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Im somewhat baffled by this policy… just produce as much rice as you can, buy surplus from farmers and give it out cheap/free as food assistance to developing c
by pm90 2y ago
Im somewhat baffled by this policy… just produce as much rice as you can, buy surplus from farmers and give it out cheap/free as food assistance to developing countries. Surely a small cost to the Government to get a steady, controlled production numbers.
- rglullis 2y agoAnd then get accused of dumping by the WTO?
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> then get accused of dumping by the WTO? Plenty of countries have subsidised or even free food programmes. (EDIT: Nvm, missed “to developing countries.”)
- jncfhnb 2y agoDumping is not related to subsidized or free food programs. Dumping is about offloading a ton of cheap product in another country.
- jncfhnb 2y agoProviding free food to poor countries runs the food producers out of business in those countries and counter intuitively harms their food security
- erremerre 2y agoThen give it to your enemies, send it to North Korea!
- rasz 2y agoMore money for Nuke development aimed at Japan?
- inanutshellus 2y agothen... you could dump it in the ocean and feed fish to help the fishing industry (which arguably would be a wise thing anyway given Japan's love of seafood). IIRC the USA did (does?) that with corn.
- HumblyTossed 2y agoIsn't that also how we ended up having corn in so much food we produce.
- ambicapter 2y agoDumping it into the ocean? Probably not.
- BlueTemplar 2y agoThat would be particularly stupid : agriculture is not something sustainable (at scales of thousands of years), and especially not agriculture using fertilizer based on fossil fuels (only sustainable at scales of hundreds of years ?), which I presume Japanese farmers use ? And you suggest that they deplete this non-renewable resource faster ?
- inanutshellus 2y agoThe intent was to strategically react to crises, as opposed to the existing perpetual (60 years and counting) bribe program. Strategically/rarely buying and dumping excessively cheap grain would bolster farmers' livelihoods, prevent price collapse, and... some fish get fed one time.
- jncfhnb 2y agoThen the farmers are incentivized to overproduce every year because the government will buy the crops
- inanutshellus 2y ago
- nothackerfox 2y agoThis is true. In the spirit of charity, what if we kill more businesses? Seems like doing good in the world can also have negative impacts we may not be aware of.
- BurningFrog 2y agoSelling it on the open world market should benefit the world the most.
- jncfhnb 2y agoIt still boils down to dumping. This is a hard problem. You don’t want the global markets determining that you have a competitive disadvantage relative to peers and thus want to import all of your food and abandon your domestic production. You also don’t want farmers hitting the prisoners dilemma issue of producing as much crop as possible because then farms die from competition. And again letting them die is not good for a critical industry like food. Paying farmers to underutilize their land is a less insane idea than it sounds.
- wolpoli 2y agoThen they could give free food to countries that are experiencing short-term famine through natural or man-made disasters. In such a situation, consumers are helped and producers aren't really able to increase production in response to the high price - hence a famine.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoUnless those countries are already net importers of rice
- ReptileMan 2y agoI would say that aid to developing countries is the one thing that has failed over and over again to improve them. Even China raw exploitation of those countries probably brings more development to a country than aid.
- alephnerd 2y ago> buy surplus from farmers With what money? Japan already has some of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios in the world, the Yen is increasingly unstable, and much of the budget is spent on the Japanese Welfare system that cannot be messed with or you are committing political suicide along with rising defense expenditures that are now required due to North Korea's military buildup. The existing status quo is good enough to keep farmers happy (and not switching their vote) while leaving money on the table to be used for social spending, defense, and debt payments.
- mitthrowaway2 2y agoJapan's government debt is owed to... Japan, mostly the Bank of Japan (ie, the government). Ironically the yen is weak because Japanese interest rates are low, because Japanese prices have barely nudged since 1990, averaging approximately no inflation until roughly last year. If anything, Japan isn't printing nearly enough yen. They can afford to spend more and tax less.
- alephnerd 2y ago> If anything, Japan isn't printing nearly enough money Japan has very low wages compared to other OECD countries (the average wage in Japan is only around $25,000), so inflation - especially the kind you are proposing - is catastrophic, especially given how a significant proportion of the population is on a fixed income due to retirement or social subsidizes due to un- or underemployment. This is why the Japanese government tries to limit inflation to 2%. > because Japanese prices have barely nudged since 1990 Because of significant government intervention.
- soperj 2y ago> Because of significant government intervention. Interest rates have been negative for nearly 2 decades. What significant government intervention has there been to keep inflation low? Personally I don't know why they didn't just raise the minimum wage.
- 2y ago
- InDubioProRubio 2y agoThen do a hasty non-thought through turn towards green fuels and watch as the poor developing countries whose poor you fed for years, tear there governments a new one, shredding your regional diplomacy policy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring Welcome to policy dependency hell.. its getting heated.. but gradually..
- downrightmike 2y agoFarm land conservation in the face of climate change is a good thing the USA has been doing it for generations. Depleting the land just because you can is a bad idea.
- downrightmike 2y agoDepleting the land in that manner is what caused the Dust Bowl
- refurb 2y agoYou’ve just destroyed the remaining rice growing industry in those countries and guaranteed they’ll never grow enough to feed themselves.