"The diversified food supply system is the embodiment of the big food concept to ensure food security, and the ultimate goal is to meet the food needs of 1.4 billion people. The fundamental way to build a diversified food supply system is science and technology."Ke Bingsheng, former vice president of the Chinese Agricultural Society and former president of China Agricultural University, summed up his understanding of the big food concept in one sentence.

What is the big food concept? What is "big" in it? Not long ago, the China Agricultural and Rural Science and Technology Development Forum and the Academician Report of the China Modern Agricultural Development Forum with the theme of "Big Food Concept and Food Security" was held in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. At the meeting, experts and scholars in the agricultural field have expressed their insights into the realization of the big food concept and food security.

" Food is the first necessity for the people." Seventy years ago, food was understood as staples such as rice and wheat, but today, with a rich material life and the problem of "eating enough" basically solved, food has been endowed with a new meaning. Food can also be meat, poultry, eggs, milk, aquatic products, fruits and vegetablesmany grains are used to produce meat and poultry, and eventually become delicious food on people's tables, constantly changing the diet structure of Chinese people and improving their nutritional status.

" In 2022, China's grain imports will account for 19 percent of China's total annual grain output. It is increasingly important to continuously improve the types and quality of food." Wan Jianmin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, vice president of the Chinese Agricultural Society and researcher of the Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said, "In China, the contribution rate of improved seeds to yield increase is 45 percent. But in developed countries, the data reached more than 60 percent. Developing biological breeding technology is an important means to ensure food security."

In the opinion of Yu Jingquan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and executive director of the Chinese Agricultural Society, facility agriculture can promote the effective supply of meat, eggs, milk, vegetables, fruits and aquatic products, and better meet the people's increasingly diversified food needs.

He took vegetables as an example. Food is the basic of human survival, and vegetables are an important part of food supply. Generally speaking, each person should eat 300 500 grams of vegetables every day. If the national population is 1.4 billion and the daily intake is 500 grams, the country needs to consume 700,000 tons of vegetables every day. The development of facility agriculture has already realized the annual supply of vegetables.

"The different nutritional ratios of different vegetables, the differences between biological output and market quantity, the differences between production types and residents' demand, and seasonal restrictions all affect the effectiveness of supply, which is also a problem that must be considered under the big food concept." Yu Jingquan said.

Hu Zhichao, former secretary of communist Party and researcher of Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, mentioned that for a long time, food security under China's big food concept is still to ensure "quantity security", and the key to ensure quantity security is to continuously improve production capacity through grain storage in land and technology.

Hu Zhichao said that because of many natural, economic, social and other factors, agricultural mechanization has been slowly developing in hilly and mountainous areas for a long time, which seriously restricts the development of agricultural production potential and the development of agricultural modernization. He suggested strengthening scientific research investment, "using machines to apply technology" and "using skills to apply machines". 

Plant factory, as an emerging food production plant, is favored by many entrepreneurs. The soalled plant factory is a plant factory that produces plants under completely factory conditions without soil, pesticide, and natural environment by simulating the elements such as light, temperature and nutrition required by plants.

Plant factory is considered to be a subversion of traditional farming methods. Today, it is often difficult to promote because of high initial investment and high operating costs. But as an advanced stage of facility agriculture, plant factory can not only provide effective supplement for ensuring residents' vegetable basket, but also become an important grasp for farmers to get rich and industrial revitalization.

"From a biological perspective, the efficiency of plant light energy consumption is only 3 percent. How to break through this problem is the main direction of reducing energy consumption in plant factories in the future," Yu said.

In addition to plant factories, the production of alternative proteins is also expected to be a truly industrialized way of food production.

"Alternative proteins are a hot topic in the global food industry. It is hoped that they can replace animal proteins from traditional livestock farming with microorganism proteins, insect proteins, algae proteins, plant proteins and animal cell culture proteins," Yu said. Chen Jian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Jiangnan University, said it is predicted that by 2035, alternative proteins will account for 11 percent of the total protein supply, with a market size of more than 290 billion dollars.

In his opinion, alternative proteins will not only revolutionize the production mode of proteins, but also improve people's health, ensure the national food supply security and promote global sustainable development. Studies have found that the production of cell culture meat can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 92 percent and water consumption by 78 percent. It is also with more efficient. By screening and combining essential amino acids, better quality and taste can be achieved, while supplementing richer nutrients.

Biotechnology is reshaping the world. People are designing more delicious and healthy food through modern science, and future food has a lot to offer, such as plant-based foods, alternative proteins, and precise nutrition. "The future has arrived, and we can only change to deal with it." Chen said.

Source: China Youth Daily

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