The order came in April. China’s government instructed farmers in the country’s northeastern breadbasket region to grow more soybeans, calling it “a political priority.”
But soybean fields lay empty in the village of Sandaogou, which means “Three Ditches,” in Liaoning province. It has been a dry spring.
“We’ve had a drought this year, so we planted soybeans late. The seedlings should be out by now. We need more rain,” says farmer Liu, who only gives her surname for fear of trouble with local authorities. Soy, after all, has become “political.”
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