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Clearly they've failed at achieving ”food security” if the local demand for potatoes has outstripped local supply. The apparent bias against resorting to impor
by qubex 10y ago
Clearly they've failed at achieving ”food security” if the local demand for potatoes has outstripped local supply.
The apparent bias against resorting to importation also seems to indicate it is largely thinly-veiled protectionism and political cultivation of special interests.
Furthermore however intuitive it may seem it runs contrary to hundreds of years of economic orthodoxy, known as Ricardo's Comparative Advantage.
- mywittyname 10y agoIt depends on what you mean by security. They may not be insulated from large-scale crop failures, but they are insulated from heavily-subsidized foreign companies dumping products on their market in a bid to undercut domestic prices and eliminate local producers as competitors. As with most things, it comes down to a trade-off: increased risk of disruptions from ecological events in return for a decreased risk from geopolitical situations. One is not inherently better than the other, but Japan has a preference for self-sufficiency as much as possible.
- flukus 10y ago> Clearly they've failed at achieving ”food security” if the local demand for potatoes has outstripped local supply. How so? Food security is being able to feed the country even when it's completely isolated, not having potato chips on store shelves.