Mao's War Against Nature? The Environmental Impact of the Grain-First Campaign in China
The China Journal, No. 50, pp. 37-59 (July, 2003)
24 Pages Posted: 31 Oct 2012
Date Written: 2003
Abstract
It is generally assumed that agricultural policies in Maoist China – in particular through mass movements – have led to grave ecological destruction. The movement believed to have had the most catastrophic outcome is the “Grain-first campaign”, which allegedly urged farmers to cultivate as much grain as possible. It is said that in the arid, pastoral areas indiscriminate reclamation led to desertification and a dramatic drop in livestock numbers. However, this article demonstrates that there is a fundamental lack of concordance between textual sources written during the collectivist period versus those of the post-collectivist period. A filtering process is apparent: misrepresentation of the Grain-first movement as lopsidedly geared to grain self-sufficiency instead of integrated development; denial of the concern for environmental protection of certain mass campaigns (e.g. Learn-from-Dazhai and Wushenzhao movements); and the juggling of statistics to support an inaccurate reading of the Maoist era. The article argues that the Grain-first movement has become a powerful tool in directing the “historical gaze” towards an overly negative appraisal of the Maoist period. In turn, this caused a misguided interpretation of the socio-political context in which mass campaigns evolved.
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