

In Japan, Idled Electronics Factories Find New Life in Farming - T-A
http://online.wsj.com/articles/in-japan-idled-electronics-factories-find-new-life-in-farming-1404700202

======
gnu8
_He also wants to restructure Japanese agriculture, which is dominated by
aging family farmers working tiny plots of land, a system that results in high
food costs. If big companies move into farming, Mr. Abe reckons, prices will
fall._

What is the plan to deal with the obvious consequence of removing this built-
in subsidy on a huge number of people who have no other skill than farming? It
would need to be replaced with something explicit.

I don't argue against technological progress simply because it would make old
jobs obsolete. But in this situation the consequences are fairly predictable,
so why not make a plan for it instead of throwing the elderly family farmers
of Japan to the wolves of the free market?

~~~
zhemao
The high food costs are because Japan imports most of its food. I don't think
these indoor farms are meant to compete with the existing farms (which mostly
grow rice, one of few agricultural products which Japan is a net exporter of),
but rather with imports.

~~~
jmadsen
As someone who pays the weekly food bill, I think that is simply not true
(about the costs).

A great deal of the vegetables are also grown on small farms here. I think the
quality and taste are much better for it, but prices are very high for even
simple things.

~~~
sdrothrock
When I moved from rural Gunma to Tokyo, I was surprised at how much the
vegetable prices went up and the quality went down. I suppose that's why.

------
cyorir
I found this a bit amusing because I do not recall ever eating food made using
lettuce while in Japan, except for maybe a single salad. It's simply not a
large staple crop there. That is probably why Fujitsu chose it, as opposed to
a crop like rice or a type of bean. It will be interesting to see if this type
of production picks up, although I do not see why it would.

~~~
deciplex
Lettuce is not exactly a staple in Japan, but it's common enough that you'd
have to go out of your way to avoid it. It's in sandwiches like you'd expect,
it's in garnish, it's in salad (though the Japanese seem to prefer cabbage-
based salad), and you can buy it at any supermarket.

------
rl3
Semiconductor manufacturing involves the use of highly toxic chemicals, both
in the manufacturing process itself and in ancillary uses, such as agents that
help keep the clean rooms clean.

I'm sure these converted clean rooms are excellent at negating microbial and
particulate contamination, though I have to wonder how much concern has been
given to negating chemical contamination, given the purpose these facilities
previously served.

------
ChuckMcM
Interesting the WSJ article doesn't mention the low potassium which was the
focus of the previous press release
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7803855](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7803855))
There are some pretty awesome automated farming things going on[1] which are
going to be more impactful than this I suspect seems like not all hydroponics
in California are about pot grow systems :-)

[1]
[http://www.viridisaquaponics.com/#about](http://www.viridisaquaponics.com/#about)

Edit: I take it back, the WSJ does mention the Low-K angle, I just missed it
on my first reading.

------
MrBuddyCasino
Previously:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7803855](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7803855)

------
andrewfong
Some additional considerations here: (1) climate change is probably not going
to be good for the global agriculture market and (2) the nearest country with
lots of farmable land is China, a country Japan has not historically gotten
along with.

~~~
yichi
China and Japan actually only hated each other in the last 100 years (maybe
50). If you look at the period of time of last 2000 years China and Japan were
on much more reasonable terms.

~~~
dicemoose
Zhou Enlai said,“two thousand years of friendship and five decades of
misfortune,” about the relationship between China and Japan.

------
hownottowrite
Patent abstract for the method used: [http://www19.ipdl.inpit.go.jp/PA1/cgi-
bin/PA1DETAIL](http://www19.ipdl.inpit.go.jp/PA1/cgi-bin/PA1DETAIL)

------
aaron695
This only makes sense because it is a speciality gourmet product.

It has little to do with food security.

------
beamatronic
Should this article make a bigger deal about the fact that they are growing
food in clean rooms 60 miles from the world's worst nuclear disaster, whose
cleanup is still ongoing?

~~~
Einstalbert
That seemed odd to me until I compared it with the passage before it; that
Fukushima grows much of the agriculture in Japan seems startling enough, but
then I don't claim to know much about radioactive fallout and growing crops
within x, y, z miles. I probably wouldn't eat Chernobyl beets.

~~~
sliverstorm
Apparently background radiation in Chernybyl is half what it is in Denver.

[https://sites.google.com/site/radioactivityinbasel/radioacti...](https://sites.google.com/site/radioactivityinbasel/radioactivity-
in-other-cities)

~~~
lotharbot
The geology building at Colorado School of Mines (a few miles west of Denver)
used to have a display case in the main hallway with a Geiger counter running
24/7, and posters explaining what different spikes meant (ie, uranium decay
made the needle move to such-and-such number). Sometimes I'd stand in the
hallway between classes and watch. It was never more than about 15 seconds
between decay events.

