Japan to Increase Emergency Stockpiles of Grains, Yomiuri Says

A few weeks ago we noted that in China "Cities told to keep food, oil reserves".
Wednesday, Bloomberg had this:

Japan, the world's biggest grain importer, plans to increase emergency stockpiles of corn, wheat and soybeans next year to ensure stable supplies at a time of soaring global prices, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

The country plans to boost reserves, including privately held inventories, to three months of annual demand in 2009 from one to two months currently, Yomiuri said yesterday, without saying where it obtained the information. A team led by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will draw up a report by March and submit it to the farm ministry, the newspaper said....MORE

Remember the advice of Dennis Gartman:

Go long where China is short

From the Financial Post:

...Dennis Gartman is recommending that investors consider the following principle when making decisions in 2008: “We wish to be long of that which China is short of, and short of that which China is long of.”

This means be long grains, energy and water, and short labour, he told clients in Thursday’s edition of The Gartman Letter.