"Did you eat?" "Yes, and you?" Is this how your conversation with your mother usually starts each time you call home? Food is the life of the people. After 40 years of reform and opening up, what people feel most vividly is the vegetable basket and rice bag. The rapid development of the economy improves the food supply, and the change from "full" to "good" reflects the improvement of living standards. At the same time, the proportion of expenditure on food consumption has dropped significantly. For example, among urban households, the proportion of expenditure on food consumption has dropped from 63.7% in 1985 to 32.9% in 2016.
A big table
"Low index, melons and vegetables generation, eat full, hungry quickly, swollen legs, swollen head", the era of material shortage, people's pursuit of food than to eat a full meal. Dweller buys non-staple food to set limit to have ticket to supply, the day such as fish of egg of meat poultry is short of for a long time, the day of a lot of families lives "careful and careful calculate", buy meat to love to pick fat for instance, go home namely can repress point lard to improve food.
After the third plenary session of the 11th central committee of the CPC, guangdong took the lead in carrying out the reform and opening up policy in the whole country. In 1988, the national "vegetable basket project" was implemented, and the first phase of the project established central and local production bases for meat, eggs, milk, aquatic products and vegetables, as well as service systems for improved seed breeding and feed processing. By the mid-1990s, the "vegetable basket project" focused on solving market supply problems and reversing the chronic shortage of non-staple food supplies.
Non-staple food market price is loosened, production grows quickly, table presents unprecedented abundant, the consumption such as fish of meat egg increases greatly. In 1978, the average urban resident in guangdong consumed 19.68 kilograms of pork, equivalent to one or two pigs per day. In 2010, it reached 32.01 kg, equivalent to 1.8 liang of pork, an increase of 63%. And the "pickle" that once was table leading role, changed condiment dish gradually --, in 1982 urban and rural dweller average daily intake of pickle is 14 grams, had dropped to 3.9 grams in 2012, decline 72.1%.
It can be seen that residents' food consumption has changed from quantity growth to quality improvement. The consumption of traditional animal food with meat as the core has become diversified. Compared with coarse grain, fine grain has become the main part. By 2012, the proportion of grains had dropped to 53.1 percent, while the proportion of animal-based foods had increased to 15 percent. What's more, people are more aware of the importance of healthy diet, like the consumption of fresh milk, which increased fivefold in 2016 compared with 1985.
Consumption upgrade
Engel's coefficient, which evaluates affluence by the proportion of food expenditure, has been widely concerned by Chinese people. In 1978, the per capita consumption expenditure of urban residents in guangdong was 266.4 yuan, and the engel coefficient was as high as 66.6 percent. In 2001, it dropped to 38.2 percent. In 2016, the per capita consumption expenditure of urban residents was 28,613.33 yuan, of which 9,421.58 yuan was food expenditure, and the engel coefficient was 32.9 percent. All these are attributed to the continuous rapid economic growth and the increase of people's income and wealth.
Nearly 70% of spending goes on things other than food, which means more wealth to spend on other things. Spending on education, entertainment and health care is all on the rise. For example, ning jizhe, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, pointed out in the foreword of the report on the development of Chinese residents' consumption in 2017 that China's consumption level is changing from subsistence to a comprehensive and comfortable one. Consumption pattern changes from material type to service type; Consumption mode is changing from offline to online and offline integration; The trend of consumer behavior changing from herd imitation to individual experience. Citizens' demand for a better life is now more reflected in the pursuit of leisure, health and green life.
Consumption poverty stage: the primary stage dominated by basic living expenses (before 1978). Urban residents' consumption has always been at a low level. Over 70% of urban residents' consumption needs to be used for food, clothing, food and clothing. Food consumption is average, food structure is similar and single, belongs to grain food structure, the dietary structure is mainly plant-based products.
The stage of subsistence consumption: the stage of purchasing daily necessities, mainly popularizing household appliances (1980-1990). After the reform and opening up, the income level of urban residents increased significantly. After the basic needs for food and clothing were met, the consumption of urban residents showed three characteristics of concentration, advance and convergence, and the consumption of durable goods reached the peak. Food consumption increased, food mix diversified and diet quality improved.
Residents' consumption-type stage: from 1991 to 2000, the consumption of electronic information products and services was mainly the stage of purchasing and purchasing goods. The engel coefficient of urban residents was constantly declining, and they were moving towards the consumption of well-off level. The consumption target gradually shifted to medical treatment, transportation and housing. The food structure is diversified, and the dietary structure changes towards the mode of animal and plant food and heavy food.
Modern stage of residents' consumption: the stage of buying special goods, mainly housing and private cars (from 2000 to now), is characterized by an increase in urban residents' wage level, a significant increase in consumption level, accelerated transformation and upgrading of consumption structure, and the transformation of residents' living consumption into hedonic consumption. To form a more reasonable pattern of food consumption and nutrition structure with Chinese characteristics.
