The recently issued fiscal 2007 government white paper on agriculture conveys a strong sense of crisis over Japan's food supply, stating that "unprecedented changes are taking place." The government must take measures to increase domestic food production and stabilize food imports, and consumers should change their wasteful eating habits.
Japan's food self-sufficiency rate fell to 39 percent on a calorie basis in fiscal 2006. This year, international prices of cereals such as wheat and corn climbed to record levels, due to crop failure attributed to climate change, increasing use of cereals for biofuel production, and population increases in developing countries.
In this situation, Japan's abandonment of 386,000 hectares of agricultural fields, equivalent to the area of Saitama Prefecture, mainly to avoid creating an oversupply of rice, cannot be justified. The government should pursue a policy of improving efficiency in rice production while increasing production of other crops such as wheat and soybeans.