Consumers Union of Japan – Page 70 – Sound and Healthy Future for Our Children

すこやかないのちを未来へ

Sound and Healthy Future for Our Children

Japan Resources No. 143

January-March 2008

Here is a new issue of Japan Resources for you, fresh from our office in Waseda, Tokyo. Lots of articles about consumer activism in Japan and abroad. – Editors

CONTENTS:

Irradiated Food Ingredients
World Social Forum in Arakawa
“Rokkasho: Nobody Talks, Nothing Changes”
Rokkasho Protest Post Card Campaign
The Chinese Meat Dumpling Scandal
Stop Genetically Engineered Food Crops
Thank You South Australia!
No! GMO Request at Australian Embassy
Please Stop GM Canola Cultivation in Australia
Call to Action Against the G8
International Preparation Meeting about the Lake Toyako G8 Summit

By admin | 07/05/2008 | Japan Resources |

What can we learn from the recent food safety related incidents? Recently we had several fraudulent labeling scandals and this year, the Chinese gyoza problem etc. There are a number of answers. The food companies appear to lack awareness of compliance with regulations, while Japan has a weak inspection system for the increasing amount of imports. The fundamental problems are how we eat, as well as the promotion of bad eating patterns in society.We consider it to be an abnormal situation that 60 percent of the food on our tables are imported. As people have come to view convenience and low prices as a good thing, they are in fact supporting the downfall of domestic agriculture here in Japan. Global warming is also closely linked to this problem. Longer transportation will contribute more to climate change, if food is produced far from consumers. Thus, the “food mileage” index has been introduced as a way to emphasize and express these issues.

“Food mileage” is a quantitative index that can give hints about the food supply structure, based on transportation. Transportation distance data is not included when expressing a country’s food self-sufficiency ratio. The self-sufficiency ratio shows the dependency on imports, which is only a part of the actual situation. According to Tetsuya Nakata, Kyushu Regional Agricultural Administration Office:

In 2001, Japan’s total volume of food imports was 58 million tons and its food mileage was 900 billion ton-km, the latter being almost 1.6 times the total domestic freightage. International comparisons show that this figure is high. The food mileage of South Korea and the United States are around 30 to 40% of Japan’s, the United Kingdom and Germany about 20% and France around 10%. The per capita figure of Japan is also high.Japan’s remarkably high food mileage is largely due to particular commodities such as grains and distant export countries such as the United States, and incurs environmental concerns. Japan’s huge volume of food imports accompanied by long-distance transportation may be damaging the global environment through the increase of carbon dioxide emissions.1)

It is clear that Japan’s food mileage is by far the largest, with an average transportation of 15,000 km, which is equivalent to the distance between Tokyo and Cape Town in South Africa. This is a figure that really forces us to think about our current situation.In the last few years, China has become Japan’s largest food trading partner, overtaking the United States. The distance of importing food has thus been getting shorter. Japan still imports a large amount of feed grains and food oil crops from the United States, Canada and Australia for its animal feed and food oil. Looking at these crops imported from United States only, these crops account for 60% of Japan’s total food mileage. Such crops are also increasingly used as biofuels, and the prices have been pushed higher due to rivalry on the global commodity markets. Furthermore, these crops are increasingly genetically modified.

From this it becomes clear that the Japanese government’s agricultural policy ignores the environmental effects, while in effect renouncing food security in its efforts to ensure a certain amount of domestic production. Also, the large food companies have been increasing the amount of imported food at low prices, with consumers accepting eating habits based on low-priced imported foods. Food education campaigns are ongoing, but we would like to propose an approach to the current food problem based on the “food mileage” perspective.

1) A Study on the Volume and Transportation Distance as to Food Imports (”Food Mileage”) and its Influence on the Environment, by Tetsuya NAKATA, Journal of Agricultural Policy Research, No.5, pp.45-59.

http://www.primaff.affrc.go.jp/english/publications/seisaku/5/5-2.pdf

By Miyake Seiko, Food Safety Citizens’ Watch

(END)

By admin | 07/05/2008 | Food |

G8 Action Network Meeting

International Preparation Meeting about the Lake Toyako G8 Summit

8 March, 2008 in Tokyo

Kurihara Yasushi from the Executive Office asked everyone to give their views and opinions regarding the G8.

The G8 Action Network is an open network composed of individuals and organizations who are questioning the G8 Summit itself. The Network is constructing a framework for exchange of information, designed to support many events and activities against the Summit.

Nations joining the G8 account for only 14% of the world’s population. Also, the G8 Summit is an informal meeting that does not comply with the procedures as requested by international laws. However, what is agreed there defines the movement of the world. For these reasons, we consider the G8 Summit undemocratic.

It was also pointed out that the policies carried out by the G8 are based on neo-liberalism. This is a world view holding that free trade or market liberalization could maximize profits and benefits for people. Neo-liberal proposals by the G8 have brought about many problems around the world to date.

Ogura Toshimaru from People’s Plan Study Group made a presentation about Japan’s government and its G8 activities at Lake Toyako in Hokkaido. He noted that Japan has selected global climate change and environmental problems as principal subjects for the meeting. At the same time, the government has been pushing hard to maintain the road taxes, a revenue source that continues the usual destruction of the environment. In this way, it is clearly putting forward a deceptive proposition for the G8 Summit.

Shimozawa Takashi from JANIC made a presentation about the G8 Summit NGO Forum. Even though environmental issues are at the center, he pointed out that so far, 114 NGOs are participating in the NGO Forum, which was started in January 2007. They have divided their activities into three groups: environment, poverty and human rights. It is their goal to respond to each official communique and have regular meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They also intend to participate in the April, 2008 Sherpa meeting to explain the opinions of the NGOs. There will also be a Tanabata Campaign from April to July, as well as an alternative summit in Hokkaido immediately before the G8 Summit.

Yamaura Yasuaki from Consumers Union of Japan discussed the following points:

1) The G8 has deteriorated problems such as poverty and debt through international institutions including IMF, World Bank, or WTO, in addition to FTA and EPA agreements.

2) The G8 has consistently favoured big agribusiness firms. This is not only breaking the very foundation of small-scale farmers life around the world, but also expanding production of genetically modified crops or animals.

3) The G8 has pushed ahead with deregulations, such as the privatization of public services of rail, mail or medical care. In addition, liberalization of capital investment or finance has led to chaos such as the currency crisis in Asia or the subprime loan scandal.

4) The G8 has produced instability of labour, by relaxing the standards of labour laws.

5) The G8 has put priority on corporate activities and paid no attention to environmental destruction. The G8 policy on climate change will inevitably raise new problems including acceleration of more risky or speculative carbon trading or promotion of nuclear energy.

6) The G8 countries, who formerly built colonies in many regions, bear the responsibility for numerous wars or armed conflicts, and they are major weapons exporting states as well as nuclear-weapon states.

7) In the name of terrorism, the G8 has deprived life and freedom of people and violated human rights by mobilizing domestic or overseas police and military forces, such as in Afghanistan and and Iraq.

8) The G8 never discusses gender issues, ethnic minorities, indigenous people, or socially excluded people.

Please see the G8 Action Network website for news and updates:

http://www.jca.apc.org/alt-g8/

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Official website for the G8 Summit:

http://g8-summit.town.toyako.hokkaido.jp/eng/index.html

By admin | 18/03/2008 | Food Additives, FTA, Trade |

Call to Action Against the G8

Resisting Free Trade, Militarism and Fighting for Real Solutions to Climate ChangeThe G8 Summit will be held July 7-9, 2008 in Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan. This will be a culmination of a series of ministerial preparation meeting beginning in March.

The G8 Action Network, a network of various Japanese organizations and movements, called on all social movements, peasant organizations, women, migrants, urban and rural poor, fisherfolks and civil society from all over the world who are resisting free trade in its many forms, war and militarism, the privatization of essential services and natural resources, illegitimate debt and the domination of global finance, and fighting for and building real people based solutions to global warming, to come and join us in the week of action against the G8 here in Japan.

The G8 Action Network invited activists and concerned citizens to Japan and join in our international preparatory meeting from March 7-11, 2008.

Schedule:
March 7, 16:00: Press conference at Parliamentarian building
March 8-9: International Coordination Meeting & G8 Seminar
March 9: evening, Move to Hokkaido by plane
March 10-11: Activities in Hokkaido

Contact: Yasuaki Yamaura, Consumers Union of Japan

Photos (left): Indra Lubis, Via Campesina, Yasuaki Yamaura, CUJ, Lee Chang-geun, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions; (center) Assembly meeting in Tokyo; (right) Kim Ae-hwa, Committee for Asian Women

Other groups that participated included Focus on the Global South, Jubilee South, Migrant Forum in Asia, Attac, and People’s Forum.

By admin | 11/03/2008 | Trade |

No! GMO Request at Australian Embassy

Keisuke Amagasa, Namiko Ono and other consumer activists visited the Australian Embassy in Tokyo on February 21, 2008 to deliver Japanese consumers’ request regarding genetically modified (GM) foods.

They asked the Australian government, on a national level, to firmly maintain a strict GM-free policy. Australia has such a valuable ecosystem, which is unparalleled in the world, so GM crops are a real threat to the country’s unique biodiversity. They expressed the request that GM crops should be eliminated, and not accepted.

They also strongly requested that Australia makes sure not to let GM canola to be cultivated now or in the future.

Read the letter of request to Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Tony Burke (pdf):

Please Stop GM Canola Cultivation in Australia

By admin | 26/02/2008 | Biotechnology, Food |