Food, rice, oil, salt, and vegetables are both family affairs and state affairs that General Secretary Xi Jinping cares about.

In March this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed during his inspection in Hunan: "Adhere to the concept of big agriculture and big food, actively develop characteristic agriculture and agricultural product processing industry, and improve the level of agricultural industrialization."

General Secretary Xi Jinping's important statement on establishing the concept of "big food" has provided fundamental guidance for us to deeply grasp the development law of modern agriculture and ensure national food security.

Origin of "Big Food Concept"

As early as during his work in Ningde, Fujian Province, Xi Jinping put forward in his article "Taking a Road to Develop Large Agriculture" that "... grain used to be narrowly understood as cereal crops such as rice, wheat and corn. Now, grain is food, and the concept of large grain has replaced the old concept of taking grain as the key link."

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), from the Central Rural Work Conference in 2015 to the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which put forward the idea of "building a big food concept, developing facility agriculture, and building a diversified food supply system", Then in 2024, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee put forward the idea of "establishing a big agricultural concept and a big food concept, expanding food sources through multiple channels, and exploring the construction of a big food monitoring and statistical system". The interpretation of the big food concept by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core will continue to enrich and develop.

What is the "big food concept"

Interpretation of Economic Daily——

Different from the traditional concept of taking grain as the key link, the concept of big food reflects the idea of keeping pace with the times and rich innovation from "grain" to "food". From the perspective of the big food concept, the concept of grain has expanded from the narrow sense of grain to the category of all edible food; The goal of food security is to better meet the people's needs for a better life, from having enough food to having good, nutritious and healthy food; The access to food extends from cultivated land resources to the whole land resources, and the food development field extends to mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand, so as to maximize the utilization efficiency and production potential of various resources. The big food concept reflects the expansion of food security to the border of food security and the deepening of the strategy, which is in line with the national food security strategy of "focusing on ourselves, basing on domestic, ensuring production capacity, moderate import, and scientific and technological support".

Why emphasize the "big food concept"

Interpretation of the articles in the Farmers Daily——

On the one hand, people's demands for food are becoming more and more diverse, which requires the establishment of a higher quality food supply system, not only to ensure basic food, but also to ensure diversity. On the other hand, in terms of China's resource endowment, we feed nearly 20% of the population with 9% of the world's arable land and 6% of the world's fresh water. Where can we tap the potential? This requires breaking away from the traditional category of "grain, oil, meat, eggs and milk", extending the perspective from fields to forests, grasslands, rivers, lakes and seas, and developing food resources in an all-round and multi-channel way. We should not only make good use of limited farmland, but also treat the gifts of nature. Establishing the "big food concept" means that we should understand and grasp the essence of food security from a broader perspective, meet the people's consumption demand for food diversity to the maximum extent, and take the road of food security with Chinese characteristics.

How to establish and practice the "big food concept"

Interpretation of People's Daily——

To establish and practice the concept of big food, we must implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, improve the efficiency of farmland utilization, and strengthen the development and utilization of unconventional agricultural production space. We should improve the system and mechanism, insist on putting the guarantee of national food security in the first place, explore and build a large food monitoring and statistics system, strictly protect and rationally use resources; We will improve the mechanism for ensuring farmers' income from grain production and effectively mobilize farmers' enthusiasm for agricultural production. We should promote the research and development of key agricultural core technologies and the cultivation of new agricultural business entities, promote the effective development and utilization of food resources with information technology and biotechnology, promote the innovative research and development of equipment, technology and varieties of facility agriculture across multiple disciplines, and actively cultivate a number of new agricultural business entities, Encourage them to use modern management methods and technical means for agricultural production and operation activities. We should promote the green reduction of food and reduce the loss and waste of food during transportation; Guide residents to form scientific dietary habits, advocate food conservation and oppose waste.

Coordinator: Qin Hua

Planner: Wan Peng

Edited and drawn by: Huang Jin

Content source: Comprehensive People's Daily, Economic Daily, Farmers' Daily