Japan's Hip young farmers Dig in to avert food crunch

Tokyo, October 26, 2009 (AFP) - young japanese are fleeing the urban jungle for the half-abandoned countryside on a mission to make farming cool again and cut japan's frightening food deficit in the process.

Organic farming converts, rice-growing Tokyo fashionistas and other young greenfingers have trickled back into rural Japan where many farm towns have been slowly dying amid fast-greying japan's demographic crunch.

Japan, the world's second-largest economy, now imports 60 percent of its food, and many worry about future food security if climate change rocks global food supplies or energy costs swing international grain prices.

In a high-tech country that grew rich on selling cars and electronics, the young farmers are standing up reinvent the image of agriculture.

No matter how big japan's economy is, no matter how much cash it stacks up, this country will soon be unable to buy so much food from overseas, Yusuke Miyaji, 31, recently told a crowd of young farmers.