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"What did the wheat say when it was blown by the wind?
was pecked by the flying sparrows.
In 2022, when the domestic entertainment is full of chickens and dogs, the literary film " is hidden in the dust and the smoke " uses the life and humble love of Gansu farmer Ma Youtie and his wife, shocking countless audiences speechless.
From the beginning to the end, there is not a single word of love in the movie, but the love is deep into the bones, not a single word of bitterness is said, and it is bitter to the point of death. After the
movie came out of the circle, the word-of-mouth box office went up all the way, and it also caused some controversy. The main reason is that the sophistication presented in the film overplays the numbness and indifference of the rural people. It seems that the honest, loyal, industrious and capable protagonist Ma Youtie, whose life tragedy is all due to the indifference and blood-sucking of the villagers, does not seem to have a good person in the village of .
Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying got married in 2011, agricultural tax has been canceled for several years, poverty alleviation work is progressing steadily, and the Internet is also entering the mobile era. Gaotai County, Zhangye, Gansu, where the prototype of their village is located, is located in the historic Hexi Corridor. It is a grain-producing area with fertile land, and it is next to a major traffic road. It is not a ravine where information is blocked.
But, under the director's camera, almost all the villagers, including Ma Youtie, faced Zhang Yongfu who made a fortune from food, they didn't even know how to negotiate the conditions for drawing blood, they were slaughtered like puppets, and they would only bully the weak. What about the rural atmosphere that is completely absent from the group to warm up?
In reality, no one would question the bitterness and lack of material in the countryside, even if you beat your blood and eggs for petty profits, you can understand it, But the numbness and indifference of the group spirit and the indifference of human feelings are a bit abnormal , only It will arouse strong doubts from many viewers who have fond memories of the countryside.
After watching the movie to understand the behind-the-scenes story, you will know that the director of "Hidden in the Dust" is from the authentic rural Gansu province. All the actors except Haiqing are also local folks, and even the director's relatives. It is unlikely that they will deliberately smear the countryside. When things go wrong, there must be demons. Today we will explore the deeper food topic hidden in the half-real and half-fictional plot of the movie.
From the agricultural point of view, "Hidden in the Dust" is like a documentary , according to the rotation of farming time, very rigorously restores a Gansu farmer's journey from buying seeds and fertilizers, plowing, hoeing, threshing, The complete process of plowing and raking the soil, replanting the second crop, and finally harvesting and selling grain, and settlement of income, and even the grain market is basically consistent with the market of the year.
is based on the background of the story that restores reality, and outlines the grain purchase and sales system shrouded in Ma Youtie and even the entire village.
As a blood sucker, Zhang Yongfu, a big grain grower, not only sucks the blood of horses and iron when he is sick, but also rents the village's land, uses the village's water, and hires people from the village, but he still owes the villagers arrears of rent and rent on the pretext that "the grain cannot be sold". Wages, in fact, suck the blood of the whole village.
If you only watch movies, many people will feel that since the food cannot be sold, Zhang Yongfu seems to have no choice.
But what is interesting is that the query data shows that due to the reduction of corn production in Northeast China in 2009, corn entered a bull market in 2010, and by 2011, the price of corn continued to rise from March to September. The so-called "not a single grain of grain was sold" is a complete lie.
Analysis of grain prices since 2011 and outlook for future trends.Agricultural Outlook,2011,7(08):3-5.
In fact, whenever prices start to rise, grain traders and big households not only worry about selling, but also The psychology of reluctance to sell is to wait for the price to rise again, as if the stocks that are rising are generally rarely sold.
Therefore, it may be credible that Zhang Yongfu sells less, but the so-called "not selling a grain of food" is a lame lie that is not afraid of being exposed by others, and it is intentional.
inquired about the data of the current year, we can see that in 2010/2011, the reluctance to sell the corn market was particularly strong. It is not difficult for Zhang Yongfu to grasp this big market by growing food and driving a BMW .
2010 Domestic Corn Market Review
In addition, at the beginning of 2011, the price of international fertilizers soared. For example, the price of potash fertilizer , which accounts for half of the cost of farming, has doubled, and other pesticide seeds have risen overall.
, if Zhang Yongfu chooses to sell the grain at the beginning of the year and then continue to rent the land in the village to hire people from the village, firstly, the price of grain will definitely be sold low, and secondly, he will bear the cost of soaring fertilizer seeds, so he simply uses "one Grain not sold” is a lame excuse to hoard it and sell it at a high price, pass on the risk of rising farming costs, and even pay 1 yuan per catty to villagers to lower the rent in disguise when the price of corn is 80 cents.
If Zhang Yongfu, the villain who didn't show his face in the whole article, really has a realistic prototype, then this man's three-pronged action, whether it is a crooked attack or a careful plan, is more shrewd and more ruthless than the movie plot shows.
Poor Ma Youtie transferred two acres of land to Zhang Yongfu's family. The rent was 1,000 yuan, and in exchange for 1,000 catties of corn, he had already lost 200 yuan. Ma Youtie also took the initiative to plan 160 catties, a total loss of 360 yuan.
At the end of the movie, when Ma Youtie was selling grain in September or October, the grain dealer saw that he was in a hurry to sell the money to bury Guiying, so he deducted 124 jin of wheat and 200 jin of corn according to the high moisture content. I gave 3974 yuan, or 0.72 yuan per catty. In fact, in reality, the price of corn in Gansu was about 2,300 yuan per ton, about 1.15 per kilogram. The grain dealer earned a price difference of 0.42 yuan per kilogram from Ma Youtie at one time, which was even more ruthless than Zhang Yongfu.
October 7, 2011 Corn Price Quotes
Here is a detail. After the account is settled and the money is settled, the grain dealer adds "I won't charge such a high price at all." The disguised hypocrisy left a long shot of Ma Youtie froze in place for more than ten seconds.
was followed by another man who was silent for a long time against the guaranteed fertilizer seed bill.
After one year, five acres of land have been planted, and after three or four rounds of cutting, Ma Youtie's hard net income only has 2,400 yuan in grain income and 628 yuan in rent income , it takes hundreds of years to buy it without eating or drinking Zhang Yongfu's big BMW couldn't even hold a decent funeral.
Compared with his brother and sister-in-law's disgust and the villagers' ridicule, the experience of being cut with leeks in food is not the exclusive treatment of Ma Youtie, but the depressing situation of the whole village.
Because behind the Zhang Yongfus in reality, is most likely still standing with a group of "big rats" and "worms" who "rely on food for food".
September 14, 2022, National Grain and Material Reserve Bureau , National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the State Administration for Market Regulation, China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. and other nine departments in different fields jointly issued the "Notice on Effectively Doing a Good Job in Autumn Grain Purchase in 2022", with the purpose of taking a multi-pronged approach to solve the problem of farmers' "selling grain". difficult" problem.
In fact, almost every year since 2017, several major departments have jointly issued notices to do a good job in grain purchases. The difference this year is that it also emphasized that it is necessary to continue to consolidate the results of the special rectification of corruption in the field of grain purchase and sales last year, strengthen the deterrent effect.
's emphasis on "deterrent effect" is very interesting, shows that corruption in the food system is widespread, and there are many ways to prevent it.
Grain is the foundation of a country. From ancient times to the present, even the grass-roots grain departments have been extremely authoritative in the eyes of the common people, directly grasping the lifeblood of farmers. It is the most beautiful occupation in the countryside, and it is also a place where corruption frequently occurs.
Judging from the cases involved in the investigation and handling of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in the past two years, some grain depot "shuo rats" are reckless and greedy, committing crimes for a long time, many times, and a large amount of money involved. Some treat the national grain depot as a private enterprise, and engage in " patriarchal " for internal management, turning the enterprise into a personal ATM. Some internal and external collusion and gangs committed crimes, and "collapse of corruption" occurred from time to time. For example, a corruption case occurred at a grass-roots grain station in Yizheng City, Jiangsu Province, and 14 of the 15 grass-roots grain stations were investigated.
These people mainly use the following methods to embezzle grain money:
The first category is "grade grain", "differential grain", "pit agricultural grain" , second-grade grain is collected as third-grade grain, and even increase the moisture content, Impurities, mildew ratios, etc., reduce the price, although the price difference is only a few cents per catty, but it adds up. After the person in charge of a grain depot is investigated, the cumulative amount of crime is not a problem, and it is very difficult for ordinary people. Complaint is successful, can only swallow.
The second category is called "Liquor" and , which is not only pitting the country but also the common people.
When a general grain station receives grain from farmers, if the moisture and impurities of the grain exceed the standard, a certain amount of kilograms will be deducted according to the national standard. However, in practice, there is no way to accurately estimate the moisture and impurities of the grain. Only after drying and removing impurities can it be possible. It is found that there are not so many, and the excess is called "overflow", which is difficult to avoid.
For example, 100 kilograms of grain is purchased at 98 kilograms after "deduction". The actual amount of water and impurities removed leaves 99 kilograms. The extra kilogram of grain is "overflowing grain", which should be registered and recorded according to regulations to prevent it from becoming a means of personal misappropriation. .
However, the evaluation of moisture and impurities often depends on the feel of the hand. Some people deliberately deduct more of the farmers' weight, and even play tricks on the scale . If they conceal it, they will smuggle "overflowing grain" and embezzle the grain money. If a grain station owner is ruthless, Over the years, has made millions of illegal profits.
The third category is " food in the circle " and "air food" , which have the largest losses, the most extensive involvement, and the deepest harm.
Originally, when the market grain is lower than a certain price, the state will activate the protection price to purchase the farmers' grain to prevent the low price of grain from hurting the farmers and protect the interests of grain farmers. However, the grain station colluded with grain dealers in advance, fabricated contracts, turned low-priced commodity grains into higher-priced "market grains", and then shared the middle price difference.
For example, the general manager of a state-owned grain company in Sichuan Province colluded with grain merchants, sold 1,276 tons of rice at the price of old grain, and then repurchased 896 tons of old grain into the warehouse. The difference in yuan is easily pocketed.
As for "air food", it is an upgraded version of "circle food", even the grain does not need to be moved, the grain depot and the grain merchant make an account, and the difference will be pocketed.
The cost of purchasing grain in the city is high, and the cost of storage is high. can make tens of millions of profits by "circling" thousands of tons of grain at a time, which is the most important way of "relying on grain to eat food". In the case investigated and dealt with in a certain place in Jiangsu, the Grain Bureau and the Grain Purchase and Sales Corporation, which are responsible for supervision, also participated in it, intercepting profits at various levels and sharing the spoils together.
finally embezzled all the money that the state should have subsidized for farmers. In the specific operations of
, there are also falsely reporting the quantity, substituting shoddy goods, using the old as new, false acquisitions, lowering prices, lowering prices, arrears of grain payments, falsely claiming subsidies, etc. ... These various granary corrupt practices run through almost all grain purchases and sales. It not only damages the purchase and sale of grain itself, but also deteriorates the rural social environment that depends on grain for survival.
Problems such as "overflowing grain" and "grade grain" make small farmers like Ma Youtie unable to bear the cost of communicating with grain stations and grain companies, making the profit of grain growing even more meager, and there is no incentive to expand planting As a result, it was cheaper for Zhang Yongfu, a big grain grower who had a good relationship with the village officials. They not only understand the market routines, but also can handle the villagers, so they can easily pass the cost to the bottom, and Ma Youtie can't escape the sickle of cutting leeks after all.
and "air grain" and "circle grain" need the cooperation of all parties, so the interests of grain stations, grain companies, grain dealers and even the management department are integrated. At the expense of national food security, it maximizes its own interests and completely becomes an outlawed land, making local farmers dare not speak out.
The above operations were dug up in recent years, and the background of "Hidden in the Dust" is 2011. The food problem behind the storyline of the movie may only be more serious than today.
Therefore, Ma Youtie's relatives and fellow villagers are not born numb and cold. In fact, the director also used a few moments of borrowing eggs, protesting low prices, envy Guiying, and ridiculing 's bridal chamber to tell the audience that they are not ignorant and indifferent, but also eager to get rid of internal friction.
There are too many "black box operations" for food purchase and sales, and people in this field have been proficient in PUA since ancient times.
Ming Dynasty grain officials have an art called "sprinkling the tip and kicking dendrobium" .
said that officials kicked Dendrobium vigorously with their feet when inspecting the public grain , and the Dendrobium will scatter some of the grain on the top, which is called "loss" and belongs to the official's personal pocket.
This foot can't be too light or too heavy. If it's too light, the grain won't fall off. If it's too heavy, it will fall too much, which will inevitably cause public outrage. It requires grain officials to practice foot strength for a long time. Jokingly referred to as "the 'style' of that kick".
British economist Goldberg likened this PUA image to "the most plucked goose feathers, the least goose chirping".
This kind of method of frantically rubbing the ball in the gray area has left the common people with nowhere to defend themselves. If they want to resist, they are prone to retaliation. It has also prompted grain officials, grain dealers, and big grain households to form an alliance of interests, squeezing the interests of farmers little by little, and embezzling them for a long time. national wealth.
The Ma Youtie and the villagers in "Hidden in the Dust" have not suffered from PUA, so the situation has always stayed near the food and clothing line. They can't starve and eat well, and they can't save money or gain knowledge. They can't afford to go out. The risks of working and starting a business, let alone the skills and opportunities to stay in the city, can only be imprisoned on the land and slaughtered by others.
Are the farmers confused? They are not confused. Instead, they are too aware and used to the routines and methods around food. They have even expressed countless protests. After all, they are no match for the layers of pressure.Just accept the reality and just lie down.
Ma Youtie and most of the villagers are deeply trapped in this unfair food system. Even the subsidies and support given by the state have been taken away. They can only watch Zhang Yongfu and the grain dealers' continuous PUA for many years, becoming numb and indifferent , in order to accept the ordinary but cruel reality without being too painful.
In the end, I prefer to call the indifference and even selfishness of the countryside in the film:
a collective unconscious self-psychological protection.
In Akira Kurosawa 1954 movie " Seven Samurai ", there is such a monologue about the mood of farmers in troubled times:
"What do you think of farmers? Cunning, ask for rice and not for rice, ask for rice and say no.
In fact, they have everything, everything.
The surface is loyal but the most liars, they will lie no matter what.
lift the floor to see, either underneath In the storage room, you will definitely find a lot of things.
Go to the deep valleys of the mountains and see the hidden rice fields.
They will lie no matter what! , cunning.
But ... who made them become like this?"
As the oldest and most basic profession, after entering modern society, the status of farmers has become more and more embarrassing.
Because with the economic development, the Engel coefficient of residents' living has decreased, and the economic status of food has been declining, but the social demand for food has continued to rise. Both meat, eggs and milk need food.
At the same time, farmers' income from farming is becoming less and less able to keep up with the growth of social wealth. There are fewer and fewer farmers, and rural areas are becoming more and more hollow, which then drags down the entire society's investment in agriculture, and output cannot keep up with demand. growth of.
The result is, The more a country's economy grows, the more food it has to rely on imports, and the more disliked the farmers are.
Today, the international situation is becoming more and more torn and deteriorated. The superposition of wars and financial crises. The dependence on overseas imports of food is destined to be stuck. Promoting domestic production is the foundation of ensuring food security.
How to promote it? There is only one answer, to make up for the lack of market value of grain production by subsidizing "agricultural and rural farmers", so as to ensure the public attribute and basic status of grain production.
However, if the farmers who are most closely related to the land lose their right to speak, no amount of national policy subsidies will be able to reach the land, and any reform involving rural areas will be impossible.
India is the best example.
Before independence, India was famine all the year round. After independence, India launched a "green revolution" under the support and guidance of the central government, , food production has increased significantly for a period of time, and the population has been rapidly expanded.
In the face of greater pressure from food demand, the Indian government chose policy support, chose to learn from the United States, and adopted the route of agricultural subsidies.
But the problem is that Indian agriculture is still in a feudal state with a colonial color, arable land is monopolized by rural landlords, and purchasing and sales channels are monopolized by middlemen left over from the colonial era. Capital is selling at low prices at home and abroad together, hoarding strangely,Squeeze agricultural surplus value, hinder the healthy development of agriculture and endanger national food security.
In June 2020, the Moody's government of India issued three new temporary farm bills, allowing farmers to sell agricultural products directly to buyers at market prices. As a result, the longest-running farmers' protests were set off, and finally evolved to 250 million. A national general strike involving people.
Protesters believe that by throwing farmers into a free-market environment, the government is sending sheep into the tiger's mouth.
But this is not Moody's original intention. He really wants to change the situation of farmers. After all, it is also his ticket warehouse. Both public and private, he hopes to win over farmers.
In Moody's view, after the removal of intermediaries, farmers do have to face traders and big capital directly, but the central government of India has one less negotiating opponent, which can provide conditions for agricultural capital to participate in feudal land reform, while improving agricultural productivity and farmers' cultivation. On the other hand, it can also release the rural labor force imprisoned on the land, and finally realize urbanization and industrialization.
However, this kind of beautiful reform that kills many things with one stone is only the wishful thinking of Moody's, because there are too many interest groups riding on the heads of Indian farmers. This is a stable expectation, and once the land is lost after the reform, and there is no job in the city, the government may not be able to control them.
Moreover, landlords, religions, castes, corruption, and even middlemen have been numbing farmers' sense of resistance for many years, coercing and intimidating PUA farmers who are submissive, and even inculcating the concept of brainwashing that "suicide" is a crime for a long time. Farmers committed suicide in large numbers, obediently accepting the arrangement of fate.
In short, out of the compromise of reality and the fear of uncertainty in the future, farmers who cannot afford to eat choose to follow the trucks and tractors of middlemen and landlords, which has become the biggest obstacle to the modernization of Indian agriculture.
is also a country with a large population and agriculture. Although after 70 years of modernization, China has long faced the problem of the rentier class that lies between the government and farmers. It has also fallen into the trap of contradiction between agricultural development and farmers' conditions, and the countryside has fallen into population loss. Puzzle with hollowing out.
After the Sino-US trade war started, the negotiation game of grain import and export between the two countries was pushed to the front line of diplomacy, which directly affected the overall situation of China's food security, and urgently needed to rectify the problematic food system.
Therefore, after 2018, many central ministries and agencies continued to jointly issue documents to effectively do a good job in grain procurement. improved the transparent market mechanism, eliminated unscrupulous middlemen, reduced the difficulty and cost of farmers' transactions, and rectified the grain system on the other hand. Internal corruption, ensuring that subsidies and policies can reach farmers smoothly.
Otherwise, in the face of the U.S. grain hegemony, no matter how much subsidies are given, what should have been given to farmers will be taken away by the rentier class like India, leaving farmers forever in the system to be harvested and completely losing confidence in the countryside. , , the three rural issues, and will inevitably enter a dead end.
The father of agricultural chemistry Liebig has a famous fertilizer barrel principle, to the effect that crops need a lot of nutrients to grow, just like a wooden barrel made of wooden hoop, the amount of water in the barrel depends on the shortest piece, and the yield of crops is also Depends on which element is most deficient in the soil.
For today's China, the status of agricultural and rural farmers is the soil, which supports industrialization and modernization.
The future of China's economy requires developed agriculture, prosperous villages and happy farmers, just as the growth of crops requires a large amount of key nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the soil to be supplemented. Mechanism, the construction of new socialist countryside, etc., the source of thinking for a series of policies that benefit farmers.
In 2022, the proportion of China's economic GDP in 2022, although the added value of agriculture and related industries is only 16%, but in the 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the fundamental role played by rural areas and farmers is far greater than the figures on the surface. In the first 30 years, the unified purchase and sales of grain contributed the most scarce primitive accumulation to the start of China's industrialization. The urban population also digested and buffered the employment and social crises that would inevitably arise in industrialization. In the next 30 years, rural Agriculture continued to play the role of subsidizing urban industry, but farmers left the land in the weak position of food economy to provide the most abundant labor force for urbanization.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, because the land reform liberated farmers, we won the Huaihai Campaign, and the grain and cotton war. In the early days of the reform, the reform of urban enterprises was difficult, and it was the rural land contract and the township enterprises started a new round of economic and industrial engines. After joining the WTO, China's economy suffered the financial tsunami in 2008, and the rural areas absorbed the shock of the unemployment wave like a sponge, and provided a market for the excess production capacity after the economic crisis. 63%, but from the perspective of household registration, the number of rural households is still as high as 56%. Even if most people enter the city, they still retain the rural household registration and the political rights in the village. decisive role.
"Three Rural Issues" has never been just an economic issue, just as the fate of Ma Youtie has never been settled by calculating the grain account.
In the second year of Gui Ying's departure in the movie, in reality, the global grain price has climbed to a high level, and the anti-corruption and anti-corruption have been carried out in waves. With the development of the game between China and the United States in all aspects, it has become more urgent.
In a word, even if it is hidden in the dust or even humbled to the soil, Ma Youtie, Cao Guiying and his wife, and even the hundreds of millions of farmers who work silently, are the shortest board on the barrel. The attention and protection of their interests will determine our future development. final height.
There is another point, which may exceed the expectations of many people, that is, the proportion of food income in the total income of farmers has always been relatively high. Many provinces and cities have maintained at 40 to 50%, and the Northeast is more prominent. In some areas Even around 60%.
Since the launch of the special rectification of corruption in the field of grain purchase and sales in 2021, Gaotai County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, where the prototype of the story "Hidden in the Dust" is located, has carried out special supervision and inspections three times, and relevant industry departments have reported 16 problems found in their own inspections, among which There were 13 immediate changes and 3 long-term rectifications. In the whole of Gansu Province, since the special rectification was carried out, a total of 342 clues about problems in the field of grain have been found. As of July, 185 cases have been filed with 306 persons, 270 persons have been held accountable, of which 72 persons have been punished by Party discipline and government affairs, 198 persons have been organized for handling, and 5 persons have been transferred to judicial organs.
A nationwide rectification work in various provinces is also continuing to advance...
Let villages get out of the trap of numbness and indifference, and reverse the fate of the bottom-level farmers who are swaying like wheat grass. Perhaps, this is the "Hidden in the Dust" "Best Easter Eggs.
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