June 5, 2000
The Japanese government recently decided on a target of raising the food self-sufficiency rate–that is, the ratio of food consumed daily by the Japanese that is supplied by domestic production–to 45% by fiscal 2010, a five-percentage-point increase over the fiscal 1998 level of 40%. The goal is based on the idea of food security, by which a country should endeavor to ensure the minimum necessary supply of food in case of poor harvests at home or abroad caused by such factors as abnormal weather conditions, or in case of an unexpected situation, such as a state of war. Japan is the first developed country to set a numerical target for food self-sufficiency. From now on the government will make all-out efforts to increase the production of agricultural and other products. But it will face many issues in trying to reach the target, as the main causes of the decline in the self-sufficiency rate are, after all, such factors as a shift to Western-style eating habits and a near-zero recycling rate for leftovers, nearly all of which are discarded as waste. Web Japan
10 April 2008 IPS “The only way for China to be spared the consequences of global food shortages and food price hikes is to remain firmly self-sufficient,” declared an emphatic editorial in the 21st Century Economic Herald last week.
The warnings come as the whole of Asia is rattled by the surge in the price of rice — the continent’s food staple. Prices have doubled since January, prompting Asian farmers to hoard rice, while export bans have sliced off a third of the global rice trade.
As far as I know, we have no policy at all on this. The best figures I could find suggest we currently only produce 60% of what we eat. That really does not seem wise.
but possibly we produce more than we actually need? We def overeat here. Think we could subsist on half the amount of food we buy.
and then, according to the studies on Okinawa we’d probably live longer (reduced calorie intake) which might not go very far to resolve any self-sufficiency issues…
I thought 60% sounded a decent proportion. Given the amount that is imported that can’t really grown here (eg Rice, various fruit and veg – oranges, bannanas)
Modern agriculture is basically a system for turning petrol into food. Does it sound like a decent proportion if oil is $200 a barrel and every vegetable or piece of meat reflects the cost and environmental impact of lorry haulage from the other end of Europe or shipping from the other side of the world? Can we be sure that we will be able to pay for the ships and lorries, let alone the food in them? Will we even have the oil to fuel them with?
Does it sound like a decent proportion if population growth in the countries from whom we are importing continues and they need the food themselves and ban exports (as is already happening in Asia)?
Does it sound like a decent proportion when we are borrowing the money we use to buy a sizeable proportion of the goods we are importing, and have no plan at all as to how we might pay it back?
Does it sound like a decent proportion when year on year the number of mouths we have to feed increases while our manufacturing industry and agriculture declines, and each year our ability to either produce our own food or to pay for food produced by others or to service our debts declines?