13.07.2015 Views

The One-Straw Revolution - Multiworld India

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A Merciful Death for BarleyForty years ago, as a result of increasing political hostility betweenthe United States and Japan, importing wheat from America becameimpossible. <strong>The</strong>re was a general movement throughout the country togrow wheat domestically. <strong>The</strong> American wheat varieties being usedrequire a long growing season and the grain finally matured in the middleof Japan's rainy season. Even after the farmer had taken such great painsto grow the crop, it would often rot during the harvest. <strong>The</strong>se varietiesproved to be very unreliable and highly susceptible to disease, so thefarmers did not want to grow wheat. When ground and toasted in thetraditional way, the taste was so terrible that you almost choked and hadto spit it out.<strong>The</strong> traditional varieties of Japanese rye and barley can be harvestedin May, before the rainy season, so they are comparatively safe crops.Farmers had wheat cultivation forced upon them nonetheless. Everyonelaughed and said there was nothing worse than growing wheat, but theypatiently went along with the government policy.After the war, American wheat was again imported in largequantities, causing the price of wheat grown in Japan to fall. This addedto the many other good reasons to discontinue wheat growing. "Give upwheat, give up wheat!" was the slogan propagated105

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