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> China would need the kind of explosive growth we have seen just to get everyone a refrigerator Not sure if you meant that literally but I've been to some pre

> China would need the kind of explosive growth we have seen just to get everyone a refrigerator Not sure if you meant that literally but I've been to some pretty poor places in China and they do have refrigerators...

jbooth 9y ago
Yeah, but they're new, and there's still a culture of food preservation that we lost here at some point. US fish buying: Buy a pleasant-looking filet off a bed of ice, get it into refrigeration asap China fish buying: Bring a plastic bag, put live fish in bag of water, transfer to a short-term tank at home. It's actually superior, you can't get any fresher than "I killed this fish 5 seconds ago". And then there's all the salted food around spring festival. Plain cabbage has never been so appealing.
- zhte415 9y ago
  A fresh fish killed and put on ice is a lot fresher tasting than a half-dead fish limp but alive in a home fish tank.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
I’ve been to some places where they don’t have refrigerators. Well, it was 5000 meters up in Tibetan territory and they didn’t exactly need them.
benjaminl 9y ago
The larger point still stands. China needs a high rate of grow just to be able to catch up and afford things taken for granted in the developed world. In an example related to the parent, China's cold chains while rapidly improving are well behind what would be acceptable in the developed world: > While between 85 percent and 100 percent of fruit and vegetables sold in the U.S. are transported in refrigerated conditions, in China, only 20 percent of those perishables are shipped in such a manner, resulting in a high spoilage rate of up to 40 percent. In the U.S., that rate is closer to 5 percent. http://www.livingstonintl.com/freight-transportation-updates/chinas-need-for-cold-chain-improvement/ http://www.livingstonintl.com/freight-transportation-updates...

jbooth 9y ago

Yeah, but they're new, and there's still a culture of food preservation that we lost here at some point. US fish buying: Buy a pleasant-looking filet off a bed of ice, get it into refrigeration asap China fish buying: Bring a plastic bag, put live fish in bag of water, transfer to a short-term tank at home. It's actually superior, you can't get any fresher than "I killed this fish 5 seconds ago". And then there's all the salted food around spring festival. Plain cabbage has never been so appealing.

zhte415 9y ago
A fresh fish killed and put on ice is a lot fresher tasting than a half-dead fish limp but alive in a home fish tank.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

I’ve been to some places where they don’t have refrigerators. Well, it was 5000 meters up in Tibetan territory and they didn’t exactly need them.

benjaminl 9y ago

The larger point still stands. China needs a high rate of grow just to be able to catch up and afford things taken for granted in the developed world. In an example related to the parent, China's cold chains while rapidly improving are well behind what would be acceptable in the developed world: > While between 85 percent and 100 percent of fruit and vegetables sold in the U.S. are transported in refrigerated conditions, in China, only 20 percent of those perishables are shipped in such a manner, resulting in a high spoilage rate of up to 40 percent. In the U.S., that rate is closer to 5 percent. http://www.livingstonintl.com/freight-transportation-updates/chinas-need-for-cold-chain-improvement/ http://www.livingstonintl.com/freight-transportation-updates...