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2012 September 5 - 11 [AGRICULTURE]

Agriculture in subordination to US - I: Road to more imports of US farm surplus

The ministry of agriculture on August 10 announced that Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate stayed at 39% in 2011, the second lowest after 1993 (37%). Akahata attributes the decrease in the country’s agriculture sector to successive Japanese government policies. Under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, they gave in to pressure for the import liberalization of farm products and cut back domestic production.

Selective reduction

In 1961, the year after the Security Treaty came into effect, the Agricultural Basic Act was enacted. The law set out a “selective expansion” of domestic production, expanding production of some food items which anticipated a demand increase while reducing the production of other food crops such as wheat, barley, soybeans, and corn as crops which were unable to compete with cheap imports.

The “selective expansion” policy lowered Japan’s self-sufficiency rate in wheat from 43% in 1961 to 9% in 2010, in barley from 89% to 7%, and in soybeans to 6% from 25%.

In other words, it was an overall “selective reduction” of domestic production. Many more domestic agricultural products were on a course of decline in order to facilitate U.S. food imports.

Clearance of surplus products

After WWII, the United States with its large production capacity became the number one exporter of farm products worldwide. However, as post-war recovery proceeded in each country, the United States was faced with massive quantities of agricultural surplus. In dealing with this problem, the U.S. government forced its allies to import U.S.-grown surplus agricultural goods in the name of food “aid” to be paid in their own currencies. These allies imported U.S. surpluses but did not actually pay for them. The United States had its allies put aside the money as counterpart funds to use for their re-armament and industrial reconstruction.

Bread in school lunches

Suffering from a food shortage after WWII, Japan imported wheat, barley, and livestock feed in compliance with the U.S. policy. The then Japanese government established the School Lunch Act in 1954 and introduced bread in school lunch programs. Through the spread of bread-based lunches, the government at that time created a system to import and consume U.S. wheat and powdered skim milk.

When Japan was still under U.S. occupation (1945-1952), the country began importing U.S. farm products and kept doing so in the next decade, too. The 1961 “selective expansion” paved the way for the subsequent “liberalization” of imports of farm products.

>Agriculture in subordination to US - II: beef and citrus imports liberalized

>Agriculture in subordination to US - III: Door opened for further rice imports

>Agriculture in subordination to US - IV: Ill effects expected from TPP

>Agriculture in subordination to US - V: Food sovereignty a must