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The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

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Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#71

Post by Safety1stClyde »

emodendroket wrote: post #68
Safety1stClyde wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OK, pass a law stating certain areas of farmland cannot be converted to any other use. Japan already has such laws. They simply circumvent them and build more and more seven-elevens on agricultural land.

How is corporate ownership going to solve that problem? If anything I think it'd worsen it because a large corporate holder is going to be far more adept at skirting the regulations.

I haven't advocated corporate ownership, however what hkmurakami describes is an extremely accurate picture of the rural Japanese situation.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#72

Post by emodendroket »

kijin wrote: post #70
emodendroket wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True enough, although I'd think that by the time such a huge overhaul were accomplished the shortage would be over.

If there is political will, things like that can be done remarkably quickly. South Korea had a massive shortage of chicken eggs last winter due to an avian influenza epidemic. It took only a few weeks for the government to start importing fresh eggs from abroad, something that had never been done before. It wasn't enough to get prices down to normal levels, but at least the government acted quick -- especially consid…

It wasn't that long ago that the DPJ held power. Anyway, that's a fair point, but I think a shortage of eggs where people eat a lot of eggs and a shortage of potato chips are kind of different situations that don't necessarily need the same kind of response.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#73

Post by kalleboo »

hkmurakami wrote: post #24
yladiz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it, especially since you can generally get a much wider range of varieties of potatoes in the US than in Japan, not just organic/non-organic, but different colored potatoes as well. My guess is that the rhetoric coming from the companies that US potato quality is lower is more due to the government being protectionist about national agriculture. It's also probably due to the mentality that producers want spec…

I remember seeing a "food security" campaign where demonstraters wanted the country to achieve 100% food sufficiency as a national security prerogative. Wasn't sure if it was a strange form of nationalism, or a veiled lobbying effort by an interest group (the abundance of very small scale farmers across the countryside)

I'm led to believe that JA (the agricultural coop) is one of the strongest lobbies in the country. The government had a lot of work cut out for them to sell TPP.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#74

Post by kalleboo »

seunosewa wrote: post #5

I was thinking, "this is ridiculous; why can't they just import more potatoes?" and then I found this: "She also cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage." No, it is primarily responsible for the shortage.

I think it was last year that McDonald's Japan had to stop selling fries in portions bigger than small since their potatoes were imported from the US, and that supply was cut off due to union strike action in a US port. Any kind of single-sourcing is a bad idea.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#75

Post by nradov »

emodendroket wrote: post #55
iopq wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No amount of failed crops would cause a shortage if trade were free since there's a region in the world SOMEWHERE that's having a good year.

I suppose that's why there are no more famines anymore.

Famines are caused by bad governments, failed states, and violent conflicts. Not because there isn't enough food.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#77

Post by Larrikin »

iopq wrote: post #42
coldtea wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Life on an island with a historically strict protectionist food policy. There is no potato shortage, per se (per the article, I'm surely no expert). There's a shortage of potatoes from Hokkaido, and domestic consumers aren't prepared for (or allowed to) buy them from an international market. Yeah, if only they gave up their autonomy and local agriculture to have more access to chips from abroad.

Why is local agriculture more important than local customers?

The idea from what I gather is that the country is capable of supporting itself, and did for centuries, and shouldn't let industries wither and die for short term profit that would kill off industries that allow that ability of self support.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#78

Post by SilasX »

hkmurakami wrote: post #24
yladiz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it, especially since you can generally get a much wider range of varieties of potatoes in the US than in Japan, not just organic/non-organic, but different colored potatoes as well. My guess is that the rhetoric coming from the companies that US potato quality is lower is more due to the government being protectionist about national agriculture. It's also probably due to the mentality that producers want spec…

I remember seeing a "food security" campaign where demonstraters wanted the country to achieve 100% food sufficiency as a national security prerogative. Wasn't sure if it was a strange form of nationalism, or a veiled lobbying effort by an interest group (the abundance of very small scale farmers across the countryside)

What's strange about it? Most nations have such a policy goal, regardless of how merited (or not) it is.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#79

Post by pm90 »

mistersquid wrote: post #11
ajross wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life on an island with a historically strict protectionist food policy. There is no potato shortage, per se (per the article, I'm surely no expert). There's a shortage of potatoes from Hokkaido, and domestic consumers aren't prepared for (or allowed to) buy them from an international market. Japan isn't the only nation to do this, of course. But they're one of the worst.

I buy imported-from-Japan Kataage [0] potato chips at my local Nijiya market and to my taste these chips are much higher quality than, for example, Kettle brand and Frito-Lay brand potato chips. Not sure if it's due to the potatoes, but the quality is undeniably (to my taste) higher. [0] https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=japan+K...

I suspect that Frito Lay would possibly be capable of using higher quality ingredients/making better quality chips if the market demanded it. Perhaps you are in the minority of people who cares enough to notice the difference?

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#80

Post by baddox »

emodendroket wrote: post #12
seunosewa wrote: post #5

I was thinking, "this is ridiculous; why can't they just import more potatoes?" and then I found this: "She also cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage." No, it is primarily responsible for the shortage.

If, as your post seems to be recommending, such regulations were abolished, Japanese farmers would pretty much cease to exist because of their inability to compete with cheaper imports. Maybe you consider that an unacceptable tradeoff for some potato chip shortages but it's not clear that the Japanese share your sense of priorities.

Japanese farmers are being subsidized by these trade regulations, at the expense of other Japanese workers (namely, any worker who produces something that Japan could trade for foreign potatoes).
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