Bai Jingxing had a puzzled look on his face, "But didn't daddy say that food production everywhere is high and the country is peaceful and the people are safe? How come she can't eat well?"
Zhou Man stood up and put on his clothes and said, "Eating well and being full are two different things. Moreover, although the food production in various places is high, the country is indeed peaceful and the people are safe, but who says that there are no poor people in the world?"
"It has only been sixteen years since the introduction of new rice varieties. If we want to truly achieve a world without hunger, I am afraid it will take several more sixteen years."
"How come? My eldest cousin clearly said that the yield per mu of the experimental fields in Jingzhou has exceeded nine dan. Isn't such a high yield per mu enough to feed the family?" Bai Jingxing wondered: "Are they lazy?"
Zhou Man: "There are naturally lazy people in the world, but in addition to laziness, accidents and illnesses can also lead to poverty. Also, some people are born poor if they have no land; some people can live a good life if they have land.
There is too much hard and all kinds of poverty.”
Zhou Man put on her clothes and called outside. A girl brought warm water up to her to wash her face. While she was getting water to wash her face, she asked, "Are you interested in this?"
"It's just strange that if you are a hard-working person, how can you still be poor when food is so high-yielding and so cheap?"
Every year, Bai Shan compiles a summary of grain prices in various places. Bai Jingxing and Xia Mu often get into trouble. In addition to having their books copied, they are also asked by Bai Shan from time to time to transcribe and summarize the data.
In fact, the food prices of previous years and this year's prices were copied into a table so that Bai Shan could see them clearly at a glance.
So Bai Jingxing knows how food prices have been falling bit by bit in recent years. Now, when the food prices in the capital are low, the price of grain has dropped to two cents per dou, and the price of rice is three cents per dou, which is lower than her father's.
My mother said that we encountered floods when we were young, and rice was much cheaper when it was thirty cents per dou.
If she doesn't have enough to eat, then if her parents are left alone, will they starve to death?
Bai Jingxing looked unconvinced, and Zhou Man said: "If you are really curious, you can ask the poor people when you come with me to consult and deliver medicine. Ask them what they do for a living every year, what their harvest is, what they do every day, and what they eat.
What……"
Bai Jingxing: "Isn't this a waste of time?"
"It's a waste of time if you turn a blind eye and insist on your own prejudices," Zhou Man said. "You didn't understand the truth when you should have. This is not just a waste of your own time."
Zhou Man wiped his hands and said generously: "Okay, go ahead, I can let you do less work today."
When Bai Jingxing really asked, he realized that there are many ways for people to be happy, but there are even more reasons for people's misfortune.
She was simply stunned.
A little lady was just brought in from the wooden shed No. 7. She was the same size as her and was also ten years old.
She also had a brother, thirteen years old, who was also sick and was placed in another wooden shed. Her parents had died of illness a few days ago.
I'm afraid the future for the brother and sister will be difficult.
But before the epidemic, their family's life was not easy.
Their family owns land, which is her father's Yongye Field. Although it is only allocated twelve acres, which is not enough, there are four acres of paddy fields. If cultivated carefully, it is enough to feed a family of four.
Bai Jingxing asked her what she had to do every day, and found that she got up early every morning to sweep the floor, then went to the river to wash clothes, and when she came back, she had to go out to collect pig grass and cook pig food...
Her mother has to cook, feed pigs, hoe and plant vegetables, water...
She can go out and play with her friends in the second half of the day. As for food, she eats gruel in the morning, multigrain porridge at lunch, and steamed buns in the evening...
According to her, life like this is much better than before. When she was very young, her family only ate two meals a day, porridge in the morning and porridge in the evening. On days when she was not working in the fields, the porridge was very thin.
, steamed buns are also made with wheat bran...
Her father and brother are not lazy either, but they just can't save money. They don't make much money from the grain they sell every year. I heard that there is no shortage of food outside, so their family is reluctant to sell a lot of grain so that they can eat a day.
Three meals, one in the evening was particularly good.
She feels that being able to eat white rice or white flour steamed buns at night is already a very good life.
Because they can't save any money, their family has decided to arrange a marriage for her. When she turns thirteen, her brother will get married when he turns sixteen, and then use the bride price to marry her brother a wife...
The young lady looked sad and regretful, "It's a pity that my parents are dead. I'm afraid no one will marry me, and my brother won't be able to find a wife."
Bai Jingxing was silent and speechless.
In the evening, mother and daughter had a heart-to-heart talk, and Bai Jingxing told her story. He was very puzzled, "Why are food prices so low? They can't save money."
Zhou Man said: "With more food in the world, food prices will naturally be lower. This is a good thing."
"But they can't make any money."
"Then ask her if her life is better now than before?"
Bai Jingxing: "No need to ask anymore, she has already said it."
"That's it. Their family couldn't save money in the past, but in the future, they will have the opportunity to save money."
"How to save?" Bai Jingxing couldn't help but sit up and asked with bright eyes: "Mom, are the food prices going to go up?"
"Silly boy, if the price of food rises to a level that allows them to make money, ordinary people will suffer in the end," Zhou Man said, "Don't always keep an eye on food prices and try to make money from them."
She said: "There are so many things that can make money in this world, haven't you thought? The price of food is so low, it is actually better for them to make money."
Bai Jingxing looked confused.
Zhou Man said: "People, after eating a full meal, they will think about eating well. I have said that there is a difference between being full and eating well. Touch your head, your well-proportioned figure, this is just eating for free.
Can it be grown on rice and white steamed buns?"
"Because my dad is tall?"
Zhou Man: "... Because your mother and I give you goat's milk, mutton, chicken, and eggs every day, count them on your fingers. How many good things did you eat at home every day?"
"This is the reason why you can get such a good result," she said: "People in this world are like this. With the increase in grain yield per acre, they finally don't have to use all the land to grow food, and they don't have to spend all their manpower on planting.
In terms of food, the final harvest was not enough to fill our stomachs.”
"They can plant and raise other things on the land, and they also have the manpower to do other things. The income is money."
Bai Jingxing organized the logic with his fingers and finally realized, "The basis of all this is to increase the yield per mu and increase the grain yield?"
Zhou Man nodded.
Bai Jingxing was speechless, "It turns out that my eldest cousin is so powerful and did such a big thing."