Review of Basic Law on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas, Which Jeopardizes Food Security Introduction

The PSE is the sum of the “taxpayer burden,” or the fiscal burden to maintain farmers’ income, and the “consumer burden,” which is the difference between domestic and international prices multiplied by domestic production. [...] The MAFF violates Article 15 (2) of the Constitution of Japan, which states that “All public officials are servants of the whole community and not of any group thereof.” The problem lies not with the Basic Law but with the agricultural policy and administration in breach of the Basic Law. [...] The heart of the problem lies in the fact that while keeping the prices of table rice high under the acreage reduction program, the government compensates for the price gaps between table rice and rice to be used for other purposes with crop switching (acreage reduction) subsidies and sets the price of rice for other use, which is not normally traded at the same price as table rice, at lower level. [...] In France, which established the Basic Law on Agriculture in 1960, the organism for rural land design and rural settlement (SAFER) was created to promote policies, such as the acquisition of farmland through the exercise of the right of first refusal (you can always buy the land you want to buy and have its price reduced by court order), the transfer of farmland to farmers who are in charge of far. [...] Conclusion The Interim Report was released by the Council of Food, Agriculture and Rural Area Policies after adding some minor textual corrections at the request of members of the Council to a draft written by the MAFF officials in consideration of the wishes of the JA Cooperatives and the Diet members concerned with agriculture and forestry.