Japan Press Weekly

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2008 August 20 - 26 [AGRICULTURE]

Okinawan farmers hold rally to demand governmental action to help to deal with crisis

More than 3,000 farmers held a rally in Okinawa’s Naha City on August 21 to demand that the government take measures to reduce the present difficulties facing them in the present crisis caused by skyrocketing oil prices.

The rally was held by several agricultural organizations, including the Okinawa Prefectural Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA Okinawa Chuokai).

Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives Akamine Seiken also participated in the rally along with other lawmakers from other parties.

The rally adopted a statement demanding emergency government action, “The rising prices of fuel and other materials necessary for agriculture, caused in part by the excessive influx of speculative capital, is making farming in Okinawa more and more difficult.”

Chinen Kamekichi, the local sugarcane growers’ union chair, said, “If nothing is done to deal with this problem, many family farmers will be forced out of sugarcane production, leading to the end of Okinawa’s sugarcane history.”

Shinzato Shigeo, Okinawa dairy cooperative president, said, “Saying, ‘extremely difficult’ is not enough to explain the present crisis facing us. It is disastrous. Okinawan dairy farmers’ production cost is on the verge of unsustainability.”
- Akahata, August 22, 2008