 First common action calling for higher self-sufficiency in food takes place As part of a campaign to collect 1 million signatures nationwide calling for a change of agricultural policy by which over 60 percent of food is imported, organizations of farmers, consumers, and citizens carried out the year's first common action on January 5 in front of Shinjuku Station. The signature drive is focused on a single request to the Diet, calling for increased domestic production and a drastically higher self-sufficiency rate in food as a government responsibility. Twenty representatives from the National Federation of Farmers Movement (Nominren), the National Campaign for Defense of the People's Food and Health, and six other organizations collected 338 signatures in an hour. A call made by Ishiguro Masataka, Nominren food analysis laboratory head, that domestically-produced food must increase in order to maintain product traceability obtained a favorable response. A woman with two children signed, saying that children's health will be threatened unless the government implements a 100 percent BSE-test procedure on U.S. beef. (end) |