Radiation Scares: Now Mushrooms

There is not much more Japanese a hobby than picking mushrooms in the fall. Mushroom hunting symbolizes the slow change in the seasons in Japan, and signals that a cozy winter is not far off. Until now it has been a symbol of health; grampas and grammas out in the cool fall air picking maitake for the miso soup.

But northeast Japan is being denied even that basic enjoyment this fall.

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/region/news/110803/fks11080322140001-n1.htm

Fukushima Prefecture is warning that they will be doing emergency monitoring of mushrooms themselves, as well as soil and fallen leaves. Sellers and hobby pickers are being urged to be careful.

I was kind of intrigued with how detailed the sankei shinbun report was.

The investigation begins with Lactarius volemus. The testing is going to go on to 22 species of wood rotters including oyster mushrooms, Hen of the Woods (grifola frondosa). There are 23 kinds of mushrooms which grow off roots such as Lyophyllum shimeji.

Above you can see a photo of Lactarius volemus I took on July 24, 2005, so we can see we are right in season. (Just in case you care.)

Usually products are tested a month after they are shipped to see if restrictions need apply--but mushrooms do not last that long, so the government is trying to find a way to make sure they are safe. In the case of matsutake, the place where they grow is often secret, so the government is requesting that the "myojin" or local experts submit samples for testing.

Reading between the lines with all this, the Japanese government is trying desperately to come up with a way to do thorough food inspections-- there is no centralized system for performing radiation testing. Bloomberg also notes that half of Japan's rice is grown within range of emissions from the ailing nuclear power plants.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-14/mushrooms-join-growing-list-of-radioactive-threats-to-japan-s-food-chain.html

Futures Trading in Rice

The Japan grain exchange is listing rice as of August 8 to boost flagging volumes and profits in rice agriculture.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-07/japan-revives-rice-futures-trade-as-radiation-threatens-harvest.html

Rice futures are going to attract speculative money, Bloomberg speculates, after the tsunami hammered Japanese agriculture and radiation threatened the viability of products from the northeast. Stocks will be the lowest they have been for four years in 2012. Production is down after the earthquake.

Fukushima and thirteen other prefecture are testing rice samples before harvest and grain which contain cesium over 500 becquerels a kilogram are going to be banned for export. Bloomberg observes Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures grew 1.56 million metric tons of rice last year, out of the country’s total of 8.5 million tons.

Average prices for rice were 12,707 yen per 60-kilogram bag June 30, compared to 14,470 yen last year in August. Bloomberg notes that Japan has effectively blocked participation in Japan's rice market with a tariff of 341 yen ($4.35) a kilogram on imports.

Not surprisingly, the farmers are suspicious of all this. What we have now is a decoupled income subsidy, and a policy designed to adjust production according to need. How is futures going to fit into the current model? A futures market for rice has the potential to change everything. And farmers suspect that a bulk of the rice profits will end up going to investors, not farmers. This kind of craps-table commodity pricing also has the potential to undermine food security Nokyo points out.

Kato Koichi of the LDP has lead a charge to block futures trading in rice.

http://www.jimin.jp/activity/news/111899.html

The Agriculture and Forestry section in the party along with the committee charged with reinvigorating wet-rice agriculture made a strong statement condemning the move in July.

Japanese Agriculture...In Shandong Province

http://www.jacom.or.jp/closeup/foodbiz/2011/foodbiz110720-14285.

Japanese agriculture...how to make it more "competitive"? That is the common refrain. Even the transnational companies think they can accomplish that when they barge into Japan with a free trade agreement.

But what if that "competitiveness" is never going to happen, and it has nothing to do with Nokyo or free trade agreements or subsidies or increasing exports. All we have to do is look at Shouguang City in Shandong Province where Japan gets the bulk of its garlic, ginger, and carrots.

Japan imported 25 million tonnes of vegetables last year if you include fresh and processed foods, which is up 14 percent from last year. In the first five months of this year, imports were 11.9 million tonnes. And while it might be tempting to think it all has to do with the earthquake, experts do not think the earthquake has anything to do with it, perhaps with the exception of frozen spinach.

Half of imported vegetables come from China: the overall ten year average is 51 percent, and the average is 49 percent for this year. Japanese consumers have a negative image of Chinese vegetables, but the reality is that Japan now cannot do without places like Shouguang City with its high tech vegetable production. And except for a few experts, the Japanese public knows nothing about this game-changing trend.

http://www.find.takushoku-u.ac.jp/staff/ou/newpage119.htm

Take what is happening in Shouguang. In the 1970s when China kicked off its opening up process by liberalizing agriculture, specialized vegetable production teams appeared and parts of the farm landscape got converted to specialized vegetable production zones. The rail running between Jinan and Qingdao was then used to transport the vegetables to major cities in Shandong. However, in the 1980s when the Peoples Communes got dismantled and the market economy gathered energy, specialized vegetable farmers appeared in force even in villages.

From the end of the 1980s the standard of living in Chinese cities rose rapidly and people started demanding fresh vegetables in cities even during the bitter winters. (I remember massive piles of bokchoy in Beijing in preparation for the winter even in the early 1990s.) The market for high end precision grown vegetables also grew. The plastic green houses sprouted up in places like Anqiu and Shouguang and vegetable production became much more important than grains.

Nowadays everyone in China knows the significance of two characters Shouguang 寿光. It is just that we in North America and Japan have not really figured it out yet.

All we need to do is look at this "sci-tech vegetable fair" to see where things are going.

The Road to Rebuilding in the Northeast

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/economy/news/110712/biz11071210580003-n1.htm

At a July 12 meeting after a diet session, the agriculture minister Kano Michihiko fielded some questions about radioactive contamination in meat from Minami Soma City nearby the crippled Daiichi reactor in Fukushima prefecture. He emphasized that they were getting a plan together for all of the beef to be detected in the evacuation zones nearby the crippled reactors. He emphasized that the full cooperation of the prefectures is needed if they are going to get this system together; only then will the damage to the reputation of Fukushima producers ever be repaired. The plan is to test all cattle, and then test them again after the carcasses have been processed.

Behind the minister's comments are also some frustrations that have been brewing over the past few months.

For example there was the whole fiasco with Matsumoto Ryu's comments when he visited the governor of Miyagi Prefecture.

It was his first visit as minister of reconstruction made to the northeast region of Japan. Part of the problem was his frustration that he had to wait for the the governor of Miyagi in the reception room, and he expressed his displeasure by refusing to shake Murai's hand when he did show up.

But there was a larger frustration lurking in the conversation. He told the governor that he could not expect any money from the central government until he had a solid rebuilding plan. Clearly the central government has been unable to really properly tackle the clean up and rebuilding efforts when the entire infrastructure has been destroyed in the northeast.

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/economy/news/110712/biz11071210580003-n1.htm

At a July 12 meeting after a diet session, the agriculture minister Kano Michihiko fielded some questions about radioactive contamination in meat from Minami Soma City nearby the crippled Daiichi reactor in Fukushima prefecture. He emphasized that they were getting a plan together for all of the beef to be detected in the evacuation zones nearby the crippled reactors. He emphasized that the full cooperation of the prefectures is needed if they are going to get this system together; only then will the damage to the reputation of Fukushima producers ever be repaired. The plan is to test all cattle, and then test them again after the carcasses have been processed.

Behind the minister's comments are also some frustrations that have been brewing over the past few months.

For example there was the whole fiasco with Matsumoto Ryu's comments when he visited the governor of Miyagi Prefecture.

It was his first visit as minister of reconstruction made to the northeast region of Japan. Part of the problem was his frustration that he had to wait for the the governor of Miyagi in the reception room, and he expressed his displeasure by refusing to shake Murai's hand when he did show up.

But there was a larger frustration lurking in the conversation. He told the governor that he could not expect any money from the central government until he had a solid rebuilding plan. Clearly the central government has been unable to really properly tackle the clean up and rebuilding efforts when the entire infrastructure has been destroyed in the northeast.

Japan Looks to Irish Agriculture for Inspiration?

http://www.agrinews.co.jp/modules/pico/index.php?content_id=8053

I am always intrigued at what Japanese agriculture sees as it comparators. Now their gaze has fallen on Ireland--interesting for me because I have given little thought to Irish agriculture.

The Irish are just getting themselves out of the hole created when the financial markets collapsed in 2008. While there is still very high unemployment, agriculture is doing pretty well. They are putting forward a plan where exports increase by 50 percent by 2020.

Exports grew by 14 percent in the first half of the year in comparison to the same period last year. Incomes were up 28 percent over the disastrous year before. This year, as a result of good prices for milk, meat, and grains, incomes are normal.

From 2001 to 2007 during the economic bubble, the fortunes of agriculture were not nearly as good as those in the manufacturing sector but the price of land went up, and there was lots of employment.

When the bubble broke, jobs outside agriculture were scarce and the rate of farmers working out fell from 42 percent to 30 percent. Most worked out in the construction sector when 90 thousand buildings were created per year, while only about 10 thousand will go up this year. Agricultural land reached a high of 50 thousand euros per hectare, but prices are less than half that now.

With the bursting of the bubble, people's attitudes toward agriculture changed. And while in the past, no one wanted to take over the farm, people wanting to major in agriculture increased by 70 percent over three years. While once agriculture was a dead-end industry, young people are starting to realize its essential competitiveness in Ireland.

Last year the 2020 year ag plan came out. Plans include increasing exports from 8 billion to 12 billion. (That's the 50 percent I was talking about). Within those numbers are 40 percent increase in beef production and 50 percent for dairy.

In 2015, the supply management system is going to end, and farmers are anxious to increase their exports--up to 85 percent if possible. At the moment, Ireland is producing food for 36 million people. Hopes are that number will increase to 50.

Radioactive Straw and Contaminated Wagyu

http://www.agrinews.co.jp/modules/pico/index.php?content_id=8030

Wagyu farmers in Asagawa machi in Fukushima fed straw with high levels of radiation to cattle, and this radiation was detected in the central meat market in Tokyo. This caused the Wagyu market to crash where meat from Kanto and Japan's northeast was selling much cheaper than the equivalent grade in Kyushu. The distributors are demanding that better detection procedures are put in place to get rid of this uncertainty. This is interesting in the context of everything Japan has said to the US and Canada about BSE detection.

This chart shows the March to July movement in 2010 and 2011 of A5 and A3 wagyu. A3 has gone from 1600 yen to 1200 yen. All of it is the cheapest it has been in 5 years. People familiar with the market have watched the low prices spread from Fukushima prefecture to surrounding areas. Prices in Hokkaido, Aomori, and Kyushu remained high though.

Distributors are frustrated: Why doesn't the government hurry up and tell us that it is okay to sell the meat that we have bought. Of course the fatteners are frustrated as well: Not only do we not have the money to buy cattle to feed at this price; we cannot even afford the feed.

So the misery continues.