A barbecue restaurant in Yantai, Shandong Province, uses corn kernels as fuel, which has recently caused widespread concern and controversy in society.The barbecue restaurant involved responded that the move was not a waste, but to help farmers increase their income through sales, and emphasized that the corn used was "aged grain" - that is, corn whose storage quality has deteriorated and is not suitable for direct use as rations.
In this regard, many food and agriculture experts expressed different views. Wang Xingguo, executive director of the China Cereals and Oils Society, said the use of corn kernels as fuel is not recommended. He pointed out that from the perspective of food safety, corn has high value as a raw material for food, feed or fuel alcohol. However, if it is not burned fully when burned directly, it may produce large smoke and cause carcinogens to adhere to the food. Its safety is not as good as traditional charcoal fire.
Li Shaokun, senior chief expert at the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and leader of the expert guidance group for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs’ corn yield improvement project, expressed regret and opposition to this. He emphasized,Our country's food is still in a state of "tight balance". Saving food is still a social consensus and should not be wasted at will.Li Shaokun further pointed out that as residents' living standards improve and the consumption of meat, eggs and milk continues to increase the demand for corn feed, my country still needs to import about 20 million tons of corn every year. "The food security of 1.4 billion people still needs to sound the alarm."
Regarding the question of "Corn is also used to produce ethanol as fuel in the industrial field, why can't it be burned directly?" Li Shaokun responded that using corn in high value-added industries such as liquor, medicine, and chemicals, or producing corn ethanol through industrial routes, is a completely different concept from directly burning corn kernels. The latter is an inefficient way of utilizing resources. Every grain of corn embodies social resources and labor costs and should not be consumed in this way.
He also pointed out thatThe commercial practice of merchants using grain—even aged grain—directly as fuel may send wrong signals to society and weaken the public’s awareness of cherishing food, and therefore should not be encouraged and publicized.
