Japanese government creates rice shortage so bad they have to release strategic stockpiles. And still refuses to allow rice imports.
For the curious: Japan has extremely strict laws regarding rice imports, to protect local rice farmers. They also took the US’ Great Depression route, and paid farmers to stop growing rice. The government was concerned that plentiful rice harvests, (combined with dropping consumption, from younger people increasingly moving towards less traditional foods), would tank the price of rice. But then harvests weren’t great, there was a panic-buying streak last year which emptied existing supplies, the war in Ukraine led to rising wheat costs, (pushing those younger people back towards eating rice instead of bread), and a surge in tourism led to increased rice consumption from all the dining out.
To be clear, this isn’t a natural rice shortage; This is the Japanese government refusing to relax the rules on imports, even while people struggle to afford food. There are plenty of countries that have a lot of excess rice, but Japanese stores aren’t allowed to sell that foreign rice, because it would hurt the Japanese rice farmers who were paid to not grow rice.
This sounds interesting to learn more about, do you have any sources you recommend reading further on it?
so why exactly doesn’t the government just buy the excess rice from the farmers instead of paying them to not grow? it’s rice, it’s not difficult to store basically forever, and they clearly do have stockpiles to dip into…
just build a bunch of huge silos and enjoy never ever having to worry about a food shortage, and local farmers being able to grow precisely as much rice as makes sense for them.
Why is rice being stockpiled but not cycled out?
https://winneram.com/does-rice-expire-does-rice-go-bad-faq-we-answer-your-questions-about-rice/
Standard varieties of dried “white” rice are generally non-perishable when stored properly. It tends to be extremely shelf stable (there’s a reason disaster preppers stock up on white rice in their emergency food rations).
If stored properly, white rice will last at least 10 years—if not forever. Since white rice is dry, mold or bacteria have trouble growing; and since white rice doesn’t contain fat, it won’t go rancid.
White rice is basically the hard tack (clack clack) of the east.
White rice is basically the hard tack (clack clack) of the east.
Calm down Max.
I’ve made hard tack because of Max Miller. Hellfire stew, too, and it was surprisingly good. I did season it a bit more than just hard tack and bacon, of course, but it’s a pretty damn good dish.
Oh oh - he alluded to Weenie Royale in his video about food in the Japanese internment camps, so I looked up a recipe for that and made it a couple of times. Also surprisingly good, albeit a bit of a historically accurate reminder of the cruelty of human beings while eating it.
There are a few of his recipes I’ve wanted to try, but I cook for a bunch of pretty picky eaters.
Make them enough for everyone, and also some dry white toast for anyone who doesn’t want to eat the food that someone else cooked for them.
