China's struggle to feed its expanding population has suffered a new setback. Peking announced recently that grain output last year was down 10,000,000 metric tons from a high of 250 million tons in 1971. The reasons for the decline were heavy floods and windstorms in many parts of China and one of the worst droughts in a century in the northern provinces.
The continuing drought threatens to cut into this year's food production as well. To combat this danger, hundreds of thousands of urban office workers are being sent out to work in the countryside. In eastern Shansi province, which has had...
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