Self-sufficiency

When I was in school, about 20 years ago, I learnt that Japan was self-sufficient in rice. Well, it left me with the impression that the Japanese are more or less self-sufficient in the food that they eat. How wrong I was.

My recent trip back to Japan allowed me to watch a show on conservation. It mentioned that the Japanese are actually around 39% self-sufficient in terms of food, with lettuce coming from the US, french beans from Oman, and tuna from the Mediterranean. Wow!

But of course, compared to Singapore, where we import almost 100% of our food...

Just for info, the Australians are the top in self-sufficiency (at least in the show), at 200+%, and the US is next, at 140+%.