to hoard a certain amount of food in daily life to meet unexpected needs. .

But they have never thought about what kind of consequences one of their videos will lead to after being spread and amplified several times in the current environment and when the crisis is gradually brewing.

…

Ye Zhou was sitting in the office, his phone refreshing the latest news on the Internet. After a long time, he put down his phone and said to Chen Hao sitting opposite:

"The situation has begun to change... It was originally some popular science bloggers explaining the benefits of limited grain harvesting, but now it has gradually become the need to stock up on grains immediately. If this spreads for a while, I guess people will start panic buying."

"The character of Chinese people is like this - it can be said that they have a strong sense of crisis, but this sense of crisis can sometimes cause trouble."

Chen Hao nodded and replied:

"Yes, judging from the current situation, this is indeed the case."

"If it's other commodities, it's okay, if you can't get them, it won't affect your basic life. But for things like food, once the panic buying trend starts to form, it will get bigger and bigger like a snowball, and the more it develops, the more outrageous it becomes. "

"In the end, there will even be some people who can't afford or can't buy food at all because the price is too high."

"If it is not contained in time, even countries with the most abundant food supplies will starve to death."

After a pause, he smiled and said:

"But fortunately, at least for now, we are fully capable of dealing with this kind of panic buying."

"Either make unified resource allocations or release old grains. We will definitely not be like those in Yindu, where they are in a hurry just because of a slight price increase."

"That's not a 'little increase', right? It's doubled."

Ye Zhou shook his head helplessly and said.

"If we double it again, the overall volume will only be that big. If we take out half a month's worth of wheat and pour it into the Yindu market, their so-called high prices will be wiped out immediately."

"The key to this crisis is actually not the actual gap in food at all, but the gap in people's hearts."

Hearing this, Ye Zhou nodded.

After a while, he continued to ask:

"However, we are not yet ready to release the final news, right? The current response is mainly based on inventory?"

"At this stage, inventory is enough for the intensity of confrontation."

Chen Hao answered confidently.

…

7pm, Shencheng, Tongfu Grain and Oil Store.

Starting at 6 o'clock in the morning, a long queue has formed in front of this store, which usually has few customers. The people queuing up are residents of nearby communities, and their purpose is surprisingly the same, that is, to buy rice.

The shop owner stood at the front of the crowd and shouted into the loudspeaker at the top of his lungs:

"Neighbors, we are really going to get off work today. We have been busy all day and have adjusted the goods several times. If you want to buy rice or oil, please come back tomorrow. We are closing for a rest!"

Hearing his words, there was a commotion among the people in the team. One of the kind-hearted old ladies stepped forward, gently handed over a bottle of water, and then said:

"Xiao Liu, please keep insisting! You see, our neighbors haven't bought any rice yet. What if we come back tomorrow and it's sold out?"

The shopkeeper looked at the old lady dumbfounded and replied:

"Old Mrs. Wang, you are an intellectual after all, why are you like them? Take a look at the rice in the car behind me. Let alone tomorrow, if each of you buys 200 kilograms, I can sell it until next month. Go, where can I go to sell out?"

"Really, old lady, there's no need!"

"What age is this? Let me tell you, when I went to the main station to adjust goods today, people didn't even bother to raise their eyebrows - they really looked down on this kind of goods!"

"That's you. After watching some videos every day, you feel that there is a shortage of food. Where can you go? In the past two months, the price dropped so much that I, a second-hand dealer, almost lost money. Think about it for yourself. How abundant is our food? Bar!"

Everything he said was based on actual personal experience, but in the eyes of these people queuing up to collect food, it was still not convincing.

Before Mrs. Wang could speak, an old man on the side came up and said:

"Xiao Liu, what you said is wrong! There is no shortage of food now, but what if there is a shortage in the future?"

"If you don't buy it now, will you buy it when it's gone? Is it still affordable?"

"I've lived a lifetime and have seen as much of the world as you. Don't fool me anymore. Sell it as soon as possible. If it doesn't work, just raise the price! It's always good to make money, right?"

The shopkeeper frowned and said with some displeasure:

"Old man Li, you are doing these useless things every day, can't you just play your chess game? Why are you here to join in the fun? I'm also raising the price. Don't you know that in this situation, the higher the price, the more likely it is to cause panic buying?"

"If the price really goes up, there will really be a shortage of food!"

"We have been neighbors in the street for more than ten years, and you still don't know who I am? Are you trying to bully me with such words? Have I ever earned a penny of such unconscionable money?"

Seeing that the shopkeeper's tone began to become harsh, Mrs. Wang quickly stepped forward to smooth things over and said:

"Xiao Liu, don't worry. He doesn't mean any harm. He's just notorious for being out of control. Don't be like him. Come on, load it up for me quickly and move it to the trolley. I'll buy one first. Two hundred pounds."

"Can you push these two hundred pounds?"

The shopkeeper said helplessly.

"You have to push even if you can't push! Hurry up, we have to go back and watch the news broadcast later..."

As soon as Mrs. Wang finished speaking, the TV hanging on the counter of the grain and oil store played the opening music of the news. The shop owner helped Mrs. Wang move the rice and said:

"Old Mrs. Wang, if you ask me to tell you, don't bother. Just be optimistic. The country will issue policies in a few days, and then all the food you have hoarded will be wasted..."

"Nonsense! How can food be wasted?"

"Wouldn't it be a waste if you can't finish it? This rice will be infested with insects!"

"I'll eat the worms too!"

The two of them chatted wordlessly, and suddenly a report about food came from the TV behind them.

At this moment, everyone stopped subconsciously and looked at the news on TV. In the news, a man in a white shirt was answering the reporter's questions:

"...We have also noticed the issue you mentioned about the panic buying of food. Under the current circumstances, it is normal for people to have certain concerns about our food security."

"Especially now, there is still a certain gap in food supply internationally, and a small part of the population is also suffering from hunger."

"However, if we only talk about our country, the problem of insufficient food supply does not exist."

"I won't give too much data here - the main thing is to face our people. I will just make a simple judgment."

"Our country's current staple grain stocks are enough to feed the country's 1.5 billion people for two years."

"And the types of food we have in reserve are enough for everyone to spend the next two years with balanced nutrition."

"So, unlike what everyone thinks, what we are more worried about now is not the shortage of food, but how to renew the old food."

"If such a large amount of grain reserves are put on the market at once, grain prices will inevitably fall, and the interests of our farmer brothers will not be protected."

"However, the recent rise in food prices has also given us a window to operate."

"In the coming period, we will put about 100 million tons of various grains on the market to stabilize the price of staple grains and replace old grains with new ones."

"To sum it up, it's just one sentence."

"If the common people think it is necessary to stock up on food, then it doesn't matter if they stock up a little."

"Because we have plenty of food."

As this interview ended, the queue in front of the grain and oil store suddenly began to become a little loose.

The shop owner looked at the hesitating Mrs. Wang in front of him, smiled knowingly, and then asked:

"Mrs. Wang, do you still want to buy these two hundred kilograms of rice?"