In an era of gourmet food and mukbang, where there is an abundance of food,
The story of the food industry, the origin of agriculture that we don't know about.

The taste of rice changes every year, and the water used to cook rice varies depending on the variety.
New fruits such as apple watermelon, gold apple, and kingsberry are released every year to tempt consumers.
Popular celebrities appear on TV and recite the tastes and characteristics of different cuts of beef like butchers.
Unfamiliar ingredients encountered abroad appear on the dinner table.
Long lines form at restaurants that sell dishes made with ingredients from far away and our own.
We live in an age where we consume famous delicacies in real time, but when it comes to tracing the origins of food back to agriculture, we are left with nothing.
In the 1970s and 1980s, 90% of Korea's urban population came from rural areas, but in just a few decades, rural areas and agriculture have become old-fashioned and outdated.
Agricultural knowledge from overseas is considered sophisticated table manners, but agricultural issues occurring in Korea somehow seem unrelated to me.
I think we can import food and eat it, but I don't understand why we are swayed by the price of rice and why we spend taxes on agriculture.


In an era where we eat the most, eat cheaply, and eat from far away,
Things we don't know

All industries in the world began with agriculture.
Not only industry, but many of the scientific and technological achievements of mankind are the result of the struggle against hunger.
Humanity is currently enjoying a brief period of good fortune, unique in history, where it is eating the most, eating the cheapest, and eating from the furthest distance.
However, it is unclear how long this situation will last.
Because the era of food overproduction is coming to an end and food shortages are an imminent future.

Dr. Lee Ju-ryang, a senior research fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI) and an agricultural expert, unfolds the living story of agriculture that we must know in “The Real Story of the Agricultural Economy You Don’t Know,” from the history of civilization regarding agriculture, the infrastructure industry for human survival, to a breathless report on the current fierce competition in the global food industry.


From the three-field farming system to tractors, fertilizers, and genetic engineering, the history of mankind's challenges and responses in the fight against the fear of hunger, the story of the dinosaur company ABCD that seized hegemony in the global food industry, the story of the birth of futures trading and the development of finance, the quiet diplomatic war between great powers over food, the sweet success of Korean strawberries and the direction we should take, the behind-the-scenes story of the Two-horned Hanwoo and chicken industries, the behind-the-scenes story of the development of Tongil Rice that we don't know about, and the story of the global food industry emerging as a blue ocean, this book contains almost all stories about agriculture, crossing eras, national borders, industries, and academia. It presents industrial insights and academic implications of agriculture to help Koreans dispel their prejudices and preconceptions about agriculture, and reveals the reasons why we should be interested in the industry of agriculture and its new possibilities.

Modern agriculture is not so idyllic.
It is close to a sum of cogwheels that are invisible to the eye but are tightly interlocked and rotate.
And within it boils the greed of capital, the logic of international politics, and the primal desire between hunger and gastronomy.
It is often thought that there are many countries that export food, but this is not the case.
It's the same as how there are only a few countries on the planet that export semiconductors, including Korea, the United States, and Taiwan.
There are only a few countries that can export sufficient quantities of food, including the United States, Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Canada, and India.
There are many more countries importing it.
And there are very few countries that do not export food at all, although the amount and type may vary.
--- From the "Prologue"

Most recent broadcasts dealing with agriculture and rural areas either trivialize them through entertainment or mukbangs, or portray them as a third space, separate from city life.
Agricultural and rural areas exist independently, unconnected to cities or secondary and tertiary industries, or are merely places to visit for a few days.
However, agriculture and rural areas should not be trivialized or become separate spaces.
Cities and rural areas, agriculture and manufacturing are closely connected, and only then can we survive.
Agriculture is both an industry and a foundation.
It has the character of an industry, like semiconductors or automobiles, but also the character of a foundation that supports society, like national defense or medicine.
We cannot and should not depend entirely on foreign countries for agriculture.
Many of the problems in agriculture, unlike those in other industries, boil down to questions of philosophy and choice.
It is different from other industries where sales are good, like in ordinary companies.

--- From the "Prologue"

Among the technologies developed by mankind so far, agricultural technology is almost the only one that can save a billion people.
Contrary to our perception, the technological complexity and difficulty of the research process and results of agricultural science and technology are no less than those of lunar exploration or the semiconductor industry.
In this respect, the 20th century produced a torrent of incredible scientific achievements, including semiconductors, information and communication, and automobiles, but agricultural technology, which freed billions of people from hunger, deserves to be praised as the greatest technology ever created by humans.

--- From "Chapter 1: The Struggle Against Hunger, From Food to Industry"

Eighty percent of the world's grain trade is handled by the massive grain conglomerates known as ABCD. These conglomerates, which play a key role in the global agricultural and grain markets, boast over 100 years of history. The acronym ABCD stands for Archer Daniels Midland (ADM, USA), Bunge (US), Cargill (US), and Louis Dreyfus (Europe).
These companies wield significant influence in the global food market, engaging in diverse businesses related to agriculture and grain, as well as processing, transportation, and finance. All ABCD companies began by building large warehouses to purchase grain and transport it to various locations for trading and processing.
Initially specializing in grain transportation, trading, or processing, the company gradually expanded its business to reduce risk and increase added value, shaping itself into the giant agricultural enterprise it is today.

--- From "Chapter 2: The Fiercely Revolving Global Food Industry"

Generally, when the national income exceeds $30,000, the people of that country rarely do agricultural work.
Instead, the country's citizens move into the position of agricultural managers.
Because there are many other work alternatives for the citizens besides agricultural work.
Our country's agriculture relies on Southeast Asian labor, American agriculture relies on Hispanic labor, including Mexican labor, Dutch agriculture relies on Polish labor, and Spanish agriculture relies on Algerian labor.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced many people around the world, who had taken the global food supply chain for granted, to rethink agriculture and food.
In the global food supply chain, sufficient food production is only a minimum requirement.
Even if food production is sufficient, there are many reasons why the global food supply chain can be disrupted.
The coronavirus pandemic has provided numerous examples of how food supply chains can be disrupted even when production is intact.

--- From Chapter 3, “Why Are Some Countries Prosperous and Some Countries Starve?”

If Tongil rice is the Pony car, then the rice plants currently planted in our fields are the Genesis.
If Tongil Rice was a 64K DRAM, the rice plants currently planted in the fields are competing for the 6th generation HBM.
It just looks the same to our eyes.
We eat the finest rice every day, but the results of Korea's intense agricultural research have become a part of our lives without us even realizing it, and their value is not recognized.
In some ways, the path that Korean agriculture has taken is close to a miracle.
Although Koreans may not know it well, Korea is the only country in the world that has succeeded in achieving unprecedented agricultural growth.
Korean agriculture succeeded in catching up with the agricultural productivity that developed countries had achieved over hundreds of years in just 70 years since liberation.

--- From "Chapter 4: The Breathtaking Development of Korean Agriculture"

As a country becomes wealthier, its people's tastes also change.
In developing countries, most calories come from carbohydrates, mainly grains, but as incomes rise, the westernization and diversification of the diet accelerates.
The main source of calories also shifts from carbohydrates to meat protein.

As a country becomes more developed, the proportion of crops grown by plowing the land and harvesting crops decreases and the proportion of livestock farming increases.
The Netherlands, known as the world's leading facility horticulture powerhouse, is also a livestock-producing country when you look at production alone.
Switzerland, which has 90% mountainous terrain and a severe shortage of farmland for arable land, also develops agriculture centered on livestock.
Our country is following a similar trend.
In 1984, the per capita rice consumption of Koreans was 130 kg, but it fell to 56 kg in 2023.
In 2023, Koreans will consume 60.6 kg of the three major types of meat (pork, beef, and chicken), which is more than rice consumption.
Koreans are no longer a people who live on rice, but a people who live on meat.

--- From "Chapter 6: The Economics of Beef, Pork Belly, and Chicken"