Australian: Japan warned of food shortage
Surrounded by fast-growing Asian economies and their even faster-growing appetites, Japan is facing a potential food crisis that could reduce daily diets to the austere meals of the 1950s, a senior government adviser believes. According to the stark warning of Akio Shibata, director of the Marubeni Research Institute, the rise of China and the intensifying global race for commodities mean that the rich and highly varied diet of modern Japan could be savagely curtailed within the next 10 years...The Government's plan for dealing with the potential food crisis is likely to involve two strategies. First, to force domestic farmers to use Japan's one million acres of unused agricultural land more efficiently. Second, to persuade the vast ranks of baby boomers, who will retire en masse next year, to take up farming in their twilight years.
