Among the many concerns of human civilization, food affairs are fundamental to individual survival, the functioning of society and national stability.
From meeting people's daily needs and enabling the division of labour to sustaining orderly economic activity and effective governance, every other human endeavour rests on an adequate and reliable food supply and an efficient, resilient food system.
Food affairs are a primary foundation of national governance and an upstream safeguard of human health. When the food system is secure, industries can flourish; when it falls into disorder, every sphere of society is placed at risk.
What Does It Mean to Put Food Affairs First?
Food affairs are humanity's first order of business. "Food Affairs First" means that addressing food-related concerns should take precedence over other matters; it is a core principle of Shiology, the systematic study of food affairs. Long before people learned to make clothing, build houses, construct vehicles or mint money, obtaining food was already a daily necessity. Whether viewed through the chronology of civilization, the hierarchy of essential needs or the logic of health management, food affairs occupy an indispensable position.
Time: Food Affairs Came Before Other Human Pursuits
Throughout human history, food affairs preceded not only other organized pursuits but civilization itself. Agricultural civilization began to emerge around 10,000 BCE as humans domesticated plants and animals and began to produce food surpluses. These surpluses enabled a growing division of labour, after which clothing, housing, transport, medicine, commerce, government and other spheres gradually developed. Food affairs thus provided the initial impetus for state formation. They gave rise to civilization, while other human pursuits developed on the foundations that civilization created.
Value: Food Affairs Take Precedence over Other Pursuits
From a systems perspective, the food system forms a foundational layer of the wider social system, supporting such spheres as clothing, housing, transport, healthcare and education. A disruption in food supply can trigger cascading failures across these other systems. The resilience of society as a whole therefore depends to a significant degree on the resilience of its food system. This is an enduring reality and a fundamental principle of social development.
Food as the First Priority of Governance
The ancient maxim "Of the eight concerns of government set out in the Great Plan, food comes first" appears in the Treatise on Food and Money, Book IV of the Book of Han, compiled by Ban Gu during the Eastern Han dynasty. It means that, among the eight major concerns of governance recorded in the Great Plan, ensuring that people have enough to eat comes first—before finance, sacrificial rites, public works, education and ceremony, justice, diplomacy and military affairs.
Throughout China's long history of governance, the principle that food comes first has served as a key measure of dynastic prosperity or decline and of social order or turmoil. From the well-field system to the Ever-Normal Granary, and from grain ration coupons to the modern strategic grain-reserve system, institutional arrangements centred on food have consistently played a vital role in social governance and cohesion. The stability of food order both reflects and reinforces the stability of social order, revealing a close structural correspondence between the two.
When granaries are full and food supplies are secure, people can live and work in peace and society can enjoy lasting stability. When harvests fail, food is scarce and livelihoods deteriorate, public confidence weakens and disorder can follow. From antiquity to the present, supporting agriculture and safeguarding food security have remained fundamental to maintaining social order and strengthening the foundations of the state.
Today, food affairs remain a top priority in governing and securing a nation and an essential pillar of national security. They bear directly on people’s wellbeing, social stability and long-term national development. Rural revitalization, agricultural modernization, stronger grain reserves and effective food-safety regulation all embody the continuing relevance of the principle that food comes first in governance.
Food Before Medicine: The Upstream Logic of Health Management
In Shiology, the principle of "Food Before Medicine" defines the relationship between food affairs and medical care as one between upstream and downstream. If health management is compared to a river, food affairs lie upstream and medical care downstream.
A recent large-scale evaluation published in Nature Medicine provides strong supporting evidence. In Massachusetts, receipt of medically tailored meals (MTMs)—designed by registered dietitians and delivered to patients'homes—was associated with fewer hospitalizations and emergency-department visits and lower overall healthcare costs among people with diet-sensitive conditions and food insecurity. The findings illustrate the value of addressing food affairs upstream: better food and nutrition support can reduce the burden of disease downstream and improve system-wide efficiency.
Within this framework, food affairs represent proactive health management, whereas medical treatment generally intervenes after health problems have emerged. Upstream prevention and dietary management are often less costly and more efficient than downstream treatment. Because food affairs sit upstream in the health-management chain, giving them due priority can improve the overall effectiveness of health governance.
Conclusion
Food affairs come first; other human pursuits follow. This is not simply a matter of preference, but a reflection of a fundamental dependency: prosperity and the advance of civilization both require a secure and well-functioning food system.
Safeguarding the primacy of food affairs means safeguarding the shared foundation of individual health and sustainable social development.
Putting food affairs first is not only a recognition of this fundamental reality; it is also an expression of responsibility for humanity's future.
Contact Person: Mr Zhang E-mail: Secretariat@shiology.world