food

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Nationwide action calling for protection of food and health slated for November

Farmers, women, and union workers will participate in concerted action throughout the country in November calling for protection of people's food and health.

The plan of action was adopted at the October 1-2 meeting of the National Campaign for the Defense of the People's Food and Health (Shokkenren).

In this meeting, Shokkenren decided to focus its efforts on events for local farmers to share their experiences concerning activities to defend beef safety and local production for local consumption as well as on the campaign to collect signatures calling for improvement of Japan's food self-sufficiency ratio.

Sakaguchi Masaaki, Shokkenren secretary general, said that in order to inform the public that U.S. measures against BSE are too lax to guarantee the safety of U.S. beef and that import liberalization of agricultural products promoted by Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro (at the beck and call of the United States) will destroy family farming in Japan. The autumn campaign "Green Wave 2005" will be timed to coincide with U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Japan scheduled for mid-November.

Sakaguchi stated that Koizumi's agricultural reform, premised on the idea that further liberalization of imports is necessary, will abolish the system to secure the standard price of farm products, exclude small farm households from government agricultural support, and dismantle agricultural cooperatives.

A delegate from Hyogo Prefecture reported that workshops to learn about pesticide residues on foreign products and field trips to see the storage conditions at Kobe Port resulted in an increase in purchases of local vegetables through a direct delivery system to urban consumers.

About 100 farmers will participate in an NGO rally to be held on the occasion of the WTO ministerial conference in December in Hong Kong. -- Akahata, October 3, 2005