The Next Agriculture of Japan

Interesting new Archdruid post, The Next Agriculture, which uses metaphors of the extinction of the dinosaurs and the melting of a frozen lake to explain why rising energy prices have not yet led to a movement from industrial to local organic agriculture, but will – which is reaffirmation to my own thinking about how Japan’s movement away from Industrial agriculture to a more localized and organic agriculture is, to some extent, already here.

Two internal reasons why:

1.) Because of farm plot sizes and space factors; topographies and demographics, the present system here in Japan can (faster than other countries I suspect) allow food production to become re-localized and people to evolve back to the tribe, or community. By this I mean a devolution from whole towns working together to achieve common goals and ideas to eventually family and extended family collective agriculture. Although it’s something that won’t happen over night, it’s certainly do-able over a reasonable period of time.

2.) Although old folks’ farming skills are undervalued by the current system, they will soon be super valued and can help the rest of us to acquire the skills necessary to produce food locally. Remember, no matter how set they are in their ways, these old folks were around before the age of plastics, industrial agro-chemical cool-aid mixes and high-tech farming equipment. So when the transition from industrial to organic comes around full-swing, the old timers will nostalgically accept with open arms the introduction of some ‘old’ natural farming and permaculture ideas from inspiring, environmentally conscious young farmers.

One external reason why:

1.) Let us not forget that Japan is an Island and reliance on the outside is ‘finite’.

It’s not a question of ‘if’, or even ‘when’ the next agriculture of Japan appears…. It’s already here!