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The Chinese government announced a series of measures over the past few weeks to jump-start its economy, which has been sluggish. A big problem is weak domestic demand, which has created deflationary pressure. But prices are not falling for everything, and there has been a lot of grumbling lately about the cost of one item in particular. NPR's John Ruwitch looked into it.
JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: Social media posts like this are pretty easy to come by in China nowadays.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Mandarin).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Mandarin).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: That's people complaining about the soaring price of groceries, specifically vegetables. According to official statistics, the average price of fresh veggies rose nearly 20% in August compared with July, which was up more than 9% from June. What happened in the crop fields around the town of Damintun in China's northeast helps explain the price spike and the growing challenge from climate change.
LI BING: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: Damintun is famous for its napa cabbage, and that's what's supposed to be growing here in Li Bing's field. If you look closely, there are some little leafy cabbage shoots in the mud, but Li says they won't have time to grow before the winter arrives.
LI: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: She holds her hand about the height of her knee.
LI: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: "The crops should be this tall by now," she says, "and just a few weeks from harvest."
LI: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: Li says as soon as she and everyone else around here planted their crops in the beginning of summer, the rain came, and it didn't stop.
LI: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: One field over, the cornstalks look normal to me, but she shucks one.
(SOUNDBITE OF CORN BEING SHUCKED)
LI: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: The ear is scrawny, and the kernels are small. She says harvesting this stunted crop would cost more than she'd get selling it.
LI: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: "It's a total crop failure," she says.
Zhang Shucai is in the same boat.
ZHANG SHUCAI: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: He leads us to his one field that's still got a viable crop in it. It's about the width of a two-lane road and at least as long as a football field, and it's covered with plastic sheeting.
ZHANG: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: The tent helped protect his tomato vines during the downpours over the summer, but Zhang says it couldn't keep the floodwaters out.
ZHANG: (Speaking Mandarin).
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY RUNNING)
JOHN RUWITCH: He had to spend about $100 on an electric pump and hoses. And even then, the flooding and overcast skies have taken a toll.
ZHANG: (Through interpreter) This year, the tomato yield is low. A cluster used to include five or six tomatoes. Now it's just two or three.
JOHN RUWITCH: Damintun is far from alone in feeling the growing effects of extreme weather in China. This past summer saw some of the hottest temperatures and most intense rainfall on record. In July, the state meteorological agency released a report warning that things are expected to get worse in the coming years due to climate change. Yuan Jiashuang is deputy director of the National Climate Center, and she spoke to media at the time.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
YUAN JIASHUANG: (Speaking Mandarin).
JOHN RUWITCH: Extreme heat events are increasing, she says, as well as extreme precipitation...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Non-English language spoken).
JOHN RUWITCH: ...Something the farmers in Damintun don't have to be told. And despite this, they say they aren't getting much help from the government, and they feel stuck. Cui Pengfei looks over a scallion field that doesn't have any scallions in it because of the rain.
CUI PENGFEI: (Through interpreter) What can farmers switch to doing? We'll still be farming. The only thing we can change is the crops we grow. In the end, though, we're still working the land.
JOHN RUWITCH: Li Bing says, for now, she's surviving on high-interest loans. Her 13-year-old son is in a sports school in the city nearby learning weightlifting and hopefully building a future away from farming.
LI: (Through interpreter) In good years, we could still have some income. Now it just feels like gambling.
JOHN RUWITCH: "Nobody wants to be a farmer," she says, "because who can afford to bet against Mother Nature?"
John Ruwitch, NPR News, Damintun, China. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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