Category Archives: Food Security

G7 Meeting Action Day in Miyazaki

Civil Rights, Food, Food Security, Organic Agriculture/Food,

Action Day to Bring Citizens’ and Farmers’ Voices to the G7 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting
Date: April 23, 12:00-15:30
The G7 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting will be held in Miyazaki Prefecture on April 22-23. What will be discussed at the meeting, what are the necessary international cooperation and political decisions, and what is needed to promote policies to protect food sovereignty in Japan? The Japan Family Farmers Movement (Nouminren) calls for your participation in the action and study exchange meeting in Miyazaki on the 23rd to promote agroecology and shift to an agricultural policy that supports small-scale and family farming in the pursuit of a sustainable society.

Stop the Food and Agriculture Crisis: Action Day to bring the voices of citizens and farmers to the G7 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting
Date: Sunday, April 23
Action details:
12:00-12:45: Standing action

Place: In front of Miyazaki Yamagata-ya (department store) 5 min. walk from West Exit of JR Miyazaki Station
Address: 3-4-12 Tachibanadori Higashi, Miyazaki-shi, Miyazaki

13:30-15:30 Learning and exchange session Combined with online
Main presenter: Seiko Uchida (Co-president of PARC)
Naoya Matsudaira (Member of the Smallholder Agricultural Society of Japan, Representative Director of AMNet)
Toshiro Hasegawa (President, Japan Family Farmers Movement)
　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Participate in the Photo Submission Action TABEKIME Campaign 2022

Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Civil Rights, Food, Food Security, ,

You are invited to participate in the action TABEKIME Campaign 2022

*Photo submissions will be accepted from October 16, 2022.

Every year, 16 October is World Food Day. Originally, this day was set up with the hope that people around the world would be able to enjoy a rich dietary life. However, the world’s food supply is now controlled by a few multinational corporations such as Bayer and Corteva, and as a result, food is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people in developed countries, leaving many people without food on a daily basis. This trend is becoming more and more pronounced as the application of advanced technologies such as genetic engineering.

We, together with family farmers, small farmers’ groups and citizens’ groups around the world, have been opposing the domination of food by multinational corporations. We will promote the TABEKIME Campaign, an abbreviation for “We decide what we eat ourselves,” which was very popular last year, starting from World Food Day this year.

Click here to see the contributions, with many photos for the TABEKIME Campaign in 2021.

Background of the TABEKIME Campaign:

World Food Day is celebrated every year on 16 October, as designated by the United Nations.

Eating is the basis of life. Despite this, many people around the world are suffering from hunger, even though a lot of food is produced. The biggest reason for this is the domination of food by multinational corporations and the uneven distribution of food in developed countries. Currently, the multinational corporations that control food are represented by agrochemical companies that develop genetically engineered crops and other products.

The company that has long reigned at the center of this domination has been the U.S. company Monsanto. For this reason, citizens around the world have been marking this day as Anti-Monsanto Day. Monsanto has now been absorbed by Bayer AG of Germany, and new genome-editing technology has been introduced. Yet, the structure of food domination by multinational corporations has only strengthened, not weakened.

We are launching the TABEKIME Campaign again this year, as we did last year, in order to assert that we decide what we eat, not what is given to us by the multinational corporations. The way to participate is simple. We hope you will join us and appeal to the world.

The name of the campaign is

I decide what I eat.

I decide what I make.

Not for big companies.

(Abbreviated name: TABEKIME Campaign 2022)

Purpose of the Campaign:
The purpose of this campaign is to express our will by taking pictures of message boards to protect our food from being plundered by big business.

Campaign Organizations:
Consumers Union of Japan
No! GMO Campaign

How to Participate:
Please take a picture of yourself, the food you want to protect, or the production site of the food you want to protect, and post the picture together with your message board in the following way. You can post as many photos as you want. The message board can be downloaded from the following pdf link. You can use the official name laid out (English version) or you can write your own message on the board. Post your photo(s) using this Facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/806047030062792

Here are pdf files that you can print out and use to take your photo(s):

Tabekime

Tabekime blank

Or use these jpg images:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japan Resources – 186

Biotechnology, Food Security, Nuclear, Peace, Uncategorized,

Please click here for our latest English newsletter (pdf): JR 186

From the Editors: Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan?

Report on the GMO-Free Zone Movement in Japan

Japan’s Animal Welfare Scandal: The Consumer Response

Energy Shift

“We Will Not be Complicit in War, and We Will Not Let it Happen”

In the News: Failed NPT Treaty

From the Editors:

Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan?

It seems this year we are dealing with a number of difficult issues at the same time, from the Covid Pandemic and Climate Change, to Russia’s war in Ukraina. Food security and energy supply issues are now in the news on a daily basis.

Japan’s PM Kishida meanwhile failed miserably in the United Nations to get a meaningful result at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, with profound disappointment especially in the City of Hiroshima, which he represents.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) notes that 13,080 nuclear weapons still exist on the Earth, with the U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles together constituting approximately 90 percent of the total. (There used to be over 70,000 back during the Cold War, ed.)

We ask you to stay updated with CUJ’s activities and news on our English website, as well as on our English Twitter account: https://twitter.com/consumerunionjp/

Japanese Consumers’ Position on Genetically Modified Crops

Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Food, Food Security, North-South, ,

Message in solidarity with our friends and colleagues in The Philippines

Japanese Consumers’ Position on Genetically Modified Crops

 We say “No!” to genetically modified foods whose safety has not been confirmed and which will lead to food domination by multinational corporations

Since 1996, when the distribution of genetically modified crops began, we, Japanese consumers, have been campaigning against genetically modified crops and foods, saying that we do not want them.

Consumers Union of Japan, which has been at the center of the movement, has three reasons for opposing GMOs and GM foods:

(1) Their safety as food has not been confirmed

(2) They may have a negative impact on the environment

(3) Multinational corporations are using them to gain control of our food supply

As for (1), the results of various animal experiments have pointed out the dangers of genetically modified foods. Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen, France, conducted a long-term feeding experiment on rats using genetically modified crops, and found that rats developed more cancers, had impaired detoxification organs, and lived shorter lives. Consumers Union of Japan welcomed Prof. Seralini to Japan in 2019 and held a symposium on the dangers of GMO foods and pesticides to inform Japanese consumers about these issues.

As for (2), in countries where GM crops are produced, the use of pesticides is rapidly increasing due to the expansion of genetically modified crops and the emergence of herbicide-resistant weeds and insecticide-resistant pests, causing soil contamination. In Japan, genetically modified oilseed canola imported from Canada and other countries has been spilling over and growing wild around ports and along main roads leading to oil mills, causing hybridization with native oilseed plants, related species and weeds. Since 2005, consumer cooperatives and citizens’ groups have conducted annual surveys of genetically modified canola throughout Japan, informing the Japanese government of the reality of GM contamination and calling for strict regulations on GM crops.

As for (3), Monsanto (now Bayer) and other companies that develop genetically modified seeds are trying to control the seeds through patents and thereby control the food supply. The UN World Food System Summit in September 2021 is a good example of this. We have participated in international actions such as the “Anti-Monsanto Day” and continue to take a stand against corporate control of food.

Japanese consumer oppose GM rice

In Japan, Monsanto was once involved in the research and development of genetically modified rice. When it was about to be submitted to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for approval as a food product, consumers and farmers campaigned against it and had it stopped. We went to the GMO test sites and marched in the streets, saying that we could not accept the idea of genetically modifying our precious staple food, rice. Research and development of genetically modified rice is still underway in Japan, but it has not yet been put to practical use. This is because of the continued opposition from consumers and farmers.

Recently, genome editing technology is being used to develop rice. The research and development is being conducted by the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, the largest research institute in Japan. Consumers Union of Japan is opposed to both genetic modification and genome editing as they are technologies that manipulate genes of living organisms. In February 2021 we started a signature campaign to demand that seeds and seedlings be labeled as genetically modified, and in July, we submitted the first batch of 62,766 signatures to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

In this way, Consumer Union of Japan is opposed to genetically modified crops, and we continue to oppose Golden Rice together with MASIPAG and other Asian NGOs. Rice is a staple food for the people of Asia, and an important food that is deeply connected to our local culture and traditions. Consumers Union of Japan is strongly opposed to the commercialization of Golden Rice and will continue to work in solidarity with our friends in Asia.

4 August 2021

Consumers Union of Japan

English Website: http://www.nishoren.org/en/

English Twitter: https://twitter.com/consumerunionjp/