Feed crunch
Japanese beef prices are about to get even higher, the country's farmers said Wednesday, due to higher feed prices. AP notes that the cost of feed in Japan has risen by about a third over the last year, mainly because of the rise in US corn prices. Corn can be used for making ethanol, and the demand is growing for ethanol, a kind of biofuel, because of soaring oil prices.
In 1960, Japan produced almost all the beef, pork and dairy products the nation consumed. In recent years, Japan imports about half of the beef and pork, as well as about a third of the dairy products.
Using corn for animal feed or for fuel will never be sustainable. Japanese farmers need to rethink their priorities. It is good that they try to reach out to consumers, but I doubt that most people know that animal feed is imported. Also, as consumers find out that the feed mostly is GMO corn or soy-based products, there will be a lot of explaining to do here.
Mainichi: Farmers ask for public understanding on beef price hike amid soaring feed costs
In 1960, Japan produced almost all the beef, pork and dairy products the nation consumed. In recent years, Japan imports about half of the beef and pork, as well as about a third of the dairy products.
Using corn for animal feed or for fuel will never be sustainable. Japanese farmers need to rethink their priorities. It is good that they try to reach out to consumers, but I doubt that most people know that animal feed is imported. Also, as consumers find out that the feed mostly is GMO corn or soy-based products, there will be a lot of explaining to do here.
Mainichi: Farmers ask for public understanding on beef price hike amid soaring feed costs
Comments
How do we tell a starving child that they will go hungry because our bad energy and eating habits are more important to us?
If, by "sustainable" you mean that you aren't depleting a non-renewable resource, then of course using corn for feed can be sustainable. Here in Japan you actually have the slightly perverse situation of producing more rice than in fact is consumed, with large surpluses effectively being thrown away each year. Would some of that acreage be converted to growing foods that people do want to consume (other cereals and vegetables to eat directly, or to feed livestock), you'd have less of a discrepancy. Allow more large-scale farming and the discrepancy would diminish further.
There is no intrinsic reason Japan could not still be largely self-sufficient. It would need some rather painful decisions, and a deliberate shift in commitment from viewing rural Japan as a cultural and historical resource to a modern agricultural one. I'm not at all sure which is preferable, and as a non-citizen it is certainly not my place to try to push for any one view in any case.