Please click here for our latest English newsletter: CUJ JR 181
Contents:
From the Editors: Special Issue About Organic School Lunches in Japan
Organically Grown Food for School Lunch Programs
Itadakimasu!
School Lunches at a Public School in Chiba Prefecture
News: New Wave of Protests Against Unregulated Genome-Edited Tomato
Trend: Intense Activity Toward Commercialization of Genome-Edited Food
Activists from Japanese consumer organizations and farmers’ groups protested again against the unregulated GABA tomato on Earth Day 22 April 2021. Sanatech Seed is introducing its genome-edited tomato this spring without any safety checks and no mandatory labelling. “It is a genetically modified food and consumers have no idea if it is safe or not, and no way of avoiding it, once it reaches the market,” said one of the speakers at the protest action outside Sanatech’s offices in central Tokyo. This is the second effort to stop the release of the GMO tomato, which is said to be engineered to have “high levels of GABA” without much research to support the claims.
Specifically, the company is giving out genome-edited seedlings for free and claims some 5000 growers are already interested. This could lead to contamination and problems not only for consumers but for nearby farmers and other growers as well. Consumers Union of Japan, the No! GMO Campaign and many other organizations and groups in Japan are urging the company to stop this introduction, and asking how the CBD Cartagena Protocol may apply.
Consumers Union of Japan, the No! GMO Campaign and other groups want to stop the introduction before it is too late.
Video here from Channel Nishoren
Activists from Consumers Union of Japan and the No! GMO Campaign and many others will gather outside of Sanatech Inc. on April 22, 2021 in Tokyo to protest against their genome-edited tomato. This action coincides with Earth Day as well as protests in The Philippines against IRRI and GMO rice.
We do hope you will stay tuned as CUJ has launched an English Twitter account to keep you in the proverbial loop…
Please click here for our latest English newsletter: JR 180
We hope you will continue to stay updated with CUJ’s activities and news on our English website, and support our campaigns!
Contents:
From the Editors: Staying Sound and Healthy
Press Release: Start of Signature Campaign for the Labeling of All
Genetically Modified Seeds and Seedlings
Open Letter of Inquiry Regarding the COVID-19 Vaccine
Protest Against Genome Edited “GABA” Tomato in Tokyo, Japan
New Booklet: Food Additives
In the News: Radioactive Cesium Contamination of Food After the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Summary
PRESS RELEASE
24 February 2021
To Members of the Press
-Press Conference-
Start of Signature Campaign for the Labeling of All
Genetically Modified Seeds and Seedlings
Consumers Union of Japan, the No! GMO Campaign and the Citizens’ Network for Biodiversity through Food and Agriculture (FA Net Japan) have started a signature campaign to demand that all genetically modified seeds and seedlings be labeled.
In December 2020,, the Japanese government approved the cultivation and distribution of genome edited tomatoes. The first genome edited tomato in Japan is a tomato with high levels of GABA developed by Sanatech Seed Corporation (Minato-ku, Tokyo) in collaboration with Tsukuba University. The company has begun accepting applications from the general public to distribute free seedlings of this genome edited tomato prior to its general distribution in the market.
In Japan, genome-edited seeds and seedlings are currently not required to be labeled, making it difficult for farmers to avoid such crops even if they do not want to grow them. Consumers cannot avoid genome-edited foods even if they do not want to eat them. In order to change this current situation of serious disdain for food sovereignty, we have started a petition campaign to require mandatory genetic engineering labeling on seeds and seedlings.
We will be holding a press conference to inform the media about the petition campaign. We hope that you will be able to attend. If you are able to attend the press conference or would like to participate online via ZOOM, please contact us by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, 26 February 2021.
Please contact: Michiyo Koketsu, Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ)
TEL: 03-5155-4765
Email: koketsu@nishoren.org