Chapter 425: System

Take eggs, for example. In reality, there are no truly organic eggs in the country.

He would argue that 99% of “organic” food in the country isn’t truly organic at all—it’s just a scam to prey on the gullible, a tax on stupidity.

For example, the organic produce from a certain “planet” brand was completely exposed by debunking bloggers.

A little analysis makes it all clear.

The requirements for organic food are incredibly strict.

Production bases must be far from polluted areas like cities and industrial zones. The soil, irrigation water, and air must all meet specific quality standards.

For crop cultivation, organic fertilizers like composted manure are required, while synthetic chemical fertilizers are banned. Synthetic pesticides are also strictly limited, with an emphasis on physical and biological pest control methods like insect nets, bug zappers, or introducing natural predators.

For livestock and poultry, they must be fed organic feed, and the use of antibiotics and hormones to promote growth is forbidden.

Just think about it. If you actually produced food this way, yields per acre would plummet back to pre-industrial levels, and costs would be more than ten times higher.

Even Jiang Miao wouldn’t dare demand that farmers stop using pesticides and fertilizers. He knew that without them, yields would drop to a fraction—sometimes as low as one-tenth—of what they are now.

As long as they are used reasonably and according to regulations, pesticides and fertilizers aren’t a problem. This is especially true now, with many low-toxicity pesticides that have short half-lives. If consumers just rinse their fruits and vegetables with water once or twice, they’re perfectly safe.

In reality, many current issues with pesticide residues on agricultural products are because small factories are still secretly producing banned pesticides, and some farmers don’t follow usage guidelines.

As for why many people say fruits and vegetables don’t taste like they did in their childhood, there are many reasons.

For instance, older varieties were phased out by new ones because they had low yields and didn’t transport well.

Also, in the current environment where fertilizers and growth promoters accelerate development, fruits and vegetables don’t have enough time to accumulate the compounds that create flavor.

Another reason is that adults’ taste buds degenerate significantly. Compared to children, adults simply can’t perceive many flavor compounds.

All these factors combined are why many people think the fruits and vegetables from their childhood tasted better.

In fact, many experts and scholars in the domestic breeding field have already noticed this. Now that the problem of yield has been largely solved, many are focusing on improving flavor as the next direction for crop breeding.

For a super-populous nation like Cyrus, yield will always be the primary consideration. After that comes shelf life and transportability, followed by indicators like resistance to cold, drought, and poor soil. Flavor is often the very last priority.

You can only think about eating *well* after you’ve solved the problem of eating *enough*.

If you don’t solve the problem of getting enough to eat and just focus on eating well, the end result is a small minority eating well and getting full, while the vast majority goes hungry.

Reality is that cruel.

Many people who champion organic food and organic farming are either from well-off families or are just spouting nonsense for money. They might spend hundreds of thousands to cultivate a few acres just to produce a few hundred pounds of produce, all to show off their “noble souls” and how different they are.

If agriculture were really run according to their ideas, at least half the country would starve to death.

This is nothing more than a “green trap” promoted by ABCD and America.

If the world’s second-most populous country were to switch to an organic farming model, the bosses at ABCD would probably wake up in the middle of the night laughing.

Just look at what happened in Ceylon.

They were led astray by Western environmental organizations, became completely obsessed, and then announced an overnight switch to nationwide organic farming. As a result, agricultural prices skyrocketed. Fortunately for them, they’re a tropical country where things grow easily. That, combined with international aid, has allowed them to barely scrape by, half-fed.

If our country tried that, it wouldn’t be a matter of being half-fed. It would be a prelude to mass starvation.

Therefore, the people on the domestic internet who advocate for organic farming can basically be divided into three groups:

Organic merchants who just want to sell their products.

Influential public intellectuals who have taken money from foreign interests.

The petty-bourgeois middle class who just parrot what they hear.

The first two are simply malicious. The third group is just stupid—or both stupid and malicious.

The so-called middle class in this country is largely a group that has benefited from favorable conditions and the dividends of the era. These people think that everything they enjoy today is the result of their own hard work, but they are unwilling to consider the foundation upon which their entire lifestyle is built.

Of course, some among them are just pretending not to understand. Deep down, they know the truth perfectly well.

If so-called organic farming were actually implemented…

The middle class earning tens of thousands a month?

With rice and flour costing dozens of yuan per pound, regular fruits and vegetables over a hundred yuan a pound, and meat over a thousand yuan a pound—just see what a few tens of thousands of yuan a month could buy you then!

The current so-called middle class in this country is a group whose entire existence is built upon cheap domestic fruits, vegetables, and grains, as well as cheap utilities and industrial goods.

If the prices of various agricultural products were to suddenly skyrocket more than tenfold, they would be plunged back into poverty overnight.

This is the fragile middle class, like sandcastles on a beach, unable to withstand even a slightly larger wave.

Jiang Miao would definitely write an article in the future to show everyone the true face of so-called organic farming. This would also expose the organic food producers who rely on these gimmicks for what they truly are.

If he didn’t take down these charlatans making money by faking organic credentials, how could Hailufeng Company’s superior products ever take their place?

This was a competition for narrative control, ecological niches, and profit. The two sides were destined to never be able to shake hands and make peace.

Right now, many fake organic food companies are passing off conventional agricultural products as organic to prey on consumers, destroying the healthy development of the entire market.

The people who are actually focused on technology and cultivation can’t make money, while those who rely on marketing are raking it in. It’s a classic case of bad money driving out good.