Colorful years

At this point, the author feels it is necessary to discuss the issue of food security and the efforts made by our Party and government in this regard.

Since ancient times, food has been a crucial issue of great concern to governments worldwide. For both individuals and nations, food is the foundation of survival and development.

For a civilization like China with a history of five thousand years, the importance of the food issue is self-evident.

Food security refers to ensuring that everyone has access to sufficient, nutritious, and sustainable food at all times to meet their daily dietary needs and maintain and improve their health. Food security is directly related to national stability, economic development, and the quality of life of people.

For a nation, food security is a crucial component of national security. Food shortages or significant fluctuations in food prices can lead to social instability and even unrest. Therefore, ensuring food security is a vital responsibility of every national government.

For people, food is a basic necessity for survival. Food shortages or food quality issues can affect people's quality of life and health. Therefore, ensuring food security is also an important means of improving people's quality of life.

Throughout China's long history, every dynasty faced the challenge of food security. They employed various methods to address this issue, ensuring national stability and the well-being of the people.

In ancient China, all dynasties attached great importance to agricultural production. They formulated a series of policies and regulations to encourage farmers to cultivate the land and ensure the stability of agricultural production. At the same time, they also established a grain reserve system to prevent food shortages.

In modern times, various regimes in China have also strived to solve the food problem. They reformed agricultural production methods and improved agricultural efficiency to ensure food supply. At the same time, they also adjusted food prices and stabilized the food market to guarantee the people's survival needs.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Party and the government have always attached great importance to grain production and food safety.

The government has introduced a series of policies and measures, including but not limited to agricultural subsidy policies, agricultural technology promotion policies, and agricultural insurance policies, to protect farmers' interests, improve agricultural production efficiency, and ensure food security.

By introducing and independently developing advanced agricultural technologies, we can improve the yield and quality of grain crops. At the same time, through the development of agricultural information technology, we can enhance the level of intelligent agricultural production management.

Establishing and improving the national grain reserve system is crucial for ensuring national food security. This system will enable timely resource allocation, price stabilization, and market stability in the event of fluctuations in grain production.

Chairman Mao Zedong emphasized the importance of grain production on multiple occasions. He pointed out that the grain issue was a matter of life and death for the nation. He stressed the need to "develop production and ensure supply."

Chairman Mao Zedong put forward a series of specific policies and measures to ensure food production and security. For example, he advocated the agricultural collectivization movement and encouraged farmers to cultivate the land collectively to improve production efficiency. At the same time, he also emphasized the need to improve farmers' living conditions and enhance their enthusiasm for production.

To address the food problem, Chairman Mao Zedong gave specific instructions on intensive farming, rational planting density, soil and water conservation, scientific fertilization, seed research, and farmland irrigation, guiding agricultural production.

In order to ensure the effective supply and stability of food, during the years of scarcity, the state implemented a policy of "unified purchase and sale, rationed supply, and purchase by coupons" for food, while farmers implemented a basic food ration system.

The rationing system for cadres and employees of Party and government organs, military units, enterprises and institutions not only ensured their food needs but also prevented waste; the basic food ration system for farmers ensured that the vast majority of farmers enjoyed their basic living needs equally.

Chairman Mao paid close attention to agricultural production and the lives of farmers, regarding them as an important cornerstone of national development.

In order to truly grasp the real situation of rural areas, agriculture, and farmers, Chairman Mao repeatedly emphasized and clearly required leaders at all levels to personally go to rural areas, integrate into the broad masses of people, and actively implement the far-reaching "three-together" policy of "eating, living, and working together."

In this way, leaders can truly integrate with the masses, thereby strengthening the connection between cadres and the masses and establishing a deep and sincere emotional bond.

Moreover, every year Chairman Mao would carefully select his capable staff to conduct comprehensive and meticulous investigations and research in every household in the countryside.

They worked tirelessly to understand the actual situation of agricultural production and listened attentively to the various difficulties and hardships faced by farmers, so as to report the relevant situation to Chairman Mao in a timely manner and provide a strong basis for formulating more scientific, reasonable and practical agricultural policies.

Especially during the arduous three years of hardship, when Chairman Mao heard that many farmers were struggling to even meet their basic needs, and were unable to eat their fill or get meat, he couldn't help but shed tears.

This great leader set an example by taking the lead in advocating the practice of saving food, and even firmly stated that he would not eat meat for a year, thus expressing his determination to share weal and woe with the farmers.

During that specific historical period, in places like Diaolan Village Production Team, in the 1960s and 70s, the basic ration of rice allocated to adults was approximately 500 jin per person per year; while for children, it varied depending on age, generally ranging from 300 to 400 jin of rice.

These data clearly reflect the tense food supply situation at the time and the hardship people faced.

However, even under such a severe situation, Chairman Mao always kept the peasants in mind and continued to explore effective ways to improve agricultural production conditions and raise the living standards of peasants.

Based on people's daily food intake today, the above-mentioned supply standards are sufficient to satisfy everyone's hunger.

However, going back to that specific period, the vast majority of farmers were often hungry and had difficulty getting enough to eat.

The main reason for this was that the high intensity of physical labor at that time resulted in a huge energy consumption, while meat was extremely scarce and cooking oil was also severely insufficient. The daily diet consisted mainly of coarse and simple meals, which were often digested quickly and did not provide a feeling of fullness for long.

After 1975, the Diaolan Village production team where Congcong lived underwent a significant transformation—it successfully achieved food self-sufficiency. From then on, the village never experienced hunger again.

To ensure that family members can enjoy food resources reasonably, maintain a balanced diet, and avoid any form of waste, Zhang Zhong, after careful consideration, innovatively proposed and implemented a unique food consumption strategy: "rationing according to the number of people and weighing the rice before cooking."

This measure has played a positive role in ensuring that every family member can fairly obtain sufficient food rations and in maintaining harmony and stability in family relationships.