Ensuring the future of food

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries commissioned this great video dealing with the global food crisis. A lot of their ideas sound pretty standard to me (eat local, less meat, etc.) but it was interesting to see a Japanese perspective on it. An island country with very little arable land is going to deal with food much differently than a country like the US or China. The endorsement of traditional Japanese cuisine over what appears to be essentially Western food seems like a very conservative response to overweight citizens and high food prices to me.

Anyway, I really shared this video because I really love this group's work, you can see more examples of it in HALFBY's music videos:

Comments

[Christopher]

The endorsement of traditional Japanese cuisine might have less to do with nationalism (or what have you) than with supporting agricultural practices that developed naturally in Japan over the course of many centuries. To phrase it another way, there's a historical/evolutionary reason why certain foods are identified so strongly with specific cultures—such foods are simply what could be grown best in that part of the world. A return to such practices (in any part of the world) could be a step toward recovering the more sustainable farming practices of past generations. Of course, anything I know about this subject I've just gleaned from The Omnivore's Dilemma.

[cgh]

I agree that local/traditional foods can be more ecologically friendly, but at this point it seems that Japan has no choice but to import food. And is a return to a mostly-fish diet all that friendly? I remember reading somewhere that the global popularity of sushi is a contributor to the general decline in fish stock (though I think a lot of it does go to animal feed).
It's certainly healthier than the steak and pancakes the family was eating in the video, but I'm not entirely convinced of its environmental benefits.
"What we eat" as a topic is enormous and I mainly posted the video because I really like isometric artwork and this video artist in particular, but as I was writing a little description I sort of got lost in something much bigger.