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Between April 2018 and March 2019, the prefecture tested more than 9 million samples of local unpolished rice.

So the birds had been switched back to their usual rations of brown, unpolished rice.

At a recent dinner at Hixter, a restaurant here, the head chef, Ronnie Murray, paired a plate of Launceston lamb and meaty girolle mushrooms with Mr. Shichida’s 75 Junmai, a full-bodied sake that uses unpolished rice, a rarity even in Japan.

His diet included sunflower seeds, sesame, unpolished rice, dates, cashew nuts and carrot juice.

Both potatoes and rice are cheap and wholesome, if only we would get unpolished rice, and if we would leave the skins on the potatoes until after they are cooked.