Developing the Production of Non-Staple Foods
(July 3 and 4, 1959)

This document has been reviewed with some revisions; it is a good document. Please have it read by Comrade Xiannian first, then print a clean proof, and ensure there are no errors. If there are mistakes in the revisions, please have Comrade Xiannian correct them by hand; I will not review it further. Then send it to Comrades Liu, Zhou, Zhu, Tan Zhenlin, Peng Dehuai, and Hu Qiaomu for review, and then hand it over to Comrade Shangkun for distribution to all comrades attending the Lushan Conference. Additionally, send it by telegram immediately to the Party committees of all provinces, cities, and autonomous regions. Ensure no errors!
Mao Zedong
Written in bed at 1:00 a.m., July 3.

Party committees in large and medium-sized cities must comprehensively plan and strengthen leadership over agricultural production in the suburbs. They must implement the policy of simultaneously developing agriculture, industry, transportation (communications), and commerce. They must manage industry well (this is the focus of cities) and also manage agriculture well; they must manage production well and also manage circulation well. To facilitate circulation, transportation and communications must be developed accordingly. Cities, of course, take industry as the focus, but now, in a period of severe shortage of non-staple foods, emphasis must be placed on suburban agriculture. By agriculture, we mean the comprehensive balance of the five sectors: farming, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, and fishery. Vegetables belong to farming; pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, etc., belong to animal husbandry; aquatic products belong to fishery. Livestock and poultry must be well-fed to grow, which requires the production of large quantities of both concentrated and coarse fodder—this, in turn, is agriculture. Grazing livestock requires forested land and grasslands, so attention must also be paid to forestry and grassland management. From this perspective, for the sake of non-staple foods, all five major sectors—farming, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, and fishery—are interconnected and indispensable.

A state under the dictatorship of the proletariat can certainly ensure that there are vegetables to eat, oil to consume, pigs to eat, fish to eat, beef cattle to eat, sheep to eat, chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits to eat, and eggs to eat. We should have the ambition and determination to accomplish this socialist undertaking, which holds great political and economic significance, and we should also have the confidence to achieve it. Everything is for the benefit of the people. It is hoped that Party committees at all levels, upon receiving this directive, will carefully plan and immediately set to work. Not only large and medium-sized cities but also county towns and rural market towns should follow this approach. Party committees at all levels should designate a secretary or a dedicated cadre to specifically oversee non-staple foods.

IV
To the Party Committees of All Provinces, Cities, and Autonomous Regions:
The Central Committee approves the report of the meeting led by Comrade Li Xiannian in Shanghai on thoroughly resolving the issues of non-staple foods and handicrafts, as well as the directive drafted on behalf of the Central Committee. These are now issued to you, and it is expected that you will thoroughly comply with and implement them. First, issue the directive on non-staple foods, and later issue the directive on handicrafts.
Central Committee
July 4, 1959