The Three Sages and "I"—Between Soaring Rice Prices and Corrupt Systems

I stared intently at the convenience store rice ball shelf.
"Tuna mayo, 200 yen..."

My wife has been worrying about the price of rice lately, so she's switched our lunches to bread.
Every time our three daughters complain, "Bread again? Seriously?", a heavy weight settles deep in my chest.

At the supermarket, it's "Niigata Koshihikari 5kg, 4,378 yen."
It's expensive.
But we can't do without it.
There's no one to ask, "But why is it like this?"

One night, the moment I bit into a mouthful of cold rice, three "strangers" appeared before me.

The first appeared with a smile like lightning.

Next appeared a man whose deep wrinkles held a silent sincerity.

Finally, a man clutching thick documents spoke in a low voice.

Franklin:
"The market is broken. The freedom for people to connect with one another is being hindered by the 'system'."

Distribution through agricultural cooperatives, preservation through subsidies. Your mechanisms have become more about 'binding' than 'protecting'.

Lincoln:
"Your country's agricultural policy is dishonest to the 'silent majority'."

Small-scale farmers are abandoned, and the voices of consumers do not reach anyone.
That can no longer be called democracy.

Weber:
"A system that retains only the form and no longer questions the substance is a 'hollow of justice'."

Production adjustments, preferential support, distribution regulations.
They are all nothing more than fossils that were 'once rational'.

"But..."
I squeeze out my voice.

"If we liberalize suddenly, local farmers might be ruined.
If the agricultural cooperatives disappear, even the infrastructure..."

"In the end, even if we raise our voices, our lives won't change.
After all, we are just the 'buyers' who have nothing."

At that moment, Franklin smiled.

"You, the 'buyers,' are the ones who change the world."

During the American frontier era, no one knew the way.
But they moved forward, believing 'freedom lies ahead.'

By choosing 'where, from whom, and what you buy' today, you make the system tremble ever so slightly.

I opened my smartphone and searched for 'direct rice sales'.
Immediately, a page for a small farm appeared.
It was a bit expensive including shipping. But it had the farmer's name and face on it.

I pressed the order button.
It was the sound of punching a hole in a silent system.

Franklin looked up at the sky one last time and said this.