The BBC likes to run “progressive” columns that promote the humanist perspective, on everything from evolution (humans are just like monkeys) to anti-war propaganda (people die, you know).

One column they ran recently was titled “Japan’s food crisis”. As a native of Tokyo, the headline honestly made me laugh. Ask Japanese about a food crisis and you’ll likely be met with a similar response.

The column spoke of - and I quote - Japanese “struggles to produce enough food to feed its own people”, and stated that Japan was 124th in Food Security.

Japan is facing a labor shortage. Nobody wants to work in farms, when they can work in comfy high-tech skyscrapers and enjoy a modern lifestyle. Farming and agriculture is seen as the epitome of bad fashion taste, and for the wealthy Japanese to sink to the level of farm work is a shame. Chinese immigrants can do that work.

The irony is that, while the BBC column was intended to be innuendo in support of population control, Japan recognizes a different kind of population problem - i.e., a population shortage. The wealthy Japanese are not producing enough people to sustain their booming economy, and the government has responded by bribing Japanese to procreate, as much as 100,000 yen per child.

And Japan isn’t alone. Several developed nations are now offering financial incentives to couples to procreate. Italy and Australia also offer rewards to couples who do their reproductive duty.

It would be nice, today, if we could finally tar and feather the population control proponents and put that hysteria to rest. With the technology we have today, the earth can support many, many more than the one billions that the pseudo-scientists claimed just a few decades ago.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 12:18 am and is filed under Abortion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.