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Comment by bpodgursky | Hacker News Reader

Japanese farming is notoriously manual, inefficient, and protected by heavy tariffs.

It shows - in a good way - in the quality of the produce, though.

There is a surprising phenomenon in microeconomics called the Alchian–Allen effect[1]. Quoting from Wikipedia, "[W]hen the prices of two substitute goods, such as high and low grades of the same product, are both increased by a fixed per-unit amount such as a transportation cost or a lump-sum tax, consumption will shift toward the higher-grade product. This is true because the added per-unit amount decreases the relative price of the higher-grade product." The quality of Japanese produce could be due to the effect of the higher prices on consumer decision-making rather than any advantages of small-scale farming.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchian%E2%80%93Allen_effect

>There is a surprising phenomenon in microeconomics

I was waiting for some counter-intuitive twist, but that seems like common sense and basic math.

Not really sure how the concept earned a name.

Paying $1 extra for a better apple is worth it if you value the better flavor by at least that much. It shouldn't matter whether the choice is between $4 and $5 or between $10 and $11 - how did that dollar become less valuable, or the apple tastier?

"Humans act like money is proportionate when it's actually linear," is the crux of a wide variety of "surprising" microeconomic facts. People are more likely to drive across town to save money on a fancy pen that could cost $4 or $8 than they are to drive across town to save money on a suit that could cost $320 or $324.

(Yes, there are cases where there are good arguments that the utility of money isn't linear, but these are not those cases.)

Seems this would be counter-intuitive only in a vacuum; that is to say, were there no such thing as opportunity cost. Perhaps that's what you meant by "utility of money" not being linear. And, I agree with that point.

Where we differ is that I don't see how you are acknowledging that in only some cases. The degree may change, but not the underlying concept.

It is not like that. Because there is also quantity. Lets assume that good apples are $5, great $10 - for $10 I get one kg of great and 2 of $5. The great apple have to provide twice bang for the buck to be competitive.

If we slap 20$ tariff - for $30 bucks i get 1kg of great apples or 1.2 kg of good apples.

(That is assuming I want to eat roughly a kg of apples)

I think the whole progression of economics has been to start out by building models on wrong assumptions about how humans make decisions, and how the world should work, then refining them as actual data is gathered and science is done.

Agreed. The price is high but the quality is unparalleled in terms of taste, texture and appearance.

Humans can be excellent quality assurance machines, they're just very high maintenance.

You must be kidding me. Fruits for example may look perfect in Japan but I will take any ugly looking fruit from France over them anytime. Most of the time they cant compete thats why they have heavy tariffs on imports.

I can only go by what you can buy in Paris vs Tokyo and Osaka, but I disagree. Perhaps you frequent more regional areas with a better selection of produce.

Anyone who visits Japan in late summer should try Okayama white peaches. Warning: may ruin you for all other fruit.

Pretty skeptical about that. Rice is rice.

>Rice is rice.

Coming from a long line of rice farmers...I can assure you that this is really not the case. Rice has HUGE variations between various rice cultivars, and HUGE variations in the end result depending on how the grains are polished. Environmental factors and cultivation/growing methods also influence the taste and nutritional profile of the grain.

A lot of people, particularly in the West, just simply aren't aware of these differences because they've historically never had access to much other than regular milled white rice.

You're also overlooking the fact that Japan's farmers grow nearly every sort of vegetable and fruit produce imaginable.

Ha ha ha! As an American living in Japan, who doesn't even particularly like rice, I would have once thought so too, but have learned that's not true in the slightest. That would probably be like saying to somebody in my native Northern California, "Hey, grapes are grapes."

I have also learned rice is not the only foodstuff Japan makes that kicks ass. Peaches, garlic, strawberries, and melons are among several plant-based foods I have had here, with a quality that I never experienced back home in US and A (or anywhere else). (Of course, one perfect, individually-wrapped peach night cost $8, but that's another story.)

Then of course there's the beef...

NorCal is also a major producer of rice...just not in the hill country but in and about Sacramento all along the river.

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