Rice fields


Rice fields here in Japan are so much part of the daily life. You drive past them, you bicycle or walk there, greeting the farmer, saying "good morning" and there is a mutual smile as you both remember long talks you had earlier this year, in the winter months, wondering about this and that.

Pandabonium sent me this photo he took last week near Kasama.

I like the way that white truck is far away in the distance. We are all having to learn how to live without cars and gasoline, now it is a time to start appreciating biodiversity and abundant water.

Comments

Pandabonium said…
I was so happy to come across a scene without roads and power lines and concrete buildings everywhere. I hope we can end the madness of converting farmland to buildings and roads. We will need the food as well as the tranquility that such scenes bring.
6:20 pm, May 22, 2008
Martin J Frid said…
Yes, the famous quote、"Man does not live by bread alone" comes to mind.

When farming is done well, it can indeed bring peace of mind as well as the blessing of a (mostly) full stomach. Tranquility is also priceless, but the Mitsubishi Research Institute has calculatd the "environmental externalities" of rice paddy farming around the country. According to calculation by the substitutive cost method, the total value of environmental externalities provided by paddy fields is estimated to reach 4,600 billion Yen.

http://www.maff.go.jp/soshiki/kambou/Environment/index.html

Anyway, back to work...
10:39 am, May 23, 2008
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