This month, soybean prices rose 10 percent on speculation that China, the biggest user, would be increasing its demand. At the same time, China was approving a $9.2 billion investment in its biotech industry and other sectors that use advanced technology as part of its efforts to boost the country's economy.
Compare that to pictures of poor Chinese villagers struggling to make a living after returning to the country from cities where they’d once found work, but now find unemployment due to the global recession. It’s another stark contrast in a country that continues to be a contradiction in many ways – old versus new, tradition versus progress, open economy versus state control.
But one thing’s for sure, China’s not standing still, as evidenced by its investment in biotechnology. And how many other economies can you name, especially now, that can start a basic commodity tending upwards in such a short period of time?
Karen Simon, communications director for the Iowa Soybean Association, is among the growing legion of westerners who’ve engaged in fact-finding missions to China. After a week touring the country with a delegation that included the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and officials from her organization, she was moved by the government’s will to keep the country buoyant.
“We were all impressed with the optimism of the Chinese people and their dedication to making a better life for everyone there,” she said. “We were also encouraged at the commitment to a free market and the desire to do business with U.S. soybean growers.”
And she’s convinced there is a lot of business to do. China’s population stands at 1.3 billion people, who have a growing appetite for animal protein. It’s a classic scenario seen in countries who gain wealth.
“Today, most Chinese, particularly in rural areas, can only afford to eat protein once a week,” she says. “If millions of people are able to add protein from poultry or pork to their diets two or three times a week, you can see what this might do for future demand for commodities.”
Some of that protein will come from fish. University of Guelph aquaculture specialist Prof. Dominique Bureau first visited China in 1999, and in subsequent study tours there he’s seen an entrepreneurial spirit emerging…such as trout farms turning into tourist destinations with their own dining facilities. Food production in China was decentralized almost 30 years ago, and while much of it operates as a co-op type of system, it’s free enough to spark a measure of creativity.
Bureau returned to China earlier this spring with three other Guelph professors, Profs. Niel Karrow, Brian McBride and Steve Miller, respected specialists in animal disease and animal science. They were part of the first academic exchange exercise for Guelph with the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University.
Northwest, located two hours by air from Beijing, is a well-established educational institution in the heart China’s breadbasket. The Chinese government has tagged Northwest as one of its premier universities for domestic investment and development, and hopes such institutions – and exchanges, which will see four doctoral students come to Guelph this fall -- will help make its farmers as efficient as possible.
One way farmers improve efficiency is by gleaning knowledge from information sources such as universities. That practice was once called rural extension; now, it’s becoming more popularly known as technology translation and transfer.
This translation is not among dialects or languages, but rather, from scientists to the public. And if even we are to exchange knowledge on a global scale, it’s a practice that will be at least as important as the science itself. The growing exchange with China underlines how we want – and need -- to more fully understand each other.
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