The Solution to Pollution is Dilution

I wrote previously about the varied pricing of rice in Japan this year, and the varied availability of rice from regions near and far from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns. I found this interesting difference yesterday at a local supermarket in Narita, Chiba Prefecture.

This is Koshihikari Blended Rice, a 5 kg. bag consisting of year 2011 harvested rice originating in "various prefectures" as indicated on this label. Mmm, yummy.

The price on the blended rice is 1,880 yen, about US$23.

For comparison, 5 kgs. of non-blended rice from Chiba Prefecture sells for 2,680 yen, about US$35. Even the soil in Chiba is contaminated, but much less so than the soil of points 100 kms. north. In this store there was no rice available from farther away in Western Japan.

For more background on Japanese citizens' anger at the failure to safeguard the food supply, see the recent article by Martin Fackler in the New York Times: Japanese Struggle to Protect their Food Supply.