The issue of organically grown materials did not arise immediately. At that time, there was little attention given to organic foods even in the West. For example, in the U.S., there were only a few thousand acres of land with organic cultivation, very few outlets for organically grown food, and the foods were much more expensive than those produced by standard agricultural methods. In China, the concept of specifically seeking organically grown foods would not even make sense following the years of severe famine that from 1959 to 1976 probably killed about 30 million people. Simply getting enough food was an issue, and getting adequate variety of foods was still quite difficult, especially with the planned agricultural production determined by the central government that was often way off the mark of what was actually needed.