Japan's food crisis

UN sets out food crisis measures
...
Mr Ban said export restrictions and import tariffs ought to be minimised to alleviate the crisis.
...
BBC NEWS | Special Reports | UN sets out food crisis measures

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The Haitian case was:
that they minimised the import tariffs;
that cheaper products came into the market;
and that the price rise caused the riot.

The Japan's case, so far...
1. Japan protects the rice market and agreed with so-called minimum access from the rice exporting countries, mainly from the US.
2. The majority of rice has not been consumed, but stored.
3. A bureaucratic choice would be possible to keep importing the rice. But I don't know if it is a right one under the current crisis.

It is good for Japan to announce that we will release the storage to other countries to ease the crisis. But it is a merely temporary relief after all.

Interesting. Now, while the OP is, in one way, general enough to include 'food' in general (rather than just the staples) I'd like to point out that at least in the Nagano area, we are having problems with keeping butter in the stores. Milk also seems to be getting a little tight.

The problem appears to be the costs of feeding the animals--and one point there seems to be increased interest in using land for ethenol (is it?). (and of course, recent national increases in gasoline prices/taxes didn't help)

No butter in my close supermarket, either.

I don't know what will happen in the length of Nagano-limited giant pocky (Muscat flavored)...

http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news/20080530k0000m040123000c.html
ﾂ「ﾂ春窶ｰﾃ伉（窶堋ｵ窶堙｣窶堙ｱ窶堋ｩﾂ）窶慊ｰﾂ」ﾂ（窶｢lﾂ渉ｼﾅｽs窶吮??窶ｹﾃｦﾂ、ﾅｽRﾂ催ｨ窶佚猟弘ﾅｽﾃ絶?卍ｷﾂ）窶堙哉弛ﾆ耽ﾂー窶堙個湘≫?敕ｯ窶氾岩?堙ｰ窶媒窶堋ｦ窶堙ｩ窶堋ｽ窶堙淞、窶凖環信窶敕娯?昶?樞?堙｢ﾅｽo窶凪?ｦ窶｢i窶堙個青ｶﾅｽY窶ｹxﾅｽ~窶堙俄?慊･窶堙昶?堋ｫ窶堙ｨﾂ、ﾂ「窶冢ﾅ陳ｳ窶堙??敕娯?昶?樞?堋ｷ窶堙ｩ窶堋､窶堙遺?堋ｬﾆ恥ﾆ辰窶堙坂?ｰﾂｽ窶堙??堋ｩﾅｽﾃｧ窶堙ｨ窶敖ｲ窶堋ｫ窶堋ｽ窶堋｢ﾂ」窶堙??堋ｵ窶堙??堋｢窶堙ｩﾂ。

No butter, no eel cookies
(...under the critical shortage of butter), Shunka-Do announced that they would suspend its mail-order sale of eel cookies.

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I don't think it would be a curse of cookie monster after closure of Sesame Place Tokyo because he can still eat it in Hamatsu. It is partly due to mismanagement of the protective policy, for severe criticism happened against dairy farmers who dumped milk in Kyushu/Hokkaido two years ago.

Yet, Japan severely depends on import of animal feeds from the US/Australia.

More news on the food crisis;

"Yoshiki Yamashita works in the communications department of Kirin Brewery Company.

"We cannot say whether the situation will improve or worsen in the future, but if we look at the cost of ingredients and raw materials over the last year it is clear that prices are going up," Yamashita said.

Of the four main Japanese beer makersﾂ―Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo and Suntoryﾂ―Kirin became the first to raise its prices, in February.

Market demand for malt doubled between 2006 and 2007, and hops cost 30 percent extra in the fall of 2007 than they had one year previously, according to Yamashita.

In total, the cost of ingredients for beer climbed to 7.2 billion yen (U.S. $69.23 million) in 2007, he said. In 2008, that figure is expected to hit 10 billion yen ($96.13 million).

In the past year, the cost of instant noodles has risen 17 percent, spaghetti is up 13 percent, and mayonnaise 10 percent. In April, butter practically disappeared from supermarket shelves as surging global grain prices made it impossible for Japan's dairy farmers to import enough feed to increase milk production.

For the first time since the oil shock of the early 1970s, stores had to post notices apologizing for not having stocks of basic foodstuffs, sending a shiver through consumers";

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080603-japan-food_2.html


Beer, spaghetti, mayonnaise, noodles, rice, fish, wheat, soy beans, meat etc etc...They're all going up in cost in Japan and across the rest of the world as well.
The price of tortilla's is also going up;

"About 40m Mexicans live on $5 (ﾂ≫??.50) a day, or less.

Tortillas are what these people live on, so they are much more than just bread. And when the price of tortillas rises, it is big news.

That is why a recent announcement by Mexico's National Chamber for the Tortilla and Dough Industry made such an impact.

The chamber predicted that tortilla prices would rise by about 18% in the next month because of rising costs of fuel and corn.";

BBC NEWS | Americas | Tortilla prices put pressure on poor


Supermarkets are beginning to ration rice over here in my country;

"Rice is as much a staple of the modern British diet as bread and potatoes.

So the news that supermarket chain Lidl has decided to ration sales to 20kg per family has sent ominous rumblings through the nation's stomachs.

The global rice shortage has been caused by poor harvests, increased demand in growing economies, and hoarding in the expectation of further price rises.";

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Against the grain

The Germans are having food issues too, like with milk for example;

"Shops in Germany say they are starting to run out of milk after days of protests by dairy farmers against what they say are unsustainably low prices.

The German milk industry federation said that blockades of milk processing plants by angry farmers had cost the industry nearly 50m euros (ﾂ≫??9.5m).

Protesters have also emptied milk tankers onto the ground.

Farmers are demanding a minimum price of 0.43 euros (ﾂ≫??.34) a litre - at least 20% more than the current price.

They say rising fuel and feed costs have pushed up their operating costs but the retail price of milk has not increased correspondingly";

BBC NEWS | Europe | German shops running out of milk

Unnatural roots of the food crisis;

"As representatives of the world's governments gather to address shortages in major foodstuffs and rising prices, Gonzalo Oviedo counsels them to focus on ecosystems. The modern business-dominated agricultural industry, he argues, promotes the degradation of nature - and that, in turn, means less and worse food.";

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Unnatural roots of the food crisis





Hmm...

... ... ...

...Screw this, i'm going off to buy me some land so i can grow my own food !!