Tag Archives: Food

Survey of Organic School Lunches in Japan

Food, Organic Agriculture/Food, Uncategorized,

Please Participate in CUJ’s Survey on the Use of Organic Ingredients in School Lunches

Japanese text here

An increasing number of municipalities around Japan have recently started to use organically grown rice, vegetables and other ingredients in school lunches in primary and secondary schools. Citizens are also increasingly calling for organic ingredients to be used in school lunches, and various initiatives have been launched in various parts of the country.

Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) considers that the inclusion of organic food in school lunches is not only good for children’s health, but also protects the environment and the producers, including local farmers. In order to further expand this trend, the initiatives of municipalities that are already using organic food (not only JAS standards) can be helpful.

We decided to conduct a survey of progressive municipalities in various regions. See below for the content of the survey in English:

Survey in Japanese here:

■学校給食における有機食材の使用に関する調査用紙（Word）

General overview of school meals:

Q: What is the population of your municipality and how many primary and secondary schools provide school lunches and how many students are served?

Population:

Number of Primary Schools Serving Pupils

Number of Junior High School Serving Pupils:

Q: Please circle the relevant school meal preparation method.
(1) Own school system by school
(2) Centre-based system
(3) Combination of own school system and centre system

School lunch costs

Q: What is the average cost per meal?
Primary school: Yen______________
Junior high school: Yen______________

About your organic school lunches

Q: When did you start using organic ingredients for school lunches?
Since year (e.g. 2020):

Q: How often do you serve organic school lunches each year?

Q: How often (in total days) are organic school lunches served?
Days per year:

Q: What organic ingredients do you use? Please circle all that apply and write the name of the ingredient for others:
Staple food: rice, bread (wheat etc.), noodles, other:
Vegetables: onions, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, radishes, other:
Meat: beef, pork, chicken, other:
Drinks: milk, fruit juice, green tea, other:
Fruit: apples, tangerines, grapes, bananas, strawberries, other:
Seasonings: miso, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, oil, sake, mirin, other:
Please specify any other organic ingredients not listed above:

Q: What proportion of the total school lunch is made up of organic ingredients (in monetary terms)?
Rice %, wheat, barley %, vegetables %, meat %, drinks %, fruit %, seasonings %.

Q: How do you procure your organic ingredients? Please circle the relevant procurement method and ingredients.
(1) Directly from municipal farmers: rice, wheat, vegetables, meat, drinks, fruit, other:
(2) From municipal agricultural organisations: rice, wheat, vegetables, meat, drinks, fruit, etc.
(3) From other sources: rice, wheat, vegetables, meat, drinks, fruit, other:

Q: How did you come to use organic food? Please circle the relevant number. Please describe any others. (Multiple answers allowed)
(1) Residents’ (parents’) demands, (2) Producers’ demands, (3) Councilors’ demands, (4) Commitments by the head of government, (5) Nutrition teachers’ and cooks’ demands,
(6) Other:

Please send your reply to koketsu@nishoren.org

ご協力ありがとうございました。ご返信は下記にお願いいたします。

【返信先】

〒169-0051 東京都新宿区西早稲田1-9-19-207

日本消費者連盟／担当：纐纈（こうけつ）美千世

FAX：03‐5155‐4767

Eメール：koketsu@nishoren.org

Ito City School Lunch Campaign (20 July to 12 August 2023) Poster:

Organic School Lunch Campaign in Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture in 2023

GM Zucchini Found in South Korea: How about Japan?

Uncategorized, ,

In April, a South Korean civil society organization informed us here in Japan, that unapproved genetically modified (GM) zucchini had been found to be distributed in South Korea and that the government had initiated a recall.

Unapproved GM zucchini had been grown and sold in South Korea for seven years beginning in 2015. According to reports, GM zucchini seeds approved in the United States were imported and sold by a Korean company.

Consumers Union of Japan sent a letter of inquiry to MAFF on 11 April, asking whether GM zucchini is checked at the time of importation in Japan, how much zucchini and seeds are imported from the US, and more.

In Japan, there was an incident in 2011 in which unapproved GM papayas were cultivated in Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures. It appears that GM papaya seeds developed in Taiwan were somehow mixed with non-GM papaya seeds, but the details remain unknown. In Okinawa, 8,000 unapproved GM papayas grown at the time were cut down; farmers who grew the papayas without knowing they were GM papayas were unable to ship them that year, but received no income compensation from the government or other sources, only replacement seedlings were distributed.

Also in 2017, there was an uproar over the recall of seeds when it was discovered that unapproved GM petunias were being sold.

We note that GM crops can easily cross borders and enter the country. In addition to calling on governments to take strict border measures, monitoring activities by citizens in each country are also important. Do let us know if you have similar cases in your country!

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)
　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Blog: Breaking Bread (CBD COP15)

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

Blog: Breaking Bread

The expression “Breaking bread” describes an ancient way of sharing food in a friendly way. It means to share a meal with others, and make sure everyone is fed. It is a term used in the Bible, and must have been common in the Middle East and Europe, when bread was made from rye, and harder than today.

I thought about this expression as I was following the final moments of the UN Convention of Biological Diversity, as they decided on how to share the benefits of biodiversity. Congo was unhappy with the final deal, the Framework, as it feels it will not get enough from the developed countries. Adoption of the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework is a step forward, but it really does not seem that there is strong will to change things. We wanted it to be tough on New GMOs and stop the spread of gene-drives and genome editing.

“We have in our hands a package which I think can guide us all to work together to halt and reverse biodiversity loss,” said Huang Runqiu, the Chinese president of COP15.

We should “break bread” with everyone, and share the benefits of biodiversity, without doing more harm to nature.

Japanese here

ブレイク・ブレッドは、親しみを込めて食べ物を分かち合うという、昔から使われている表現です。みんなで食事を分け合うことでみんなが食べられるという意味です。聖書にも出てくる言葉ですが、パンがライ麦から作られ、今よりも硬かった中近東やヨーロッパでは一般的だったのでしょう。
この表現について、私はカナダのモントリオールで開かれた国連の生物多様性条約COP15の最後の瞬間、生物多様性の利益をどう分配するかを決めるところを追っていた時に思い出しました。コンゴは、先進国から十分な利益を得られないと考え、最終的な取り決めである「枠組み」に不満を持っていました。
COP15では2030年までの新たな目標「昆明モントリオール目標」が採択されました。これは一歩前進ですが、本当に物事を変えようという強い意志があるようには思えません。New GMOを厳しく規制し、遺伝子ドライブやゲノム編集の普及を阻止してほしかったです。
生物多様性への影響に関して民間企業による監視や情報の公表についての責任が義務化されないことも大きな問題だと思います。
私たちは、これ以上自然に害を及ぼすことなく、生物多様性の恩恵を共有し、皆と一緒に「ブレイク・ブレッド」するべきです。
（マーティン・フリッド）

Continue reading Blog: Breaking Bread (CBD COP15) →

How About It, World, Do We Care About Biological Diversity, Or Not?

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

Consumers Union of Japan and other groups that we work with, including the No! GMO Campaign, have a focus on the global negotiations to protect biological diversity.

We participated in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conferences in Japan (2010), India (2012) and in South Korea (2014). We followed the 2022 conference in Montreal, Canada.

We are disappointed about the lack of urgency on new genetic technologies, such as gene-drives and genome-editing, and no progress on pesticides, which we know cause real harm. And why does the United Nation still not recognise the role consumers can play when given the information, and labelling? The concerns raised by civil society organisations working on the issues of synthetic biology and biotechnology remain unresolved.

We wanted a biotechnology related target to establish a process for horizon scanning (finding out what is going on), technology assessment (finding out what is really going on) and monitoring (finding out what is being done). It should also consider socioeconomic impacts of synthetic biology. We think this reinforces the need for a global moratorium on the environmental release of gene drives.

This was our hope for Target 17 but we got nothing like it. We are especially disappointed that all mention of “precaution” has been erased from Target 17.

Consumers Union of Japan

Please contact Michiyo Koketsu or Martin J. Frid for details about our work.

BBC Interview (UK/World)

ABC News (Australia)

Mail & Guardian (Africa)

“Consumers Union of Japan started the No! GMO Campaign in 1996, ” says Michiyo Kotetsu, CUJ. “There is no commercial farming of GMOs in Japan, but a lot of soy, corn and canola is being imported. We think the labelling should be better so consumers can avoid GMO food.”

 

Consumers Union of Japan has signed the global appeal to stop gene drives:

Gene drive technology uses new genetic engineering techniques including CRISPR/Cas9 to forcibly spread genetically engineered traits, including lethal ones, throughout entire populations and species of organisms. Once released into the environment, gene drive organisms cannot be recalled nor controlled thus preempting and overriding the ability of nations.

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.

The campaign, Millions against Monsanto has now become Billions against Bayer.

New genome-editing technology foods have also been introduced here in Japan by local companies. We are very concerned that such efforts contradict the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and Codex Alimentarius rules regarding food safety.

We understand that in the Philippines, the cultivation of GM Yellow Rice is currently being pushed forward. In Japan, the application of genome-edited rice is also under consideration. In addition to seed domination, we regard these technologies as a direct threat to biodiversity and our food security.

We call this our strong international kizuna, the firm emotional bond of solidarity that connects us. This is how we promote our efforts to resist the schemes by multinational corporations and governments. We are really happy that the farmers and consumers of the Philippines and other Asian countries and Japan are working together in this way. If citizens around the world are connected through kizuna, we believe it is possible to stop the cultivation of GM rice and New GMO rice varieties.