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Comment by nmerouze | Hacker News Reader

Agriculture in Japan is very under-developed. You add the import restrictions and it leads to produce being twice as expensive (if not more) than most western countries. It also means lack of variety. And organic products are rare. Shortages are a thing bound to happen.

I was hoping for TPP to be accepted, but now I am just going to leave the country.

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I guess there are other people who would applaud the japanese to aim for self sufficiency in producing food instead of selling out to corporate interests of few engaging in globalized trade.

If it was sustainable, I would applaud. But the reality is that young people don't want to take over the farms and rural population decreases rapidly. Even with incentives, new people don't want to take over farms because investment needed to modernize them is too important.

I am from Brazil, that is a agriculture powerhouse.

1. Young people here don't want to be farmers either, the ones that do want (me for Example) can't afford the land price anyway.

2. Because exporting the same thing over and over again is way more profitable than selling food to locals, most farms focus on those, we have regions where people eat poorly in the middle of gigantic eucalyptus fields that replaced all farms.

3. Point 2 is so bad we actually import lots of food, most notoriously most of our wheat is imported, some places even sell imported pasta, and most of the imports are mass production crap, for example giant apples with no taste, wheat that only works to make very soft crappy pasta that never befome al dente and has excessive amounts of gluten.

I actually envy Japan and other countries that defend their food security.

Most western countries? I find the produce, especially if it's in season, is much cheaper than the produce in Canada, and it's fresher too. Food in the United States is ridiculously inexpensive.

I lived in many European countries and all are cheaper. Same for the US. Canada might be an exception but the time I spent there (Vancouver), produce was cheaper than Japan (I live in Osaka).

Price of fresh produce in the US varies depending on where you are. In many places, using the phrase "ridiculously inexpensive" would get you laughed at and/or castigated.

That said, fresh produce in the US sucks. Every European country I've visited has had notably better produce. I had a garden salad in Italy that actually made me pause and go, "Oh, these aren't supposed to be a form of self-flagellation in the name of health. These is actually delicious food." I rarely have that experience with US produce.

If you're comparing to produce in the US, the produce here has awful quality and is tasteless. Being cheap isn't that great.

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