Japan’s Abandoned Farmland Problem Is Becoming a Structural Crisis — and the Government Has Chosen a Single Solution

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Long-Euphoric-Life@reddit

Farm robots coming soon to farms globally

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theguyfromgermany@reddit

Nah.robots need factories, materials, energy and engineers. Factories need workers materials need mines...

Etc etc. At the end it's more manpower that is missing.

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theguyfromgermany@reddit

Yes, but the sutomation process has the same exact problem.

You want to solve a lack of work force by creating more work.

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Long-Euphoric-Life@reddit

No, I want to automate the entire process so humans don’t have to. Robots will ultimately be better at each step of the process. Long term its a better solution.

Money from automation should be divested to the people though.

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theguyfromgermany@reddit

I want to automate the entire process

The process of automation creates more work then just doing the work itself.

The types of jobs that can be efficiently automated have already been automated.

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JuliusCaesarSGE@reddit

Surely adding rent seeking middlemen will improve food security and improve farm yields. You will not regret adding rent seeking middlemen.

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Perfect_Caregiver_90@reddit

Middlemen never met a problem they couldn't make worse.

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cRaZyDaVe23@reddit

Sarari city umm, weaklings could never adapt to farming. It requires effort. I'm on the line of can and can't and two days of doing is a can do it.

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cRaZyDaVe23@reddit

same for the umm i forget the term otaku? noo the total shut ins. agoraphobics? there's another group who just said "fuck it dude..."

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cRaZyDaVe23@reddit

I knew that one but they were talking about japanese.

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Kazuma_Megu@reddit

It's used heavily in Japan. Ripped from google results:

Slang/Pop Culture: In internet and anime culture (popularized by Japanese media), the term is often used as a noun to describe a young person who stays at home and is socially withdrawn or avoids seeking work altogether.

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cRaZyDaVe23@reddit

Thanks for not so much but thanks.

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Kazuma_Megu@reddit

Well I guess this is what I get for trying to be helpful.

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Trancend@reddit

Hikkimori

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cRaZyDaVe23@reddit

There it is.

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ThoughtFox1@reddit

I believe these numbers that are quoted might be quite similar to what Japan might loose in Population. I have read it will loose over 25 million people from Population decline by 2050.

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AHRA1225@reddit

It would be good for humanity if this was true on the world scale. We need less people

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Mystyc-Cheez@reddit

You first

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AHRA1225@reddit

To late I bred

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DukeLukeivi@reddit

It is true on a global scale?

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T-ravMcNavis@reddit

Surely Japan would make it easy for me to move there and start farming right?

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tupikp@reddit

Let's make server farm there 👍

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mushroomsarefriends@reddit (OP)

Submission statement: Japan is going to struggle to feed itself, for the simple reason that its farmers are aging and have no successors. It's expected that farmland is going to shrink from 4.2 million hectares (roughly 10.4 million acres) in 2020 to 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) by 2050. A lot of former farmland is being abandoned and going uncultivated, so food production in Japan is going to fall dramatically, making the country more dependent on imports.

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Kazuma_Megu@reddit

So you're saying land in Japan could become cheap in the future?

Might actually keep an eye on that...

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R3StoR@reddit

Already relatively cheap in rural areas but lots of gatekeepers and the government is basically building a wall of fees and paperwork to control immigration...and stoking xenophobic populism (sound familiar?)

(Living in northern Japan)

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sherpa17@reddit

Tangential point--Read "The One-Straw Revolution" by Masanobu Fukuoka. It's a well-regarded book on natural farming and philosophies that challenge ag norms.

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rooftopgoblin@reddit

are his solutions capable of feeding 8 billion people?

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lost_horizons@reddit

That book was very influential in my life. Started me into permaculture.

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Dron22@reddit

Maybe make farming actually a profitable business instead of a cheap source of food for big supermarkets? Almost everywhere in the world farmers are forced to sell their products to big supermarket chains cheaply. And running a farm is hard work, often manual and dirty. Why would anyone want to be a farmer nowadays?

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filmguy36@reddit

Then in turn raise basic wages to afford the higher cost of food

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cRaZyDaVe23@reddit

All they had to was...

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talltimbers2@reddit

Tax the rich

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filmguy36@reddit

Eat the rich and split the take lol

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Jovan_Knight005@reddit

Maybe make farming actually a profitable business instead of a cheap source of food for big supermarkets?

That's the point, but it's not going to happen in many countries. Although the case varies in Europe from country to country.

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Dron22@reddit

Nationalise supermarkets, make them state owned and regulated.

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Undeity@reddit

Seems like they could solve both problems by introducing an immigration program for people who are willing to take up farming.

Doesn't seem likely to happen, though. Japanese politics has been trending more xenophobic than ever.

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Ching-Dai@reddit

Genuine question, how would importing farmers create more farmable land as climate change continues to escalate?

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Undeity@reddit

Technically, I was referring to their declining population rate as the second issue. Immigration has long been proposed as a solution there, and the roadblock always seems to come down to keeping the country from becoming "less Japanese".

Though, to attempt to answer your question anyways: the introduction of farmers from abroad would also likely bring with it new methodologies, and present an opportunity to shape standard practice towards something more space-efficient. It's a lot easier to change the trajectory of a system already in flux, than one already set in its ways.

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thatc0braguy@reddit

I would absolutely abandon the US to be a Japanese farmer. It's too expensive here and incomes (even making 80k/year) are not keeping up so there's nothing to do with what little free time I get.

At least there I'd own land, a house, and be in a better climate with modern public transit. I could enjoy life

Definitely would embrace the whole "it ain't much, but it's honest" meme

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robotjyanai@reddit

My cousin is a rice farmer in Japan and his salary is less than $20,000 a year.

Also, farms are usually in the countryside, which has barely any public transit, and the summers are brutal.

He’s… not enjoying life.

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ThirdFloorNorth@reddit

Ditto. I'll grow whatever the fuck y'all want, just give me a decent house and a tract of land, maybe some equipment.

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cRaZyDaVe23@reddit

I could learn to drive a tractor or fuckever within a week.

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Konradleijon@reddit

I hate how interconnected the word is

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Almostanprim@reddit

Good, let farmland rewild

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StatementBot@reddit

The following submission statement was provided by /u/mushroomsarefriends:

Submission statement: Japan is going to struggle to feed itself, for the simple reason that its farmers are aging and have no successors. It's expected that farmland is going to shrink from 4.2 million hectares (roughly 10.4 million acres) in 2020 to 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) by 2050. A lot of former farmland is being abandoned and going uncultivated, so food production in Japan is going to fall dramatically, making the country more dependent on imports.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1tc6rjk/japans_abandoned_farmland_problem_is_becoming_a/ollufwy/