Due to its low food self-sufficiency rate, around 40%, Japan relies on stockpiling to secure a stable food supply.[144] As of 2009, Japan's 1.2 million ton seafood stockpile included nearly 5000 tons of whale meat.[145] Japan has started to serve whale meat in school lunches as part of a government initiative to reduce the amounts.[146] However, there has been criticism of serving whale meat to school children due to allegations of toxic methyl mercury levels.[147] The World Wildlife Fund has also estimated that the Japanese government has had to invest $12 million into the 2008-09 Antarctic whale hunt alone just to break even, and that subsidies in total have amounted to approximately $150 million since 1988.[148]